Tag: Movie Reviewer

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

Throwback Review – ‘Aliens’ 

Wannabe Movie Critic

I could never decide what was scarier, the aliens or Newt carrying around that doll head.

(FOX)

See I told you, I’m a man of my word, and this week I just watched Aliens, highly regarded as one of the greatest action movies of all time! Again this movie was released even before I was on planet Earth, in 1986, directed by the legendary James Cameron, he took what Ridley Scott did in Alien, but he made it his own. Right off the bat I’ll say this, it would have been pretty damn easy for James Cameron to take this franchise and these characters and just ruin them, or try to change them, but he doesn’t. He didn’t try to redefine the Alien franchise, he simply expanded on it, and made Aliens his own thing, and well it’s just short of perfection. I remember growing up; I would always call this movie the sleepover movie, or the birthday party movie. I can recall countless times this is the movie that would be put on at night, because at the time there just weren’t too many movies like it, and it just kicks so much ass. I fell in love with this franchise at a very early age, and I’m glad I did because there are some wackos out there who’ve probably never even seen this movie. That’s simply just a crime against humanity, or maybe that’s just me being a complete and utter nerd, someone step up and tell me please!

So Aliens takes place 57 years after the events of Alien, our hero Ripley has been floating in her stasis pod the entire time, and by dumb luck a cargo ship comes across her vessel and BAM, our story continues. As she tells the tale of her encounter with the Xenomorph, the company she works for just isn’t buying it, seeing how since she’s been in deep sleep, there is now a colony of people living on the planet where her and her crew stumbled across the parasite (face hugger) in Alien. So relieved of her duties, it isn’t till a few days later, where suddenly they have lost all contact with anyone on LV-426, mysteriously after no events of anything happening, now dead silent. So they are sending in the Marines, and they want Ripley to tag along to be a special advisor to the operation, seeing how she’s the only one who knows first hand with what they are dealing with. Sigourney Weaver was nominated for an Oscar with the performance she gave in Aliens. Just stop and think about that for a second, that is unheard of. Someone from a massive summer action blockbuster being nominated for an Oscar, not in this day in age, so kudos to Sigourney, because she is actually simply spectacular in this movie. Ripley decides to tag along with these Marines, and that’s where we meet the rest of our lovable cast! Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn), the leader of the crew, who is our main male character in the movie, Bishop (Lance Henriksen) a droid who Ripley isn’t to fond of due to the fact that the last droid on her mission tried to kill her, but Bishop really becomes a hero at the end. We have Vasquez (Janette Goldstein) and can I just say, I’ve always loved this woman in Aliens, she’s such a badass character and honestly they don’t really have female characters like this in movies anymore. Well they try to but they usually fail miserably, Vasquez always sticks out in my mind for being one of the first real tough, badass chicks in movies. We got the Sergeant of the group, Apone, who just has some of the best lines in the movie, “you know the drill, assholes and elbows everyone!” Kind of wish he stuck around longer in the movie, and we got to see him kind of do some ass kicking of his own. The slim ball company man of the group Burke (Paul Reiser), what can I say about his character, another than the fact that he’s simply just an asshole. He is truly the films main villain and the movie does a great job not really showing us that card until the last third of the movie, and I always thought that was pretty cool. It’s not a twist or anything, there are clues along the way, but going into Aliens, you would think the bad guys would just be the creatures themselves, when in fact their biggest threat was actually one of their own. Rounding out the crew, good old Hudson played by the phenomenal man Bill Paxton himself. We lost this great man earlier this year, the only person who could say that they’ve been killed by a terminator, an alien and a predator. Now that’s some legendary stuff. He’s the comedic relief of the movie, and his most infamous line “game over man, game over!” was actually improvised during that scene, which makes it all that much better. He’s almost the best part of the movie, but that title always stay with Ripley, he’s a goofy douche, but can throw down with the best of them, and is a Xenomorph killing machine. We simply lost this man way too soon. So these Marines land of LV-426, only to find it deserted and what once was a rescue mission, quickly turns into a survival mission. The only survivor is a little girl, known as Newt. She has somehow survived weeks, living in the air vents and when you think about it, she’s honestly just such a little trooper, I would have lasted all of 10 minutes before one of those things would get me. One of the big reasons Newt is such a vital part to this story is that when Ripley was in her deep sleep, she lost her daughter, she simply died of old age and when Ripley hears about this, it crushes her. It makes her realize just how long she’s been gone for and how different the world must be. So when they find Newt, Ripley takes it upon herself to not only be a mother figure to this poor helpless girl, but to protect her at all costs. It just added a nice extra layer to Ripley’s character and made her just seem a little more human and have compassion for someone in such a dire and intense, life-threatening situation.

So once they find Newt, they start to dig deeper into the complex, to see if anyone else is still alive, and they just so happen to stumble across the alien hive. Not knowing this of course sets our Marines up for total annihilation and the majority of them are wiped out before our very eyes. The hive scene for me will always be one of my favorites from all of cinema. I think its perfect, to how its shot, you have the Marines point of view, and then you have the view of Ripley and the others watching horrified through monitors, as they see them being picked off one by one. It manages to blend horror, suspense and action all into one and James Cameron does it tremendously. It’s really hard to blend so many different feels, and movie genres all into one scene without over doing it. The hive is just so cool looking, as the aliens use the walls of the cocooned hive to camouflage themselves so well, that when they re moving towards our Marines, even though they have a motion sensor tracking system, they simply just cannot see them coming. This always stands out to me, as just masterful filmmaking. Just one of the many iconic scenes throughout the movie, when it’s all said and done, only a few Marines are left standing and now it’s time for them to find a way off this rock. Trapped on the planet with the aliens, this is where James Cameron really gets to show off the awesome weaponry. For being made in 1986, the weaponry in Aliens is some of the best stuff I’ve ever seen in film. From the sentry guns, to the pulse rifles, to the guns I don’t even know the name of, you know the BFG’s that Vasquez and Drake use in the hive scene, those things will cut you in half.

So when it’s just down to Ripley, it’s her duty to save Newt from her potential fate, so she has to go back into the hive but this time around she stumbles across the queen! Surrounded by eggs, Ripley grabs Newt and they think they are in the clear. It’s then they notice the queen has attached herself to their ship and it’s time for one last showdown between the queen and Ripley, in a some kind of cargo moving mech suit! You know “get away from her you bitch!” line. Again this is just such an iconic scene and one that I’ll certainly never forget. How else were we expecting Ripley to go toe-to-toe with the mother of all aliens, the queen! For what this fight is, obviously it’s slow but powerful, and you couldn’t really expect much else from two huge things battling it out! They just simply don’t really make movies like the used too, 1986 and it still holds up to this day. My opinion, the greatest science-fiction action movie ever created and one of my all time go to movies. It’s just damn near perfect, I can’t think of a single flaw in Aliens, I can try and maybe if I think long and hard about it, I could nitpick something, but what’s the fun in that. James Cameron made a masterpiece and one thing I’ll say about James Cameron. His ability to find young actors and get the most out of them, whether it’s Newt from Aliens or Edward Furlongs character in Terminator 2. These were both their first roles and you wouldn’t have guessed that for a second, it really is something special, an underrated talent of directors. Up next is a film that I think is way undervalued and that would be Alien 3!

Check ya later,

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Aliens = 97/100

News

Let’s Talk About That ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ Trailer 

Wannabe Movie Critic

All I know is 2017 is the year of family; first Dom Toretto is turning his back on his family and now Optimus, what the hell is going on here people?

(PARAMOUNT)

 

These movies I tell yeah, just when you think you’re out, they suck you right back in. This franchise is honestly just like that ex girlfriend you keep going back to. You just can’t help yourself; it’s pretty, makes no sense, and every so often takes a little bit of your money. I have not be impressed with any of the trailers so far for The Last Knight, but this last trailer, wasn’t all that bad! I’ve been a fan of the franchise since the beginning, actually I love the first Transformers movie, but they have yet been able to top the first movie. So lets break down this trailer!

First off, is it just me or did they actually create the woman in this in some sort of lab. She is Emily Blunt mixed with Megan Fox and it’s kind of scary, hopefully if she was made in a lab they used Emily Blunt’s acting skills rather than Megan’s, sorry not sorry. Speaking of Megan Fox, these movies just don’t feel the same without Shia, I loved him in these and thought he was always the best part, and I know he’s done with summer blockbusters and franchises, but I just wish he would even make a small little cameo. I’m real curious to see how the whole Knights of The Roundtable thing plays out, that is either going to be pretty cool or fall flat on its face, only time will tell. Last year we got Batman vs. Superman, we are going to be getting a Thor vs. Hulk throw down in November but honestly I think Bumblebee vs. Optimus has potential to beat them all, if they do it properly, again only time will tell. The action looks great, like it always does in these movies; it’s just always the acting that needs a little bit of help. I love Marky Mark and all, but I feel like he does these movies for the paycheck, he can do whatever he wants in Hollywood, so why do these? I feel like the little girl running around will either be annoying come the first 10 minutes or hopefully she kicks a lot of ass in this, and I will be dead wrong.

All in all, this was by far the best trailer we have seen so far, and not being the biggest fan of the last Transformers, I will remain an opportunist when it comes to this franchise and hope for the best. This could be a really great franchise, but maybe it just needs a makeover, this being Michael Bay’s last time directing one, could ultimately be the best thing for this money maker of a movie franchise. Looking forward to this hurting my brain and being super pissed I went to see it opening night.

Check ya later.

Reviews

Throwback Review – ‘Alien’

Wannabe Movie Critic

I’ve always wondered if they had a little cat space suit for Jones…..

March-Madness-Jonesy-alien.jpg
(FOX)

Some spoilers, but this movie is almost 40 years old you’ve had time to watch it!

One of my most anticipated movies of the year; Alien: Covenant is coming out soon, so I have decided I’m going to review all four of the original Alien films, because well why not! I grew up watching all of these movies and each one of them are so special and unique in their own sort of way, except Alien: Resurrection because as I’m writing this, I’m getting angry just thinking about that movie, but I’m willing to watch it for you guys. So what better way to start this party off then with the original Alien film, which spawned a massive movie franchise that is still going today!

Certain movies throughout time redefine the movie going experience. In 1979, Ridley Scott’s Alien did just that. The space horror/thriller changed movies forever in more ways than one, and to this day filmmakers are still using elements from Alien in their own movies. Alien did for space, what Jaws did for water. It made people terrified of it, even though people go into water rather than space but you get the idea. Being alone, in a secluded area being stalked by a creature. Alien steals elements from that fantastic film, and uses the same suspense and horror that came with Jaws.

From the very get go, you have to remember that this movie came out in 1979, it’s so far ahead of its time, from the very first minutes of the movie, it’s like nothing people would have seen before. It’s almost like Ridley Scott was showing off from the very get go, as the audience gets a tour of the Nostromo, the space shuttle where our 7-person crew resides. It’s so beautiful and I was shocked at what I was seeing, because again this was 1979, and the best part of Alien are the effects, they are all practical and the little CGI that’s in the movie works, again considering when Alien was made. I wish this were one movie experience I could of had in the theatre. I do this all the time, I’ll go back and watch an old movie and be upset that I didn’t get the theatre experience with it, because this would have been an all-timer. I mentioned the 7-person crew, the plot is simple, the Nostrum is a commercial spacecraft that is heading back to Earth after a journey in space. The 7 crew members; Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Brett (Harry Dean Stanton), Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Kane (John Hurt), Ash (Ian Holm) and Parker (Yaphet Kotto) lay dormant in their stasis pods, but are awoken to find out that they are off course because a close planet has been sending out a “distress signal.” Part of their job description is to investigate the matter much to he crews disdain for such a thing, they land on the planet and well things just go to shit from there. Once they land on the new planet, Kane, Parker and Dallas go out to search from any sign of life and well they eventually do find life, just not the kind they were looking for. Kane investigates a mysterious looking egg, and before he knows what happens a strange life form latches itself onto his face. Dallas and Lambert rush Kane back to the ship, but Ripley is hesitant about bringing the unknown life form onto the ship, eventually they get Kane onboard and start to experiment on the life form, but quickly realize its blood is super corrosive and it will not detach from Kane’s face. You know the rest, the creature detaches from Kane’s face, he has a little bit of memory loss and everything seems fine and dandy. Until the crew sits down to their final meal before reentering their stasis pods for a 10 month snooze. Kane starts convulsing and an alien pops out from his rib cage and before they have a chance to kill it, it scurries off into the spacecraft. I just have to give John Hurt a massive shout out, the world lost this incredible actor last year and he’s just fantastic in this, he’s so damn young it’s scary. His death scene is one of the more iconic death scenes in all of cinema. When people think about Alien, this scene usually comes to mind. I just feel like his death is so far ahead of its time, and it’s a scene that will always stay with me for years to come.

John Hurt isn’t the only one churning out legendary performances in Alien; Ripley is the first badass female character that really stuck with the pop culture crowd. When you think of strong female characters in film, Ripley definitely comes to mind and rightfully so! For years to come Sigourney Weaver would play the Xenomorph ass kicker. Growing up I loved this character, and I wish we would have gotten more Ripley in our lives and rumors about a potential 5th Alien movie is just great news and I hope it really works out. The rest of the story is simple; the alien grows to enormous size and starts stalking our crew one by one. This is when the movie shifts from a thriller to straight up horror. I forgot how scary this movie was, and now I remember why it scared me to death as a kid. There’s something about enclosed spaces and a creature lurking in the shadows. The Xenomorph is an all time classic movie monster and they are one of my favorites, it’s something about how they go about doing things. They don’t necessarily kill their victims and sometimes it’s hard to see what exactly they do to their prey, which makes them even creepier. That can be said for a couple of its victims in this movie, Brett and Dallas who are the first two victims. For myself they are part of the two scariest moments in the film and it happens to be their final moments.

The scene in the hanger leading up to Brett’s death, there’s a brief second where you see the alien just hanging above him, it’s not meant to be a jump scare and there isn’t even a change of music or tone. That being said, it’s so sudden that at first you could miss it, but its there just waiting for its moment. All of this makes it even more terrifying, the aliens do such an amazing job blending into their surroundings, and it’s this trait that gets most of their victims. I just thought this was a really cool part of the movie, but poor Brett certainly didn’t think so. Next in the airshafts when Dallas takes control of the situation and decides to try and trap the creature but he ultimately meets his fate in those air shafts and it’s a really scary moment. It’s this scene that kind of encapsulates what the movie is all about. It’s about being scared and alone, in an enclosed space, not really knowing what’s out there and what you’re dealing with. The scariest part about both of their deaths is the audience has no idea what happens to their bodies, it’s never talked about or discovered, unless you watch the directors cut, which I did. You find out that the Xenomorph cocoons its victims when towards the end of the movie, Ripley discovers the bodies of both Dallas and Brett, Dallas hanging on by a thread begs Ripley to kill him. When you think about it, it really makes the whole experience worse that this alien doesn’t full on kill you but rather leaves you in a cocoon and will ultimately finish you off later, they are insanely smart creatures.

As the crew fights for survival, it’s revealed that Ash is actually a droid, and since the discovery of the new species, the crew is now expendable and primary objective is now to bring the creature back alive to study. Once Ripley discovers this, Ash tries to kill her not before the remaining crew comes to her rescue, and I always loved how the androids had what appeared to be milk for blood, always loved it! When Ripley is the soul crewmember left, it’s a fight to the death with this “perfect organism” and the ending is just fantastic. The best part about watching Alien was that I honestly didn’t remember too much about it, and it was such a satisfying experience to enjoy this movie again. It changed the game for the horror and thriller genre, and it will always stand the test of time. Alien redefined practical effects and what you can accomplish on a limited budget, its movies like these that reinvigorate my passion and love for movies. I’m going to link some of the favorite scenes from the movie down below!

Check ya later,

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Alien = 90/100

Reviews

Throwback Review – ‘Good Will Hunting’

Wannabe Movie Critic

I don’t care if Helen of Troy walks in the room, that’s game 6!


 

Good Will Hunting literally changed my life. The year was 2007, and I was sitting in my dorm room deciding what movie to watch, I didn’t really come to realize my love of movies until later in my life. I stumbled upon Good Will Hunting, but honestly I didn’t know much about it, I knew what it was from the infamous Oscar speech by Ben and Matt, and knew it had one of if not the best Robin Williams performance ever. So as I sat on my bed, and stared at my laptop screen for 126 minutes, I thought to myself how did I go the last 10 years of my life without watching this movie? I just remember sitting their starring down, watching Matt Damon’s; Will Hunting drives off into the distance, as he “had to see about a girl.” I sat there kind of stunned, I really hadn’t ever had that feeling after watching a movie before, I went on to watch Good Will Hunting countless times that semester and I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve watched it since, so many times in fact that I’ve almost perfected my Boston accent.

Will Hunting (Matt Damon), bad boy turned math prodigy, goes around M.I.T solving advanced math equations that only a hand few of people can solve, with pure ease. It’s more than just that though, this has a really special, raw, and unique love story, about learning that it’s okay to let people into your life, and that not all people are the same. Will’s love interest Skylar (Minnie Driver) was excellent as the down to earth brainiac, who just wanted to be loved as much as she wanted to give it. She also has one of the best pick up lines ever dropped on her in this, “well why don’t we just sit around and eat a bunch of caramels.” So many incredible lines and scenes that it’s hard for me to pinpoint my favorite one. This whole movie is just so beautifully written, and smart and has some serious real life issues going on in it. But that shouldn’t surprise anyone seeing how it won an Oscar for the writing, an underrated and unappreciated trait of great movies.

All around phenomenal performances across the board here, from the Affleck brothers, Cole Hauser, Stellan Skarsgard and clearly Robin Williams but we will touch on him later. Let’s start with the four misfits, Ben as everyone knows helped write the movie alongside Matt, and he’s come a long way since being in this movie. He’s had one of the more up and down careers in Hollywood from a bright beginning to a troubling middle act, to what he has become now. One of the best working directors today and he’s the Batman. When you think back to Ben in this, I think one scene comes to mind, when he tells his best friend Will that he’s simply to good for the life he’s living and if I’m not mistaken he says it in a more harsh way, “you’re sitting on a winning lottery ticket, but you’re too much of a pussy to cash it in.” This was a powerful ass scene, because it was Chucky who had to tell Will to get his act together and pursue a better life for himself, and that he wishes that Will would just leave one day, and not even say goodbye. The movie does a great job calling back to that scene at the end of the movie when that exact thing happens, when like every morning, Chucky heads to Will’s front door, to find it empty and he doesn’t breakdown or look sad, but rather has a smile on his face and it’s just a really touching moment. Morgan (Casey Affleck) provides the comedic relief in the film, and most of his stuff was actually improvised and that just makes it even more glorious. From him backing out of fighting because “they got snacks now,” too using Chuckie’s baseball glove for clean up. I wish the Affleck brothers would be in more movies together, especially now a days, let’s get Casey in the DCEU. Cole Hauser, who plays the classic blue-collar Bostonian with a little bit of a drinking problem to a tee. Rounding out the misfits is Damon, who shines in the lead role and is involved in the most powerful scenes in the movie. Still my all time favorite Matt Damon performance. Skarsgard as the brilliant mathematician is just an underrated actor and is always fantastic in whatever role he is playing. Just remember a difficult theory can be like the symphony, very erotic, I guess so?

Now for the main event, Mr. Robin Williams himself! First off, I’m just going to leave his clip here and watch it and remember how brilliant this man was in Good Will Hunting. The therapy session scenes are some of my favorite in all of film; Damon and Williams’s feed off one another so well, and have amazing chemistry. Who knew such powerful acting and such pure raw emotion could come from two men sitting in a room together, it’s just incredible. This was an Oscar winning performance by Robin and rightfully so, they wrote the part for the man himself. His role almost felt real, like Robin had once lived this exact life and he was just reimagining everything from his past, that’s how authentic his role felt to me. He’s had so many memorable roles in his life, but for me this will always be the one I remember most. He might be remembered for he’s comedic genius but he knew how to do drama with the best of them, and the world just simply lost this man way too soon.

Music also plays a big part, Elliot Smith does the soundtrack and it’s simply outstanding. Some haunting music is in this movie and the tone of his work blends perfectly with the sad and ominous scenes throughout the movie. Along with the directing by Gus Van Sant, who crafted such powerful and career stealing scenes, he was able to capture the words on the page and transform them into some of the best things these incredible actors have been apart of.

When it’s all said and done it’s perfect I find zero flaws in Good Will Hunting, certainly none that I can think of. For the amount of times I’ve watched it, I can never point out any flaws or have anything to nitpick about. It always puts me in a better mood when it comes on TV or I decide to watch it on Netflix, something about it just makes any bad day turn around. Not too many movies can do that for people and this is one of them. I’ll never forget that first night I watched this, and how happy I was that I stumbled across it, and it’s just never gotten old, and never will.

Check ya later,

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Good Will Hunting = 100/100

 

Reviews

‘Life’ Movie Review 

Wannabe Movie Critic

Nobody and I mean nobody drops better angry F-Bombs than Ryan Reynolds

(Sony Pictures)

In space no one can hear you scream, and in Life there was a boatload of screaming to be had. Space movies always remind me of one thing; space is scary as hell! Especially when you are trapped on the International Space Station with a newly discovered alien life form.

So aboard the International Space Station is a multinational six-member crew that is comprised of some of the brightest minds on Earth. They intercept an incoming space probe that is returning from a successful trip from Mars. They collect a soil sample, where the crew is tasked to study it, which could ultimately end up being the first evidence of life outside of Earth. The crew quickly discover that not only is this the first sign of life, but that it is “all muscle, all brain and all eye,” which sounds scary as shit if you ask me. After the organism evolves, it is given a name, Calvin, after a school in America. Calvin quickly becomes more evolved and smarter as the day’s pass, and the crew slowly begins to realize, that they might have bitten off more than they can chew. As they find themselves in a fight for their lives, they must work together to stop Calvin from reaching Earth. As they’re picked off one by one, Calvin not only evolves, it gets smarter and smarter, and the crew realizes that maybe they should have left this creature back on Mars, where it belongs.

The crew itself is comprised of an American senior medical officer, David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal), who has been in space for the longest period of time in human history, with just over 430 days served in space. David mostly keeps to himself, remaining quite, but when push comes to shove we find him becoming a little more of a badass. Dr. Miranda North (Rebecca Ferguson), she serves as the British Quarantine Officer, and the captain of this mission. She is in charge of the “firewall protocols” which serve as the safety plans in case anything goes wrong onboard the space station. She knows more information than the crew does, and keeps a few secrets from them as well. Rory Adams (Ryan Reynolds) the American pilot of the space station is the crews class clown, and leader of the group. Ryan Reynolds was probably the standout of the movie for me, providing us with the best scene of the movie that’s for sure. As usual, he’s a wise cracking, know-it-all something we have become accustom too in his movies. Not saying that’s a bad thing, I actually really liked his performance in Life, it was nice to see him branch out a little bit. The Japanese systems engineer Sho Murakami (Hiroyuki Sanada), the strong but silent type. Who just wants to get home so he can see his newly born daughter. The Russian commander of the mission, Katerina Golovkina (Olga Dihovichnaya) willing to step up and take charge when need be, a strong woman who’s not afraid of a little perseverance. Finally we have the crew’s biologist, a British man Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare) who is the most excited about the specimen on board and wants nothing more than to study it and make the human population proud. Remember this is a movie that takes place in space with a alien, these people are going to be disposable, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t start to care for them, and root for them to win. People are going to die in a movie like this, it’s just the nature of films like this. Life borrows a lot of elements from the original Alien movie, the movie that redefined the genre of science-fiction. I’m a huge Gyllenhaal fan, and I thought that he didn’t really have a whole lot to do in this, I felt that he was very underused in the first 2/3 of Life which was kind of a let down. He’s a great actor and I wish the director would have given him more to do. It felt like they just didn’t know what to do with his character at times, and being the lead of the movie it felt out of place at times. Speaking of the director, it’s Daniel Espinosa (Safe House) and he was almost the star of the movie. This is on the edge of your seat kind of suspense, with great tense moments, along with some really scary situations. Daniel did a fantastic job bringing all this together and create one hell of a landscape for the movie.  This movie has some really intense moments where I was even almost looking away (I’m a baby) but when a movie can do that, it’s doing its job. Taking place only on the space station, Daniel does a great job shooting the movie  very confined and tight, which makes for an even more enjoyable movie watching experience.

Life is a slow-burn, which means it takes awhile to get going and it takes its time for things to come together, but in the end it usually pays off. My biggest gripe for the movie was I wasn’t a fan of the ending. As the movie was winding down, I knew it only had a few outcomes to showcase, and I just wasn’t a fan of how things wrapped up, and it was an ending that didn’t really answer all the questions. Leaving the audience with a lot of “what ifs” and seeing how I don’t think Life will be getting a sequel that can be very frustrating for the movie goer. I’m not saying I knew from the beginning how the movie was going to end, but you could see all the twists of the movie happening before they actually did. Nothing ever really shocked me in Life, so I just wish they maybe threw one more curve ball at us, or maybe just didn’t follow the exact cookie cutter formula that most of these space movies follow. That doesn’t mean this is a bad movie by any means, or that I liked it less, it just means that you know what’s going to happen next before it actually happens in the movie. You spend two hours investing your time into the movie and sometimes you just want to be rewarded at the end of it, and not left scratching your head about possible outcomes or what kind of message the filmmaker is trying to get across.

Life is not a game changer by any means for the genre, but it does some things really well. This a good science-fiction horror/thriller, that people should go out and see. If you’re a fan of these kinds of flicks, then you won’t be disappointed in the outcome. Like I said it has some good performances, enough scares, and tense moments to have you on the edge of your seat in certain moments, and I thought Calvin was a pretty cool alien. It was different to see something that wasn’t so terrifying looking, as say some other monster movies, but it didn’t need to look scary, to show the audience just how much damage it could possibly inflict on the human population. I just know if they keep making movies like this I will never find myself going on a space vacation in the year 2050.

Check ya later

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Life = 70/100

Reviews

‘Power Rangers’ Review

Wannabe Movie Critic

“Different colours, different kids, different colour kids” – Alpha 5

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“A group of high-school students, who are infused with unique superpowers, harness their abilities in order to save the world”

When I did my most anticipated movie list of 2017, this rolled out to be number 9 on that list. So here we are 24 years after The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debut on Fox, and it’s been 20 years since the last feature length film hit theatres. Well colour me surprised, because Saban’s Power Rangers was actually pretty fantastic, for being a Power Rangers movie. This had all the makings of being a terrible movie, a young and unknown new cast of Rangers, an up and coming new director, and well to be honest the source material is was a  cheesy afternoon kids show. But despite all of that, they really pulled it off; they took these characters in a kind of new and bold direction, while staying extremely faithful to the source material of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Nostalgia alone was putting me in a seat opening night, from playing the awesome SNES games, watching the actual show, to playing with all the Zord toys growing up, I wasn’t missing this movie. Power Rangers might have a hard time pinning down its target audience, but if you have little kids expect to see this movie in the upcoming weeks, and if you’re like me and loved the original stuff growing up in the 90’s you might find yourself dipping into your local theatre to see it!

Back in 1993 when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers first aired, there were 5 rangers: red (Jason), yellow (Trini), black (Zack), blue (Billy) and pink (Kimberly). Sprinkle in a little white and green sometimes, and that was the team. They followed suit for the reboot, and we found Jason (Dacre Montgomery), Zack (Ludi Lin), Trini (Becky G), Kimberly (Naomi Scott) and Billy (RJ Cyler) all living in Angel Groove, attending the same high school, where they all seemed to be “outcasts” or “outsiders”. Jason, the star quarterback turned felon, as he crashes his car in a prank gone wrong as our movie opens. The popular cheerleader, who is sick and tired of being popular, Kimberly, as she sheds most of her hair from the very first moment we see her. Zack, the crazy guy in school, well when he attends school that is. Tough on the outside, but a kind hearted kid on the inside, as he finds himself taking care of his sick mother everyday, and doesn’t know what he will do when she’s gone, because she’s all he’s got. Trini, the new girl in school, who is very much an outsider, who rarely speaks, and is afraid to let people in, because she’s afraid of what they might think of her. See Trini is the first openly gay Power Ranger, and she is having a tough time expressing herself to her parents and her peers. Finally there’s Billy, who is “on the spectrum” and is very outspoken, and the kindest of our Rangers. Bullied in school for being different, he bonds immediately with Jason when they find themselves serving Saturday detention together, along with Kimberly, Breakfast Club style. Now lets address the elephant in the room, which involves race with the Power Rangers. Back in the day, the Black Ranger was black and the Yellow Ranger was Asian, and that used to be a very common joke that was made about the series. They did the old switcheroo for this having Billy who is black be the Blue Ranger, and Zack who is Asian be the Black Ranger. I enjoyed how the movie clearly went out of its own way to make off-color jokes about the diversity of itself, and Zack and Billy have a great little exchange about them each being the Blue and Black Ranger respectfully. Race, culture and being different is a big part of this movie, and they were all chosen to be the Power Rangers for that very reason, the power coins, which give them their powers ultimately choose them because they are kids “of different colour.” These kids don’t know each other at all, they are all different in more ways than one, but it’s one fateful night, that they all happened to be in the exact same spot, when Billy decides to blow up some of the gold mine in town and they all discover weird and mysterious coloured coins. It’s not until the next morning that they all now possess super human abilities like strength and speed and they are determined to discover what really is going on. From there they discover a “space ship” buried deep underground and it’s there that they meet Alpha 5 (voiced by Bill Hader) and Zordon (Bryan Cranston) the leader and voice of reason for the group. I thought Hader was great as the zanny robot Alpha 5, and brought a lot of humor to the role. He was just so cheesy in the 90’s show, but we didn’t really get that vibe from him in this movie. Zordon a former Red Ranger from the Cenozoic Era sacrificed himself so he could protect the power coins from the evil Rita Repulsa (Elizabeth Banks).

You can’t make a Power Rangers movie and not have Rita Repulsa in it; they go together like Mac & Cheese. She’s eating donuts, cackling, doing drugs, eating jewelry, and overacting at times with a hint of cheese, but that comes with the territory. Remember the source material, and how corny and cheesy this woman used to be. Overreacting to everything, howling and screaming “MAKE MY MONSTER GROW” any chance she got, actually she does utter those words in this, but it was pulled off super well. She’s being the overzealous, cranky, bitch of a woman that we all knew and loved to hate back in the 90’s. Banks really went all in for this role, and in the end it worked out great for everyone. We needed a performance like this for Rita to remind us all just exactly what we are watching, and how fun and campy this fundamentally used to be. As for her pet monster Goldar, I thought he was just okay, too much CGI, and it all just felt a little rushed towards the end, but this certainly won’t be the last time we see Rita, and that’s a good thing for everyone. All 5 of these kids were really acting their asses off in this movie; they all deserve a boatload of credit for that. This movie hinges on them and them alone, and their collective performances as our coloured superheroes. These are some young and talented kids, and that’s a great thing for this franchise, I didn’t know what to expect from each of them, but they all brought it, in their own unique and different way. Standouts though were, RJ Cyler, who actually was really good in Me Earl and The Dying Girl, and once I saw he was casted in this I knew that was a good thing. He was throwing out one-liners and catch phrases all movie long, and was just so natural in his role. I thought Ludi Lin was great as Zack also, he played the super confident tough guy, with a softer side no one is able to see role really well. I just thought he was really funny, and I don’t know, I just felt like I connected with him the most throughout the movie. Naomi Scott was great too, but I knew that she would be, because well she’s British and they just know how to act. Same with Dacre actually, both super British but you would never tell from the way they speak in this, he was also fantastic as the leader Jason. Hell even Becky G, as she kind of mopped and had sad face throughout the entire movie, did a wonderful job. They just did an excellent job at casting this movie, which to be honest was the most important thing for this movie franchise to be successful.

The darker, grittier more grownup take made for a more enjoyable experience for myself, and actually they throw two masturbation jokes at you that come out of nowhere which I thought was hilarious. Zack refers to it as ‘morphin” which played well with the crowd. But it wasn’t always taking itself so serious, the last 25 minutes where we finally get to see our new Rangers in their coloured suits, really paid homage to its predecessor, where the first two-thirds of this movie was very teenage drama, it was practically The Breakfast Club with superpowers. Not saying that’s a bad thing, in fact it would have been great if Billy wrote the detention essay stating who they really were, all while we see Jason on the football field giving that signature Judd Nelson fist-pump! When it comes down to it, I had a good time watching this; it’s been a really long time, since I heard “Go Go Power Rangers” and it got me fired up. It’s a fun time at the movies, and it was entertaining as hell. I personally think the weakest part of the movie was the last little bit, which was all the action stuff, the director Dean Israelite doesn’t shoot the best action sequences, and I think that if they can improve on that stuff for the sequel and still have the same effort from the kids, this could really go somewhere. The first two acts of this movie are really solid, and it does take awhile to get into the swing of things, but that’s to be expected in an origin story. These kids need to come together as a team and sort through not just their own problems, but also the problems of trusting new people and what it means to be part of a team. All the teen drama stuff worked, and each ranger having their own set of difficulties and personal issues felt real, because we live in a world now where no one is perfect, and most of the time people are dealing with issues that they don’t want to talk about. I thought the movie did a really good job exploring that and showing how it’s okay to be different and it’s okay to be who you want to be in this world. There’s plenty of callbacks and fan service throughout the movie that will please those life long fans, and it’s not forced down your throat, but you know it’s there. Some nice little cameos, and there’s a post credit scene, that you knew was coming, but it will get people excited for what’s to come. This was the perfect way to kick start this franchise again, and I’m really rooting for this movie to do well at the box-office this weekend, these kids deserve it.

Check ya later,

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews — Power Rangers = 73/100

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

Reviews

Throwback Review – ‘Ghostbusters’

Wannabe Movie Critic

The 1984 version, not the Melissa McCarthy one….

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I’ve decided I’m going to write a weekly review on some of my favorite movies and I’m starting this list off with a movie that some days I consider to be my favorite movie of all time. It’s a weird/tough question to answer, what is your favorite movie? What does that even mean? The movie you have watched the most in your life? The movie you know the most quotes too? Is it simply the movie you enjoy watching the most? Well if so, rthe answer to all three of those questions is Ghostbusters. It came out 4 years before I was even born, it came out shortly after Michael Jordan was drafted to the NBA, this movie is super old, but it has and will always stand the test of time. Regarded as one of the greatest comedies of all time, to me this movie is can summed up in two words, almost perfect.

To this day I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen this movie, earlier this year AMC decided to air Ghostbusters everyday. (Thank you AMC). Regardless of which part the movie was at, I found myself immediately sucked into the Ghostbusters vortex and couldn’t get out. Ghostbusters is kind of like my sunken place (Get Out reference). There’s just something about this movie that I find truly magical, maybe it’s because I owned the Ghostbusters Firehouse growing up as a kid, and still have my Stay Puff Marshmallow Man toy, or maybe because I just think it’s such an incredible concept for a movie, that I can’t help but love it. Ghostbusters just holds a really special place in my heart, and it will be a movie that I know I will enjoy until the day I die, so I thought it was only fitting that I wrote a review for it.

You have to know the run down by now, Peter (Bill Murray), Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Egon (Harold Ramis) all of whom are paranormal experts, but once their university grants dry up, it’s time for them to go into business for themselves. It’s up to them to protect the city of Manhattan from all things ghosts, before the all-powerful Gozer destroys it. Calling themselves The Ghostbusters, word spreads around town quickly and they soon become the talk of the country, as the city begins to become overrun with ghosts and they are the only ones who can stop it. They don’t do it alone; they bring in Winston (Ernie Hudson) of course after their plate gets a little too full. Let’s be clear, this is Bill Murray’s movie, the guy is a living legend and this is up there for one of his greatest roles. He has so many incredible one-liners in Ghostbusters, and the comedy is so natural. It doesn’t try to be funny it just is, something that a lot of comedies have a hard time doing today. The laughs are so subtle that if you’re not paying much attention it’s really easy to over look some hilarious stuff. Ghostbusters was written by two of its stars, Aykroyd and Ramis and honestly they are gods for it. This is such a unique and original idea, that I can’t even fathom ever coming up with an idea like this. It started off with Aykroyd and John Belushi writing a script for the movie, but when Belushi suddenly passed away, Ramis stepped in and helped him rewrite the movie, to become what we know now as The Ghostbusters. Not only did these two guys write the thing, they also were superb in it, the three of them are comedy legends, and it was really sad that Harold Ramis died before the 2016 version came out, because I wish he could have been apart of all the celebrations and reunions because he deserved to be there just as much as anybody else. Once Peter’s girlfriend Dana (Sigourney Weaver) gets possessed by a spiritual ghost, along with her over-protective nerdy neighbor Louis (Rick Moranis) things become personal for the team. I can’t stress enough how much I miss Rick Moranis, he retired from Hollywood shortly after his wife passed away, and he was an awesome actor. (Little Giants, Strange Brew!) The science-fiction queen herself Sigourney Weaver is fantastic in this movie, she really was a kick-ass chick back in the day, from this franchise to the Alien franchise. She will always be known as the nice lady who paid them in advance before she became a dog. Ghostbusters gave us a lot of memorable characters and performances, and helped launch the careers of many people, and it even gave us Slimer! It also gave us one of the coolest movies cars ever, the Echo 1 that thing was a real beaut.

Towards the end of Ghostbusters, something happens, a scene that for the life of me, I can’t explain why I love it so much. I think its badass, awesome looking, considering it was 1984 at the time, fantastic movie score playing and when I think about this movie, this is usually what comes to mind first. Maybe because these guys were just four average joes who happened to have unlicensed nuclear accelerators strapped to their backs, and could destroy life as we know it in a blink of an eye, but yet they were the only guys who could save the world from annihilation. This is supposed to be a comedy, yet this scene just gets me fired up every single time. So here’s that scene…. Nimble little minx isn’t she!

The last 30 minutes is all time for me, from the scene above to the showdown with Stay Puff. Let’s just stop and talk about the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man for a second. “It just popped in there, I tried to think of the most harmless thing,” as Ray puts it. When coming up with character Aykroyd he wanted something that seemed puffy and cute — but given the right circumstance everything can be turned into dark and evil. Stay Puff was something that could never possibly destroy The Ghostbusters, and he might have if they didn’t cross the streams. I just always find myself smiling when he comes on screen, I don’t know it’s something about a 100 foot marshmallow man that I find endearing. He’s just one of the most memorable things in all of movies, I swear to god. It just reminds me so much of a classic Godzilla movie, Stay Puff slowly walking down the streets of Manhattan destroying everything in its path, before a showdown with our boys. Not before ultimately getting roasted just like Ray used to do around the fires at Camp Waconda. I’ve always wondered how long it would take to clean up all that marshmallow? Were the people of Manhattan just going around eating all of it, like everyone loves marshmallows! Like the mayor just comes out and provides enough chocolate and gram crackers for a massive s’more party, actually if that movie is made today, that is 100 percent a post credit scene. Or did it kill a lot of people, like hot falling liquid marshmallow falling from the sky, that sounds so dangerous. But it would be a really cool way to go out now that I think about it. Why did they think it was a good idea to have a goddamn painting be the bad guy in the sequel, why make a sequel at all, it was fine with just one Ghostbusters, actually I like to pretend there is just one Ghostbusters. See these are questions you ask yourself when you have watched this movie as much as me.

When it comes down to it, this movie just makes me happy. I love when it’s on TV, I can quote the shit out of it. Bill Murray is one of my favorite people ever; it has everything I want in a movie. Laughs, action, great acting, writing and directing. It’s almost a perfect movie, I could go on forever about Ghostbusters, it’s a cult classic, a cinematic masterpiece. They just don’t make movies like this anymore, unfortunately they try to “reboot” or “remake” classics like these, and it’s a shame. I’m not even a big fan of Ghostbusters 2 it just doesn’t have the same effect on me as its predecessor. So just remember if someone asks you if you’re a god, you say YES!

Check ya later,

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews — Ghostbusters = 92/100