Tag: Luke Evans

Reviews

‘The Fate of The Furious’ Review 

Wannabe Movie Critic

God I can’t wait till the drag race on the Moon in what I’m calling; Fast & Xtreme or Furious & Xtreme. I dunno it’s a working title, some combination of Fast, Furious and Xtreme!

(UNIVERSAL)
Spoilers ahead, so drive with caution. 

So like are we calling them “The Furious” now? Every super group has a name, The Avengers, The Beatles, Justice League, The Dream Team, and with the title The Fate of The Furious, I’m now declaring these people as “The Furious!” I think it’s a pretty cool idea, so let’s just go with that, because after the latest installment in this money making franchise, the last one made 1.5 BILLION dollars, Vin Diesel and company are legit super heroes. These movies just keep getting more over the top and ridiculous but you know what, I’m okay with it; in fact I absolutely love it. Going into it, if you’re not willing to turn off your brain, expect the most ridiculous of things to happen, and just laugh at how big Dwayne Johnson is, you’re just not living life to the fullest. Dwayne is actually so large, he in fact punches a huge metal wall and the after math looks like the Hulk just smashed the wall to shit, and by the way, his hand is fine! One thing these movies do, is to let us know how important family is, in fact I kept track of how many times the word “family” was said throughout the movie because I thought it would be something extremely high like 30, but it was just 16, and that made me sad. Family is the driving force of this movie and without spoiling the biggest reveal of the movie, okay I lied I’m going too! DOM TORETTO IS A FATHER PEOPLE! Wow that feels good to get off my chest, that’s right Dom knocked up Elena, that blonde cop from Fast Five, Dom is such a dirty dog! And like I said, his kid is the driving force for this story, and I’m calling it now, they will do an 18 year time jump in this franchise but no one will age except for the baby because like I said these people are super powered human beings. Wouldn’t that be cool a time jump, and now we are in 2036 and there are flying cars, I just blew my own mind. The writers of these movies should just contact me, because I have so many good ideas on where this franchise should go!

So the latest outing is directed by F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton) and our entire beloved cast is back! Remember what franchise we are taking about here; the plot is insane, but simple at the same time. A mysterious woman Cipher (Charlize Theron) tracks down Dom, and blackmails/seduces him into working for her, but it isn’t revealed till much later in the movie, why Dom agreed to help her with such ease. So Dom goes rogue, and turns on the family, leaving Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) crushed and Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) in jail where Deckard (Jason Statham) is also being held. Tej (Ludacris), Roman (Tyrese) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) are also kicking around, and once it is revealed that Cipher is a cyber terrorist, such a clever name eh, it’s up to the team to track down Dom and take care of Cipher once and for all. I enjoy the cast in this franchise, they all know what’s going on, they are all aware of how ridiculous things are, but still they make it their own and I respect that. Statham and Johnson really meshed well in this; in fact they are the best part of the movie. There’s a joke where Deckard calls Hobbs “Hercules” and I laughed because Dwayne Johnson actually played him in a movie, so I wonder if that was a cheap shot, or just something they might have missed when writing the script. Or maybe I’m just a total nerd who knows too much about movies. Statham was the baddie in the last one, but he’s switched teams and I liked that aspect, actually so does his brother, who was the bad guy in Fast 6, jesus you need a Venn diagram to keep track of all this. Back to the cast, they all fill their roles well, and the one thing that I think lacked was the humor. Usually their little quips and banter back and forth works really well, in this I felt it kind of fell flat on its face. Which was unfortunate, because I was sitting in a packed house, and there wasn’t much laughter going on, not until the end, where it deals with the baby (which was actually hilarious), but it’s never a good sign when all of your jokes just aren’t working out. What they lack in laughs, they certainly make up for in action. I don’t know how they come up with some of the stuff that happens in these movies, a big bag of weed could be involved or maybe they just ask some 6 year olds to come up with some crazy action sequences, because some of the stuff going on here is BANANAS. At one point, Cipher and her team manage to hack into all the self driving cars in New York City, and it might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in a movie, actually I just lied, them driving on ice being chased by a submarine is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. I lied again guys, I’m sorry I really am, HELEN MIRREN being in this movie is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. Helen, my god, you sweet old lady you. I’m not going to lie, it works but really???? She plays the Mother of Decker and Owen, and she drops the only F-bomb of the movie, which was pretty great. This movie has Kurt Russell again, as Mr. Nobody and I can’t believe that they manage to get these legendary people, how much are they paying them, and it seems like Kurt Russell is having the time of his life making these movies. So good on him, because you might as well enjoy it rather than act like you want no part in being in this.

I’m just going to go on a little rant about how much I love Dwayne Johnson. Honestly he makes everything better. This franchise would be dead to rights if he hadn’t decided to come on board, and since he has, it has become what most people know it as today. He also might be the largest human on Earth; he picks people up in this, like a sack of potatoes, its great. I just believe he can do whatever he is doing in these movies, at one point he takes a torpedo and pushes it at a car, while hanging out of his own car, like he is a goddamn Olympic Curler. Thing probably weighs a ton and well isn’t nothing but a peanut to Hobbs. So if a franchise is ever in need of a reboot or a pick me up just call this man, and all your problems will be solved. So yes this movie is insane, things happen that will blow your mind. Like I still don’t know when these people became super heroes, maybe in Fast 5? I honestly want to see this cross over with The Avengers, because I think The Furious would maybe take the cake. They are the Kevin McAllister of super teams, give them some prep time and anything is possible!

One thing that disappointed me was the under utilization of Charlize Theron, she’s a badass woman, and all she did was stand in an airplane the entire time! She can throw down (watch the Atomic Blonde trailer) and I was hoping for some hand-to-hand stuff with her or maybe drive a car. She does get away in the end so she will be back, but I kind of felt cheated a little bit. She was a decent villain, like she got Dom to turn his back on family, if they didn’t show that in any trailers and no one knew about that going into this movie, would be a bigger twist than Sixth Sense ending. But like I’m trying to think back to the movie, and it’s almost a blur, just so much destruction and chaos, and it was hard to keep track of. There are so many characters now, it gets a little oversaturated, and it’s hard to give all these people something to do. These movies aren’t going anywhere for a long time, so hopefully they can clean that up before the next one, because it was probably the biggest problem of the movie. Like as I’m writing this review I forgot that Scott Eastwood joined the cast, he plays Little Nobody, and I really liked him! He was a great addition to the cast, I think he’s a really good young actor, but again they just keep adding people to these and at some point, enough is enough!

What can I say, going in I knew it would be over the top action, some horrible dialogue and a lot of white beaters, and I got just that. But this movie is going to make a billion dollars, people LOVE these movies and I don’t blame them. These are the best bad movies that Hollywood is pumping out today. Guilty pleasure for sure, and sometimes you need that in your life. They won’t win any awards, you will forget about it in a few days, but you will have a good time watching it, and isn’t that what going to the movies is all about? Get a large drink and popcorn, buckle up and prepare yourself for an overall enjoyable car ride.

One last thing, Paul Walker is no longer with us, and that sucks because I think he was truly the heart and soul of this franchise, but at the end of the movie, I saw it coming from a mile away. They name Dom’s kid Brian, to honor him and I just thought that was a real genuine movie moment. You could even see it on the actor’s faces, they really are a family, and I know they all miss him dearly, so to me that was just an awesome emotional moment. Looking forward to see what’s next, because the sky is the limit, literally they will probably have flying cars soon!

Check ya later,

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – The Fate of The Furious = 69/100

 

Reviews

‘Beauty & The Beast’ Review

Wannabe Movie Critic

What I learned from Beauty & The Beast. Want a smokin’ hot princess? Just own a lot of books!

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A tale as old as time! One of films greatest love stories, about a girl who chooses one overbearing, self-absorbed, violent jerk of a man for another overbearing, self-absorbed, violet jerk of a man…..wait what? Disney’s Beauty & The Beast finally gets an updated live action version, after hits with Cinderella and The Jungle Book. The world has been patiently waiting for its release, and with a 170 million record setting box office weekend, live action Disney movies are here to stay! Growing up the animated version was one of my favorite movies, I loved everything about it, the music, the characters, the message, it was one of a kind, so going into this movie I was a little skeptical of the outcome. Well after watching it, I can honestly say I was pleasantly surprised with the result.

Everyone knows the tale, Belle (Emma Watson) the beautiful, smart, kindhearted girl who wants more out of life, trying to figure out where she belongs in the world. The Beast (Dan Stevens) the Prince who gets cursed for having a cold heart, and believing that it’s what’s on the outside that counts, living alone in his castle with his servants who have also been cursed. It’s not until he can love and be loved that this curse will be broken, and he has to accomplish this before the last peddle falls off his magical rose. You know that old chestnut. Here’s the thing, one of my concerns with them adapting this into a live action movie was the time. The 1991 animated movie clocks in at 84 minutes where this version has a run time of 129 minutes. That’s an additional 45 new minutes added to this tale, and I didn’t know how they would be able to stretch this story out that long. Well let me tell you, it worked; I didn’t think this movie was too long or some of the new elements added took away anything from the old version. Obviously things needed to be added to add substance and more backstory for our characters, and at the end of it, I thought it was pulled off extremely well. One thing I was a little worried about, was Dan Stevens playing Beast, I thought it might be a little blah, but he turned out great, and actually brought a lot of personality to the character, and was even dropping jokes at certain points.

Let’s talk about some of the good stuff in this movie. The music is excellent, I didn’t know Emma Watson had bars like that. She was already perfect and now she can sing, some people are just special; she was fantastic as our princess Belle. At times it was like I was looking at the animated Belle being ripped from the 1991 version. She portrayed the fearless, but kindhearted bookworm we all fell in love with when we were young. I don’t want to say she was born to play this role, but it was certainly a match made in heaven. I don’t think too many other A-List actresses could have pulled this off like Emma did. Luke Evans on the other hand, man was he born to play Gaston. Again who knew he could sing like that. From his muscles (when he lifted a girl and Josh Gad onto his shoulders, I thought that was super impressive) to his spitting ability he nailed Gaston to a tee. He played the smug, jackass kind of a guy to perfection, who will stop at nothing in order for Belle to be his beloved bride. One thing I would have liked a little bit more with Gaston was his death (spoiler, but if you don’t already know that, I don’t know what to say), it just felt kind of stupid and I was really hoping it would have been the same as in the animated version, oh well just a little nitpick. Gaston would be nothing without his best mate LeFou, his trusty old sidekick who underwent the biggest transformation in the live action version. Congrats to Disney for having its first ever gay character! That’s pretty awesome, and honestly it’s about time that Disney did something like this. LeFou has the hots for Gaston in this, but it’s very subtle and I thought it was really heartfelt and hilarious how they pulled it off. His character also undergoes another big change and he becomes a good guy in the end, which I was kind of pissed about, but seeing where he ends up it made sense for the story. You see in this movie there are two beauty and the beast tales. You have Belle and The Beast, where Belle falls for him because of not what he looks like on the outside, a monster, but rather she falls in love with his heart. His kind, and gentle heart, he just wants someone to understand him, and see passed his monstrous looks. Whereas there’s the LeFou and Gaston arc, where LeFou loves Gaston for what he looks like on the outside, but once he sees who he truly is on the inside, he has a heart of a monster. He understands it’s what’s on the inside that counts, That was a new aspect added to the movie, the perfect muscle man has the heart of a monster, yet the actual Beast has the heart of a soft spoken guy. So during the epic battle at the end, LeFou decides it’s time to change sides and helps Belle and the castle fight back against Gaston and the villagers. So Josh Gad really did a bang up job bringing this character to life, his comedic timing in this was prince less.

Talking teacups, clocks and candlesticks in live action wasn’t as strange as I thought it would be. Props to Ewan McGregor for having the worst French accent known to mankind who voices Lumiere, it really took me out of the movie at certain points, because I just thought it was that bad. Like why hire a person who can’t do a French accent to voice a guy who has a French accent? So he almost ruined the movie going experience, and that might be my only problem with the movie. All the other voice actors are fine in this; Ian McKellen was the standout as Cogsworth! There are a lot of familiar faces throughout, I’m not going to mention anymore names, because it was fun trying to figure out who was who, and the reveal at the end when they all become human was fun. Actually another small issue was The Beast himself; I don’t understand why he was CGI sometimes. Practical effects work best, and again it took me out of the movie. During the most iconic scene, when Belle and Beast are dancing, I knew in my head she might just be dancing with a broomstick. So really wishing they just went full practical effects for the Beast, but other than that, the movie is pretty much flawless!

All the music in this is incredible, they added a few new songs into the mix, and they worked really well! The costumes are Oscar worthy, actually I’m saying it now, and this might win best costume design at next years Oscars. If I’m Emma Stone I’m asking to keep the famous yellow dress, and actually I’m probably wearing it to the Oscars next year, wouldn’t that be a hoot. The costumes are right from the original and made the movie feel that much more authentic. It made the characters come to life, especially Belle, LeFou and Gaston. All around, with the new elements added, the added story makes for an enjoyable movie going experience. It was a tough task to bring this classic fairy tale to life, but I thought the director Bill Condon did a marvelous job, and he should be extremely proud of the final product. If this is the standard for live action Disney properties, then I’m really excited for certain future movies, because the bar has been set pretty high, and I have a feeling the next movie will want to top this. Disney has really found something special in adapting their properties into live action and I can’t wait to see what they do next. Be my guest to give this review a thumbs up!

Check ya later,

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews — Beauty & The Beast = 82/100

News

Lets Talk About Disney

Wannabe Movie Critic

I still don’t get why Donald Duck never wears any pants

Disney, making kids and adults alike cry like little babies since the beginning of time. No matter who you are, at least one Disney movie has a special place in your heart. It’s undeniable; they just know how to pull on your heartstrings in the worst way possible. Remember the first 10 minutes of UP? That might be the saddest 10 minutes in cinematic history. They can also make us extremely happy, well it’s pretty easy to do that when every single movie has a happy ending. Disney is doing something new these days and taking the beloved animated films we all grew up with and turning them into live action adventures. They started with the Jungle Book, which was just outstanding. Fun fact, nothing in that entire movie was real, expect for Mowgli. Go back and watch it and it’s actually mind blowing, damn movie technology has come a long way. Any who, their next project is everyone’s favorite love story Beauty & The Beast and it hits theatres next week. So I’m going to talk about some of my favorite Disney movies! Last thing; remember all the weird sexual references in these movies, what the hell is up with that Disney?

Aladdin

That street rat really didn’t know what he was doing when it came to wishes. Okay I guess it beats asking for it to rain junk food from the sky but that was Kazaam, and let’s not talk about that. Actually wait, if you switched genies from those two movies, which is the better movie? The answer is simple, they would both tie for being the greatest movies ever made. Shaq flying around on a magic carpet, sign me up. Aladdin was so awesome, I would pay a lot of money to have Abu as a pet. I legit do a mean Abu impression, ask me next time you see me. Aladdin was the first Disney movie I wanted to watch over and over again, mostly because of the incredible job Robin Williams did but also I think Jafar is one of the coolest Disney villains ever. Did you know Steve from Full House voices Aladdin, man he must be sleeping on a pile of money every night from the residuals alone.  Final note they are making this into a live action flick, if they have someone else do the voice of the Genie, we boycott this movie. It’s simple the only lines spoken in the movie are lines from the original so they can still have Robin Williams be the voice of this character. It’s his character and his character alone. Robin Williams or we riot!!

Toy Story

It’s toys with feelings! Kind of a scary premise for a movie, because if this actually happened my toys would have straight up murdered me when I was a kid. Things got pretty intense, all sorts of galactic battles happened that sometimes involved packages of ketchup. Shit got real when it came to my toys and me. Toy Story really shaped the future of animation and truly was a life changing moment when I went to see this movie. Andy was super nice to his toys almost too nice if you ask me. I think in like 10 years Pixar should make a rated R movie and it’s just about Andy as an adult and he’s just a sick and twisted bastard. A serial killer who writes ANDY on all his victims’ feet! Holy shit that’s actually a sick premise for a movie and would totally be a smash hit. Who wants to help me write this movie?  I wasn’t fond of Woody or Buzz, to be honest I was a Mr. Potato Head kind of guy, that guy was hilarious! One thing is for sure, Tim Allen must pray to a Pixar poster every night because they are the only people giving that man work today. Poor Tool Man Taylor, who knew he would be a ghost in Hollywood today.

UP

What was Mr. Frederickson’s job? How much money did he spend on balloons in his life? Did he blow them up himself? Did he have a pump? Why have they made 3 Cars movies but we haven’t gotten an UP sequel? So many unanswered questions. Talk about an emotional roller coaster, I can’t reiterate how sad the first 10 minutes of this movie are. No wonder the Mr. Frederickson literally gave zero fucks about anything. He really did have the ultimate mic drop moment, just flying away with your balloon house, right before they are going to demolish it, what a badass. UP has my favorite Disney character ever, Dug the talking dog. He was hilarious, and just wanted to love and be loved. It made me realize I hope I’m still kicking when the world actually has that technology, it will be the only way I will ever own a dog. Really hoping for that UP sequel, somehow it involves water balloons……SQUIRREL!

Bedknobs & Broomsticks

I know, the 10 people reading this, at least 6 of you don’t even know this movie probably. It’s very old (1971), and it stars Murder She Wrote herself Angela Lansbury. Remember she was a witch/babysitter, who goes on a bat shit crazy adventure with three kids, that involves playing soccer against cartoons and summing the knights of the roundtable to defend Great Britain. I don’t really know why I took a liking to this movie when I was younger, but I watched it so many times growing up. I’m actually shocked Hollywood hasn’t remade this yet, or maybe it’s in the works, because nothing can ever be sacred anymore. Maybe it’s just when you’re a kid, you want to go on an adventure like this, it was weirdly violent too. They fought Nazi’s in it; whenever they are involved you know the movie is going to rock. The last battle scene was something I cherished as a child, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. This movie can do no wrong, so enjoy this clip I pulled of animals playing soccer synced with some crappy house music (sorry).

The Lion King

This is one of the first movie going experiences I can remember. Going with my dad and brother, and all of us going nuts when Rafiki came and fought off those hyenas at the end of the movie. It was honestly like the reaction we have now when someone gets dunked on in a basketball game. I’ve loved the movie theatre experience ever since, and  a moment in my life I will never forget. Still to this day the most shocking death in movie history, that backstabbing bastard Scar, killing Mufasa. That was hard to take in at such a young age, and the amounts of memes people have made out of it (I’m looking at you Tony Romo), it has to be the all time biggest Disney gut punch. The songs were great, it gave us Timon and “They call me Mr. Pig” Pumbaa. They are giving this the Jungle Book treatment and going down the live action route. Donald Glover will be Simba, and I’m personally excited to call him Lionish Gambino for the next little while. I could not be happier for that guy; he is blowing up right now and taking the world by storm. I would not be mad if they have Simba lay down a few freestyles in this movie. Why not, lets make this happen, I don’t think anyone will complain about a rapping lion. Is the world really ready to watch that tragic death scene again, but with like real lions, okay not “real” lions but it will look real so better bring a box of Kleenex.

The Incredibles

The best Pixar movie ever, and some could argue the best Superhero movie ever. Yeah, I just went there. I love when I am hung-over and I turn on the TV only to find this movie is on, and I know I’m fully committed to watching it. It’s on the list of best cable movies ever, that once it’s on, you’re done, you are not changing the channel, you’re focused on this movie and you will not move until it is over. The champion in this category Shawshank Redemption (You totally just nodded your head in agreement). We are finally getting the much-deserved sequel next summer, and I’m super interested to see where they take it. I hope that maybe the kids have aged in like real life time, so they are now teenagers/young adults and Jack Jack is quite possibly the villain?????? Again, two Cars sequels before they give their best movie ever one? Man something is wrong over at Pixar; we should be getting a new Incredibles movie at least once every 3 years. Since the first one the world has really exploded into Superhero frenzy so I’m hoping they kind of play on that a little in this one, and maybe poke fun at some stuff. The sky is really the limit for this movie, just give us what we all want, more Frozone. Just remember, NO CAPES!

Beauty & The Beast

Beauty & The Beast it’s like Shallow Hal but for kids! Wait if the moral of the story is looks don’t matter. It’s what’s on the inside that counts. Why does the Prince transform back into a hunk? Shouldn’t he be a fat slob, but Belle still totally digs him? Why am I just realizing this all now, Beauty & The Beast is full of shit. Are all the morals in Disney movies ass backwards? Who knows, but one thing is for sure, this movie comes out next Friday, and I’m pretty excited for it. The original is such a great movie; it’s almost the one Disney movie that didn’t need to be adapted into a live action version. I’m not sure what they could really improve on, but Emma Watson is in it, and well she’s the perfect human being so I will gladly go see this movie. Ewan McGregor is playing Lumiere the French candlestick and MAN is his accent putrid. It sounds like he has peanut butter in his mouth the entire time he is talking, so that might just get a tad annoying. The thing I’m most looking forward to in this is Luke Evans and Josh Gad who are playing Gaston and LeFou, they have such a good bromance in the original and I’m hoping that’s the case here. Josh Gad is hilarious and I hope he really brings it for this role. I still find it weird at the end of the original movie when they get turned back into real people that they are just acting like everything is cool beans. I would need years of therapy, going from being a fucking teacup to a real life human being, that’s a lot to take in, especially for an 5 year old. Only Disney am I right!

Check ya later.