Shaun the Sheep Movie Review

Shaun the Sheep Movie

 "..." - Everyone in the movie

  Do you think you could withstand no verbal dialogue at all for 1 hour and 25 minutes in a movie? Most people would probably not be able to get through it. Well I honestly bet you could.

  Shaun the Sheep Movie is a claymation film by the makers of Wallace and Gromit. It's directed by Mark Burton and Richard Starzak. Also, music is done by Ilan Eshkeri. I mention this because Shaun the Sheep Movie has absolutely no verbal dialogue in it. Shaun is a sheep (obviously) who is herded along with other sheep by Bitzer the dog, all owned by The Farmer.

  One day after realizing that everyday they do the same thing over and over again, Shaun concocts a plan to have a "vacation day" where all the sheep can have fun and party in The Farmer's house. The Farmer is then put to sleep when the sheep keep jumping over the fence.

 ^Kind of like th- zzzz^

  So The Farmer goes to sleep and is put by the sheep into his trailer. The trailer's wheels are dislodged from the piece of wood that is holding it in place. The trailer runs off towards The Big City with The Farmer still sleeping in it. Unfortunately when he wakes up, he hits his head and gets amnesia (memory loss) and does some pretty crazy stuff. Now its up to Shaun, Bitzer, the flock of sheep, and a new friend they meet to go and rescue The Farmer.

 

  It's such a simple plot, yet has so much depth in execution. Like I said before, this movie has no verbal dialogue. This may turn some people off and to those people I say, "give it a try. I really enjoyed it." The last movie that I can remember that accomplished this feat was WALL-E. Even then, there was still some dialogue in there. In Shaun the Sheep Movie, however, the only dialogue that is heard is grunts and random noises from humans. One of the major factors that this turned out so nicely is the music. There is both instrumental music and singing (not by the characters though).

^The Beatles anyone?^ 

  I want to also mention that this movie is funny! It definitely is targeted towards kids, but there are many jokes in here that are targeted towards adults. There is one scene that I loved that was an homage to Silence of the Lambs (which I just realized is a fitting title to contribute to this movie). I laughed a lot watching this movie and I enjoyed all the movie history references.

^This guy had my favorite scenes!^

  So overall, I really enjoyed Shaun the Sheep Movie. It actually took me back to my childhood, watching animation that made me so invested in the film itself. I realize that many people will think that from the trailer it's a dopey kids movie. I also realize that hearing no talking for 1 hour and 25 minutes will probably drive some people insane.

  All this aside, I honestly believe that Shaun the Sheep Movie is a cinematic masterpiece. It had to rely on music and movement, which totally worked out in the long run. No verbal dialogue in the entire movie could ruin it, but this takes silent movies from the 1920s and brings them to a newer generation. 

Pro

• Great film despite no verbal dialogue
• So funny!
• Great references of movie and music history
• Both kids and adults will enjoy this movie

Con

• People during the first 20 minutes will wonder "why no talking?"

4.9/5 

Watch the trailer here 

Shaun the Sheep Movie is in theaters now 

American Ultra Review

American Ultra

"Something very weird is happening to me: I keep killing people! There's a chance I may be... a robot!"  -Mike Howell

  Since Seth Rogen and James Franco made Pineapple Express, I have personally been craving for more stoner-action movies. Something about people getting high and then them delving into situations that are completely weird and out of the ordinary makes me burst into laughter, at their expense of course. So once I saw the trailer for American Ultra, I was giddy and couldn't wait until the movie was released. When I got up out of my seat from the theater I thought to myself that this was different than I anticipated it to be.

 

 ^Don't give me that look Jesse! I didn't say it was bad!^

  American Ultra, directed by Nima Nourizadeh, stars Jesse Eisenberg as Mike Howell, Kristen Stewart as Phoebe Larson, Topher Grace as Adrian Yates, Connie Britton as Victoria Lasseter, and John Leguizamo as Rose. Jesse Eisenberg pretty much plays himself in this movie as in every other movie he does, the awkward kid.

 

  Mike is a stoner working at a little quick mart and lives with, his also stoner girlfriend, Phoebe. He has some issues with anxiety, which usually onsets when he tries to leave his town. One day, a stranger, Victoria Lasseter, comes to the mart where Mike works and activates him. It turns out that Mike was part of a CIA experiment that trains normal unsuspecting people into killer agents. Lasseter activates Howell because the director of a new program that also trains people to be killers, Adrian Yates, orders his trained killers to kill Howell (Lasseter and Yates pretty much hate each other. There isn't much back story to this). So now commences the 1 hour and 35 minutes stoner-action comedy with bloody deaths and references to weed and getting high. A lot of references to weed and getting high.

 

  
  So is American Ultra the next Pineapple Express? No. This movie lacks the lovable personalities of Seth Rogen and James Franco. Is American Ultra a bad movie? No. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It was very different from what the trailer made it out to be, in my opinion.
  I thought it would be a lot more funnier than it was. This isn't to say that it isn't funny. When the comedic moments were present, I laughed my guts out. However, there weren't that many moments of this. It was clearly more action than comedy. For a small portion of the film, it was a drama. It kind of took me out of the happy mood that I had while watching Mike Howell kicking butt. 
  Also, some things weren't explained at all. Here are some questions I still have about the film:

• What happened to Mike's parents?
• At the end, does Mike work for the government?
• What happened to Laugher (another mindwashed agent trying to kill Mike)?
• Did Lasseter become the director of the CIA program?

  I let these questions go for the most part because I realized, 'It's a stoner-action movie. So I'm probably not going to get any answers.' Usually stoner movies don't make any sense according to plot and reality. Who knows, maybe there's going to be a sequel.

 

  All of these worries aside, the action was pretty cool. Since it is a stoner movie, Mike will use anything to kill people. The most notable death is seen in the trailer, when Mike kills a killer agent with a spoon...a spoon. The kills were for the most part creative.

 

 ^Fatality!^

 

  The acting exceeded my expectations for a stoner-action movie. I liked Jesse Eisenberg as his awkward character being turned into a cold-blooded killer and then turning right back into the awkward guy. Kristen Stewart was unrecognizable from the unemotional Twilight character. She did a great job estranging herself away from those movies and American Ultra proved that Kristen could do comedy and action. Topher Grace did kind of a normal villain. I wish he had some type of motivation to kill Mike Howell other than just to piss off Lasseter.

 ^Sorry Topher. I can still only see you as Eric from That 70s Show^

  I like American Ultra. I didn't love it as much as I hoped to, but I can recommend it to a fan of stoner movies. Expect a lot more action than comedy in this movie though.

 

Pro

• The action was cool (a lot of blood)
• Weed references were funny
• Acting exceeded my expectations
• Interesting premise of a stoner being turned into a stone-cold killer
• Creative kills

Con

• More action than comedy
• Unexplained events
• Dramatic scenes (which weren't bad, just unnecessary)

3.7/5

 

Watch the trailer here

 

American Ultra is in theaters now

Fantastic Four (2015) Review

Fantastic Four (2015)

"You put a lot of faith in these guys... I put all of my faith in them."  -Dr. Franklin Storm
"Bad idea."  -C Lo

 

  Comic book movies have really been picking up in the past decade. 20th Century Fox especially has been increasing the quality of their movies with X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Of course both of those are X-Men movies though. But does the new version of the Fantastic Four become the superior to the incredibly bad 1994, 2005, and 2007 films?

  Well the answer is far too simple: Absolutely NOT.

^Yes Ben Grimm. I said it.^

  Fantastic Four, directed by Josh Trank, stars Miles Teller as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Kate Mara as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm/The Thing, and Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch (such a good cast, right?).

 

  

  The film starts out as Reed Richards giving a presentation to his middle school classroom. He has dreams of aspiring to create a way to teleport. As everyone laughs and mocks him for having such an absurd dream, the struggling Ben Grimm is interested in Reed's dream, so he helps him build a machine that can teleport things. 7 years pass, without any changes to the characters' personality, and we now have the now Miles Teller and Jamie Bell. Reed is discovered by Dr. Franklin Storm at a small school science fair (and I don't even understand why the rest of the contestants are clearly younger than Reed and Ben) and give Reed a scholarship to help Dr. Storm build a similar machine that can teleport people into another dimension. With the help of Johnny, Sue, and Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell) they build the machine that sends Johnny, Reed, Victor, and Ben to the another planet in a different dimension. In a drunk stupor, Reed calls Ben to come to the lab where the machine is so that he can go with him to the other dimension along with Johnny and Victor, who are also drunk. The four of them go to the other planet, Sue comes into the lab and tries to bring them back, bad stuff happens that really doesn't make any sense, Victor falls into this green energy goop and "dies", and then the three guys that remain come back into our world and Sue gets hit with a wave of "energy", I guess you would call it, and they all faint from the disastrous event that happen on the other planet.

  I'm sorry to you guys that are reading all of this. I didn't want to make this review too long, but you need to understand how ridiculous the whole plot is.

  

  The tone of the movie changes completely, which up until this point was kind of like an action/adventure, to a horror kind of vibe. The four protagonists are in a government facility being held and experimented upon because of their just given powers that they don't know how to control. Reed somehow escapes and the others are left behind. 1 YEAR PASSES! Johnny, Sue, and Ben have suits, work for the government, and have control of their powers (wait...what?!?!).

  The government finds Reed and he is brought back to the government facility to help with the process of going back to the other planet, called Planet X now. Four random scientists go and find that Victor is not dead. He kills them and crosses over back to Earth. He kills a bunch more scientists, soldiers, and Dr. Franklin Richards. His plan is to destroy Earth. Just obliterate it by sending it into a black hole. Reed, Johnny, Ben, and Sue team up to kill him and save humanity.

  OK. Now here's a picture of a funny cool cat to take your mind off of all this ugliness:

 ^Yeah. Cool cat.^

 

  Now before I get into why this movie is bad, I just want to say that as a moviegoer, I did not like this movie at all. As a comic book fan, I...I don't even have words to describe my hatred and discontent for this movie.

^Stan Lee is so upset at this failure^

  There are so many problems with this film, but I'm only going to talk about the top 2 things that made me furious:

  The first is Doctor Doom. He isn't even called Dr. Doom in this movie. So I'm just going to call him Victor. Victor is really underutilized in this movie. He shows up in what I believe is 1 hour and 5 minutes into the movie. Even then, he isn't a good villain overall. His motivation to destroy Earth is because he believes that everyone on Earth has done him wrong even though it was only Dr. Franklin Storm's company that he had a quarrel with. Also, Victor had really random super powers. At first he could just explode peoples' heads just by looking at them and then at another point he could control rocks. The most common known power of Dr. Doom is the electricity power he possesses. There was none of that in here. Worst of all, he doesn't look like the comic book Doctor Doom at all. Now, it's fine if Hollywood wants to change his look a little, but this?!?!

 

^Wha-Why???^

  The second thing I disliked was the complete third act of the movie. The third act of Fantastic Four lasted about 20 minutes. There was no suspense, I never felt like Earth was actually in peril, and the fight between the Fantastic Four and Victor is so uninspired and not even remotely fun. A fight between a team of superheroes versus a super villain? Can this even be done?

^Yes. YES IT CAN!^

  

  Oh! And these are just two of the factors that made this movie such a flop. Things like the chemistry between the Fantastic Four didn't look at all genuine (they probably knew this film was going to be bad), the death of Dr. Franklin Storm was an unnecessary death, I could definitely tell there were some creative differences between Josh Trank (the director) and 20th Century Fox, and many other parts that caused Fantastic Four to bomb. I mean, the four main actors who play the Fantastic Four didn't even see the movie. Now what does that tell you?

  So as you can tell, I didn't like Fantastic Four very much. I guess the saving grace is the premise of the origin of the Fantastic Four going into a parallel universe and getting their powers that way instead of cosmic radiation. However, the more I think about this movie, the more I dislike it. I can only imagine people who have never read the Fantastic Four comic books seeing this movie.

  Again, I'm sorry this review is so long. I just wanted to express my rage as a film and comic book lover.

Pro

• The premise is pretty interesting

Con

• Victor Von Doom
• The plot/pacing/tone of the movie
• One of the worst third acts I have seen in recent memory
• Chemistry between characters
• Did not stay true to the comic books
• And more!

0.5/5

Watch the trailer here

Fantastic Four is in theaters now (but watch at your own discretion)

The Wolf of Wall Street Review

The Wolf of Wall Street

 

"Let me tell you something. There's no nobility in poverty. I've been a poor man, and I've been a rich man. And I choose rich every f***ing time." -Jordan Belfort

  Karma will eventually catch up to you. You may not be worrying about while you're in the moment but you will know when it hits you. It will hit you like Babe Ruth swinging a bat to the back of your head. You will be hurt, you will fall, and, whether or not you learn from your mistake, you will not recover OR you will help others not commit the same mistake that you made. In any case, karma has its process and you will not like it. THEN, there are the people who can get away with less damage than they caused. This is where Jordan Belfort comes in.

  The Wolf of Wall Street, directed by the great Martin Scorsese, stars the academy award nominated actor Leonardo DiCaprio as the infamous Jordan Belfort, who created a brokerage firm which led to him making his fortune by defrauding wealthy investors out of millions (don't do this kids! It's ILLEGAL). 

  He isn't in it alone, however. He has help from his trusted partner-in-crime Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill, who wears the most insane fake teeth ever) and his gang of brokers to rip off the wealthy. While all of this is happening, FBI agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler) is on to his scheme and uncovers all of Belfort's wrongdoings. Suffice to say, this isn't your typical happy movie. I mean, it's a Martin Scorsese movie, so don't expect to not cringe and to not feel confused.

 

^Congrats Leo, congrats^

 

^Seriously...those teeth...^ 

  If you do not know the story of Jordan Belfort before watching this movie (as I didn't), he basically got what he deserved in the end. A 4 year sentence. However, he only served 22 months of that 4 year sentence and then started working as a speaker for people who want to work in sales. Yeah. Wrap your head around that. This was a huge slap in the face to the legal system and for society.

  OK. So let me first tell you that this movie broke the record for the movie with the most F-bombs. DO NOT LET YOUR KID WATCH THIS FILM. Plain and simple.

  So with all that said, I truly believe that The Wolf of Wall Street is one of Martin Scorsese's best films to date, up there with GoodFellas, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Departed. His depiction of drugs, sex, swearing, and the fall of a man is where Mr. Scorsese shines. It is SUCH a shame that Leonardo DiCaprio did not get his first Oscar win with this film. He is such a fantastic actor.

  Here are the Academy Award categories that The Wolf of Wall Street got nominated for:

• Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role - Leonardo Dicaprio
• Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role - Jonah Hill
• Best Achievement in Directing - Martin Scorsese
• Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay - Terence Winter
• Best Motion Picture of the Year

No wins in any category...

^Leo knows^

 

 Despite not winning an Oscar, it still got nominated for 5 Oscars (a hard enough feat to do anyway).

  This is a near perfect biopic in my opinion. Martin Scorsese can do no wrong. From the magnificent performances of the very talented Leonardo DiCaprio playing Jordan Belfort and the gorgeous Margot Robbie playing Belofort's wife, Naomi Lapaglia, to the dramatic scenes between Belfort and Denham and the Hilarious scenes of the psychotropic drug called Quaalude, The Wolf of Wall Street is arguably Leonardo DiCaprio's best performance and Martin Scorsese's best film by far since possibly The Departed in 2006.

^They're so happy together^

 

  I'm sorry this review seems somewhat shorter than my other reviews, but there really isn't anything bad to say about The Wolf of Wall Street.

Pro

• The stand out performances from the entire cast, especially from Leonardo DiCaprio
• Martin Scorsese does it again and brings us an instant classic
• Quaalude scenes
• Broke the record for most amount of "f**ks" in any movie
• One of the best Biopics to date

Con

• None

5/5

 

Watch the trailer here

 

The Wolf of Wall Street is on Blu-ray and Netflix now

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp Netflix Series Review

 

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp

"He saved friendship with his song!" -Random Camper

 The original Netflix series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp is a prequel series to the cult classic 2001 film Wet Hot American Summer. Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (WHAS:FDoC) stars...well, too many people to count on here, but the major actors are Michael Showalter, Marguerite Moreau, Zak Orth, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Michael Ian Black, Janeane Garofalo, Molly Shannon, Jason Schwartzman, Elizabeth Banks, Christopher Maloni, H. Jon Benjamin, Joe Lo Truglio, Ken Marino, (BREATHE IN!!!) and many, many, more!

 Now let me say first of all that WHAS:FDoC is totally ridiculous in premise, characterization, and believability. HOWEVER, it completely works! The 2001 movie was the same, ridiculously hilarious. This said, I think that fans of the original movie will absolutely love this series. If you haven't even seen the movie, which I strongly recommend seeing, you might like it if you like old spoof movies such as Airplane, The Naked Gun, or any Mel Brooks movie.

 The premise of the 2001 movie is basically the random stuff that happens on the last day of Camp Firewood in 1981. The series is the random stuff that happens on the first day in 1981. Yes, you read this right. All 8 episodes of the first season are supposed to take place in one day. The first day of Camp. It's not even a whole day! It's basically from around 9am to 12am.

< Victor (Ken Marino) has the right reaction!

 There are many plots to the series if you can believe it. The main one that is continuous is that Beth (Janeane Garofalo), who is the head camp counselor, and Greg (Jason Schwartzman), who is the assistant counselor, try and stop a company called Xenstar from dumping toxic sldge near camp grounds. Sounds pretty self explanatory right? Nope. It turns out that this sludge dumping (sorry, that sounds wrong) is the work of the US Government and that it's "a bigger scandal than Watergate which happened like 9 years ago." Keep in mind that in the movie it's supposed to be 1981. Craziness ensues and then we have our story. Kinda. This is the only storyline that actually (sorta) makes sense. 

 

 So the characterization in WHAS:FDoC is still absurd. But they make it work somehow. Everyone is a clichéd character from the 80's. There's the badass, the sl*t, the virgin, the jerk, the leader, the veteran, the rock star, the journalist, the weird person (well that's not a really fair thing to say because everyone is weird), and others. AGAIN, the movie and the series is supposed to be ridiculous. They're spoofs. My favorite character is definitely either Victor (who i showed above) or Jonas (Christopher Meloni), the Vietnam Veteran.

 

 Believability is unquestionably one of the greatest factors that makes WHAS:FDoC so funny. From the US Government behind a simple toxic dumping and a really great guest character living in a gross cabin for a looong time to the acting and the age of the characters. Yes, all of the camp counselors are supposed to be 16 or 17 years old. These characters include people played by 30, 40 and 50 year olds Bradley Cooper, Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Zak Orth, and, well, almost the rest of the cast.

 

 ^These actors playing 17 year olds?^

Another great factor in making this such a funny series are the incredibly well casted guest appearances. And there are plenty of them.

 SPOILER: Watch out for Michael Cera who is always funny as hell. Also watch out for Jon Hamm playing a serious...ly funny hit-man.

< Jon Hamm is so out of his normal stereotypical business man character from Mad Men.

 There is A LOT more to talk about for WHAS:FDoC. As a fan of the original 2001 movie, I clearly loved it. For others who haven't seen the movie, I can see how they would not like it or be interested in it. But give the movie a chance. If you aren't interested in spoof comedies, watch it for the magnificent cast.

Pro

• Stupidly hilarious
• Great 80s music and references
• Plenty of awesome guest characters
• The great cast!

Con

• May be too stupid for cultured and classy people
• I recommend watching the movie (which is also on Netflix)

4.8/5

Watch the promo trailer here

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp is on Netflix now! The 2001 movie Wet Hot American Summer is also on Netflix now!