Plot
"A young woman travels to Texas to collect an inheritance; little does she know that an encounter with a chainsaw-wielding killer is part of the reward".
My Thoughts
Let me start by saying I am a huge fan of the "Texas Chainsaw" series with my favorite being "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Beginnings". My anticipation level for this film was pretty high, and I have to tell you I was severely let down by this film, everything about this film was poorly done and poorly conceived from the acting t the plot to the setting it was all bad. I will say a good reason i wanted to see this film was due to Alexandria Daddario who played Heather the main character and honestly other than the outfits and the situations they placed her in this film, she was disappointing in the acting department as was basically all of the cast not one decent performance by anyone they where all forgettable.Back to Daddario she showed no emotion and her attempts at screaming where not believable at all and I have never seen someone fall so many times in a film in a long time. Trey Songz made his first attempt at acting in this film he played Ryan, Heather's Boyfriend and for hist first attempt at acting he was serviceable nothing special but I have seen worse I know he is a big reason that many women will see this film and if any of the mare expecting top notch acting from him I will tell them to look elsewhere, I did find it odd that one of his songs was actually played in the film and I hope he did not suggest that, if so bad idea. This film was supposedly shot in 3D and i have high standards when it comes to seeing a film in 3D and i read just some 3D impressions of this film before I went to see it and everyone of the slammed the film for poor 3D and most claimed it was just thrown in to add to the box office numbers, with that in mind I skipped the 3D version and just saw the regular 2D version and I am glad I did, you can usually tell what scenes are meant for 3D and literally I only saw two instances that looked to have the 3D effect to them. Rotten Tomatoes gave this film a rating of 18% saying "As an ugly and cynical attempt to rebrand Leatherface as horror anti-hero, Texas Chainsaw 3D is a bold move for the franchise." I agree with what they are saying it was kind of odd they tried to make leatherface sympathetic somewhat in this film and without giving anything away I felt that was a bad idea and really added to the misery this film heaps upon the viewers. Overall this was a horrid way to start the 2013 viewing but as they say "it is not how you start, but how you finish" and there are plenty of films to view this year, as A side note the ending for this film was very predictable if you knew what to look for and I was hoping to at least be shocked but that was not the case unfortunately.
Rating
Disappointing nothing memorable in this film 6.0/10!!!!!! Skip unless you area fan of the series or have 90 minutes to kill.
PS. there is a scene after the credits.
The next film for the month of January is "Gangster Squad" Starring Josh Brolin, Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling.
Plot
"Los Angeles, 1949: A secret crew of police officers led by two determined sergeants work together in an effort to take down the ruthless mob king Mickey Cohen who runs the city".
My Thoughts
I will admit that this film was not on my radar till late , I have not seen many gangster/noir films (my current favorite would be "Devil In A Blue Dress")when I saw the cast for this film is what caught my attention for this film, I am not a fan of Ryan Gosling or Emma Stone (both overrated in my opinion and I haven't seen either in a great performance, though I thought Emma Stone was decent in "Zombieland"). But I am a fan of Sean Penn and Anthony Mackie and Josh Brolin. I liked the plot and who the story was based on (Mickey Cohen) .The setting for this film is late 1940's LA, the film did a god job with the setting aspect of this film it looked very close to realistic in my opinion and I applaud the crew for their job of showing that era in a good way. The acting for me is where this film lost some of its luster, I want to start with Ryan Gosling his accent and tone of voice which was probably norm for the time and setting of this film was very annoying to me and every time he opened his mouth It made me dislike the film more and more and this performance by him if anything made me even less of a fan of him then before, Emma Stone was nothing special and I felt her character added nothing to the film but give Ryan Gosling's character a love interest she had the same presence to me as Natalie Portman in "Thor" unforgettable, Sean Penn was awesome as Mickey Cohen he the amount of emotion he conveyed for the character for me was very good and honesty should we expect any less of Sean Penn I think not. Josh Brolin for me was okay in this film he did enough but his performance wasn't a standout. The rest of the cast did well and I have no complaints in that regard, I do wish however that Anthony Mackie's character was give a bigger role he and Robert Patrick's characters where my favorite of the "Gangster Squad"The rest of the film was paced fairly well and there where no major plot holes or major gripes I had with the film just minor issues, such as the use of "Slo-Mo" cam in certain scenes it made no sense to me to use that type of filming and ruined the scenes it was used, another gripe I had with the film was maybe just a hint of to much violence some times it felt that the writers couldn't think of any dialogue so they threw in a shootout or gun fight as filler and one thing that always irks me is lazy writing. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 33% saying "Though it's stylish and features a talented cast, Gangster Squad suffers from lackluster writing, underdeveloped characters, and an excessive amount of violence". I agree with everything they said in what they are saying about the film, I am not saying this was a bad film but couple bad acting from some of the main characters with lazy writing and that is not a great recipe.
Rating
Not a horrible film but some certain aspects of the film irked me 7.2/10!!!!!!!
The third movie for the month of January is "The Last Stand" Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Forrest Whitaker and Johnny Knoxville.
Plot
"The leader of a drug cartel busts out of a courthouse and speeds to the Mexican border, where the only thing in his path is a sheriff and his inexperienced staff".
My Thoughts
I am gonna keep this review shirt there is not much to say here, this is an action movie at heart the plot the setting and the characters are not as important as the action and in this movie there is plenty of it, Good to see Arnold back on the big screen, he may look older but he still can bring it, if you wanna see an action movie to the core with some cheap laughs and actually decent acting for the genre than look no further RottenTomatoes gave this film a 57% saying "There's nothing particularly distinguished about it, but for Schwarzenegger fans The Last Stand provides perfectly undemanding entertainment". I agree this movie is nothing special but if you go in knowing what to expect this film delivered.
Rating
If you know what to expect then this film will deliver for action fans 7.8/10!!!!!!!!!!
The fourth movie for the month of January is "Mama" Starring Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Megan Charpentier.
Plot
"Annabel and Lucas are faced with the challenge of raising his young nieces that were left alone in the forest for 5 years.... but how alone were they?".
My Thoughts
Guillermo Del Toro Projects are quickly becoming some of my favorite films whether he be attached as the director or producer. Mama was a film for me that I had found out about late in the year of 2012. After looking into the film more and finding some background information and details about the plot, and also hearing that Guillermo Del Toro was also attached to the film made the decision easy. The plot f this film is basically 2 young girls who had lost both their mother and father are found after surviving in the wilderness for 5 years by themselves. They are taken in by their uncle and his girlfriend who was played brilliantly by Jessica Chastain she was easily the best actor in this film and I have nothing but good things to say about her performance in this film, she started out as a woman who did not want to take on this burden of raising kids especially ones she had no ties to, but as the film progressed you could see her open up more and more and begin to care for the children very much. The tone and settign for this film was perfectly set it gave just enough jump scares to keep the viewer interested. One part of this film I really enjoyed was the back story for "Mama" I do not want to give anything away so all I will say is the way this film was did the back story for "Mama" was for the way to do it, I dislike films where the ghosts is jsut random and has no back story I prefer this methid as it gives the viewer an idea if wht they are watching. There was not much that I did not dislike about this film If I had to nitpick I would say that I felt the ending was weak and that the film could have ran longer than 93 minutes, I felt another 10-15 minutes of running time could have helped flesh out certain parts of the film and again the ending for me I did not like, I felt it could have been better. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 62% and had this to say "If you're into old-school scares over cheap gore, you'll be able to get over Mama's confusing script and contrived plot devices". I disagree with the rating I felt the script and the plot were well done and a 62% was to low. In my opinion this ranks up there with some of my favorite horror films of that past 2-3 years (Insidious, Sinister)
Rating
Very good film one of the best horror films I have seen in the last couple years 8.1/10!!!!!!!
The Fifth and Final film for the month of January is "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" starring Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton and Famke Janssen.
Plot
" In this spin on the fairy tale, Hansel & Gretel are now bounty hunters who track and kill witches all over the world. As the fabled Blood Moon approaches, the siblings encounter a new form of evil that might hold a secret to their past".
My Thoughts
I am sure plenty of people have heard the "Hansel & Gretel" story if you are like me I never spent one minute thinking they would turn the idea into a film, but then again Hollywood made Abraham Lincoln a vampire hunter last year so anything is possible.When I first heard about this film I was instantly excited to see it and I was disappointed last year when it was pushed back to this year. The setting of this film is 14th or 15th century Europe and I feel this makes the film feel more real and authentic if the film had been placed in the 21st century, I do not think it would have felt right honestly, this was a good time period to place the film in.The acting for this film was okay to even sub par in some parts, but considering who the min cast was comprised of (Arterton, Renner and Janssen) I expected better especially from Jeremy Renner who in the films I have seen him in has been really good, Then again in a action film do you really expect great acting so I will not criticize to much. The acting of Gemma Arterton was really below par for me in this film and I really expected better from her, I will say though the supporting cast was actually pretty good and I felt they all did a better job then the main cast in their roles. One part of the film I liked where the fight scenes between the hunters and the witches I liked the ideas of weapons that where thought up for this film and the cherography in the fights as well, the praise for this is all going to Jeremy Renner's character he did a really good job in his fight scenes, Gemma Arterton on the other hand I felt in the fight scenes was underwhelming she spent most of her fight scenes on the ground or being pummeled, I am nto sure if they had her tdo any training for this film from what I saw I would say no.The special effects which was mostly used for the witches was not very good you could blatantly see that it was special effects and I do not like to see that especially in the age of technology we live in, studios should be able to seamlessly incorporate special effects to look life like, even more so when a film has a budget like this one did. Rotten Tomatoes gave this film a 17% saying "Alternately bloody and silly, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters fails as both a fantasy adventure and as a parody of same". I honestly do not have much more to add to this film and agree with Rotten Tomatoes this film was over all below average all around couple in Bad Special effects with below par acting leads to a below average film for me.
Rating
Below average all around nothing special here 6.8/10!!!!!!!!!!
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