Check This One Out! - Tropic Thunder ***EXPLICIT***

Check This One Out! - Tropic Thunder

Kirk Lazarus: "Yo asshole! This muthafucka's dead. Ain't no Criss Angel Mindfreak, David Blane trapdoor horse shit jumpin' off here!"

    Tropic Thunder is directed by Ben Stiller (Zoolander, The Cable Guy, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) and stars Ben Stiller as Tugg Speedman, Robert Downey Jr. as Kirk Lazarus, Jack Black as Jeff Portnoy, Jay Baruchel as Kevin Sandusky, Brandon T. Jackson as Alpa Chino, Danny McBride as Cody, Steve Coogan as Damien Cockburn, Bill Hader as Studio Executive Rob Solomon, Nick Nolte as Four Leaf Tayback, Matthew McConaughey as Rick Peck, and Tom Cruise as Les Grossman.

Don't worry. They're still actors. Just actors playing actors.

    Despereate to finish the movie they started, a "platoon" of actors portraying soldiers fighting in the Vietnam war end up getting more than they asked for during the shooting. The squad has to fight through a barrage of real Vietnamese guerillas to save one friend from entertaining the kidnappers for the rest of his life by recreating his worst movie over and over again. Drugs, stupid over the top violence, and offensive blackface are just a few of the "simple" things that make this movie so damn great and hilarious.

I can see the movie within the movie being a dramatic tale of brotherhood during war, but luckily we got a stupid and fucking hilarious movie!

    Frankly, there are many unbelievable scenarios that happen throughout Tropic Thunder, but fuck that! I'm putting aside any realism about a movie that has Robert Downey Jr. putting on blackface as an Australian actor. Holy shit this movie is fucking great. Honestly, I don't understand how a movie with Tom Cruise in a fat suit, Jack Black without a fat suit (but a drug addict), Matthew McConaughey wondering where the fuck Tugg Speedman's Tvio is all the fucking time, and Robert Downey Jr. doing a weirdly comedic (and all too real) impression of a black man could even be pitched to studios. To start off, Ben Stiller's commitment to making this movie is off the charts brave and impressive. Hats off to him and his writing team, Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen, to creating a script that allowed for a good amount of improvisation and a whole lot of comedy, with drops of "fuck" and "shit" sprinkled around. I'll take the view a step back and let you know that what's even more impressive is the story in itself: brilliant. It's meta humor to the max. I loved everything from the introductions of the characters with trailers for each of them at the beginning to being on set of a "fake" movie in which people actually die. One more crucial reason as to why you should see Tropic Thunder, on top of many other reasons: it's quotable as fuck! Seriously. Where else are you going to hear "man, I don't drop character 'till I done with the DVD commentary" or "never go full retard"? So fucking genius.

Look at this fucking crazy shit!

    Want to have a fun time? Shit, just drink some Booty Sweat, baby! I don't do it justice. Not even close. Watch Tropic Thunder if you really want to have a good time and not get stressed out by the problems that life gives us. Life is all too short to pass up the good times. Didn't think I'd get philosophical, did you? Fuck that shit. You're going to laugh your ass off and like it. Tropic Thunder is original and creative. You won't find another crude and violent movie that has two Golden Globe nominations for best Actor in a supporting role (Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise) and an Oscar nomination (Robert Downey Jr.).

Well, muthafucka? What you waiting for?

Tropic Thunder is rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violent content, and drug material

Click here to watch the trailer

Tropic Thunder is now available on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital download

    Thanks for reading, everybody! I really do appreciate it. Please subscribe to my blog and follow me on Facebook and Twitter to receive updates on new reviews and trailer drops. Also, if you've already seen Tropic Thunder, comment and let me know what you think of it. I'll post another Check This One Out! next week. Thanks again!

The Magnificent Seven Review

The Magnificent Seven

Sam Chisolm: "A man carries a gun, he tends to use it."

    The Magnificent Seven is directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer, Shooter) and stars Denzel Washington as Sam Chisolm, Chris Pratt as Josh Faraday, Ethan Hawke as Goodnight Robicheaux, Vincent D'Onofrio as Jack Horne, Byung-hun Lee as Billy Rocks, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Vasquez, Martin Sensmeier as Red Harvest, Peter Sarsgaard as Bartholomew Bogue, and Haley Bennett as Emma Cullen.

Pretty damn diverse, right?

    In this Western remake of the American version of Seven Samurai, despicable and infamous outlaw Bartholomew Bogue has taken over the small mining town of Rose Creek. By doing so, he killed a handful of people, one of them being Emma Cullen's husband. Out for the blood of her husband's killer, Emma hires bounty hunter Sam Chisolm to round up a bunch of other dangerous anti-heroes to kill Bogue, his army of outlaws, and save Rose Creek and its residents from being destroyed.

And there's violence. A lot of it.

    Welcome back, western films! Although The Magnificent Seven is more flaunting in its aesthetics than its details in character arcs, there isn't a doubt in my mind that I had a good amount of fun throughout the movie, especially in the last battle sequence. That s**t blew my mind and if I were really there, it would've blown me up (ha!). This movie knows it isn't out to be a classic. If you saw the trailers for it, then you know as well that it wasn't going to be Oscar contending (most likely). There is no problem whatsoever with that though. It's awesome to watch the really exciting standoffs that The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly has made so popular. The homage to those Mexican standoffs are really well shot thanks to director Antoine Fuqua's direction. His keen eye for action is what has made him so popular in recent years with movies like The Equalizer, Olympus Has Fallen, and Shooter. With that, I really want to say that The Magnificent Seven is probably one of the most violent PG-13 movies I have seen in recent memory. I could totally imagine this movie being rated R, which is what I was hoping for because when I did see the trailer and how much action was going to be involved in the film's battle sequences, I didn't think that a PG-13 rating would fit well with what the filmmakers set out to do. Nevertheless, it worked, but if there is a director's cut with more violence, you can bet your ass I'll be watching that! The problem with movies that use action to lure fans is that there is a good chance that the editing will be incredibly choppy (i.e. almost everything Michael Bay does). Thankfully, the editing department worked hard on this film. They made the explosions and gun fights as smooth as possible so the audience wouldn't have an inducing headache. To be honest, in the first 10 minutes, I was counting how many shots were fired just for fun...yeah, I lost track after that. I bet you anything, there was probably a trailer on set just to store the amount of blanks used.

This is a Gatling gun. In the 1800's, it could shoot about 800 to 900 shots a minute. Try dodging that.

    It isn't fair of me to s**t on a movie that knew it wasn't going to aim for much, but it's what I'm going to do anyways because it is a movie. Despite the main attention getter being the action, The Magnificent Seven doesn't allow for much character information. There are plenty of films that are predominately action oriented PLUS add the benefits of fleshed out characters. The two characters that I felt got some sort of background in The Magnificent Seven were Sam Chisolm and Goodnight Robicheaux. Sam Chisolm's background is more or less revealed to the end when you find out that it's a personal matter to kill Bogue and Robicheaux's background is there to just add some flare at the end. I honestly believe that if the actors portraying these characters were casted differently, I would have no interest at all in The Magnificent Seven. Luckily, Denzel Washington is an amazing actor and he carries the film well with a fantastic supporting cast. Chris Pratt is basically Chris Pratt from his other movies: charming, funny, and modern. I had a hard time staying in the mindset of being in the wild west in the 1800's because many of Chris Pratt's, and others', moments felt out of place of how someone would act back then. Then again, the actors are all so great at what they do that I didn't even care by the end. Fleshed out characters would have been nice, but considering that this movie is already at a long-as-hell 133 minutes, I would've preferred fun action over a longer running time. In retrospect, the filmmakers really could've cut like 20 minutes or so out. I checked my watch pretty confused on how long the set up would be for this big battle at the end.

These guys are just so likable that I can't hate on whatever they do.

    I'll keep this specific review short, sweet, and to the point. The Magnificent Seven is by no means a perfect movie, however it sets out to render an action packed and lively feel. It achieves just that along with good acting, which I would expect from this cast. Thanks to director Antoine Fuqua, the well thought out violence (and there's a lot of it) gave me, specifically, an experience that is harmless and quite fun. I can definitely recommend seeing The Magnificent Seven. I don't think it'll be on anyone's radar to see in about 4 weeks or so, but it'd be cool to see on the big screen, especially for those gunshot sounds and the flashy battles. There isn't anything new, but it knows that. The Magnificent Seven is magnificent for what I expected it to be: a fun, popcorn stuffing, action movie.

3.9/5

PRO

• Fun action
• Antoine Fuqua's direction
• Acting chops from the cast

CON

• No character backgrounds; not as attached to the characters
• Running time is longer than what it should be

The Magnificent Seven is rated PG-13 for extended and intense sequences of Western violence, and for historical smoking, some language and suggestive material

Click here to watch the trailer

The Magnificent Seven is in theaters now

    Thanks for reading, everybody! I really do appreciate it. Please subscribe to my blog and follow me on Facebook and Twitter to receive updates on new reviews and trailer drops. Also, if you've already seen The Magnificent Seven, comment and let me know what you think of it. Thanks again!

Check This One Out! - Chef

Chef

My stomach: "Grumble, grumble, grumble!"

    Chef is directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Elf, The Jungle Book) and stars Jon Favreau as Carl Casper, Emjay Anthony as Percy, John Leguizamo as Martin, Sofía Vergara as Inez, Bobby Cannavale as Tony, Scarlett Johansson as Molly, Dustin Hoffman as Riva, Oliver Platt as Ramsey Michel, Amy Sedaris as Jen, and Robert Downey Jr. as Marvin.

Don't f**k with Jon Favreau's genius!

    Carl, the head chef of a reputable restaurant, quits his job after being humiliated on social media by a particular food critic. Now without a job and money, his rut leads him to go on a quick vacation to Miami, Florida with his son, Percy, and ex-wife, Inez. Carl realizes that his creative juices for making beautiful and delicious meals have been held back by other people telling him what to cook. To make himself and the others around him happy, he buys a food truck and starts his own independent company. He goes across country back to his home in LA with his son and his sue chef, Martin. Carl's journey, from quitting his job to ending up in LA with a food truck, is all captured by social media and put online. We all know how people online can be nice, but mostly cruel...

I feel like I'm accomplishing so much when I make make a good stuffed quesadilla. Imagine what would happen if I make a good baked Alaska.

    Whether you're aware of it or not, Jon Favreau is one of those directors/actors/writers who has made an impact in trends going around today like superhero movies, realistic CGI, and comedy. Chef is a film that allows him to take a step back from the trends. It's a film that's smart and heartwarming. It's also one hell of a film to get you want to cook something. I swear, after I saw this movie, I looked up how to make a risotto. Yeah, I'm not saying I would do a good job at making an extraordinary meal like that, but I would have never looked up how to make it without  seeing all the delicious food presented in Chef. What I love about this movie is the script. It's real. Carl is a dad who knows nothing about social media. Yet, he uses it and gives himself a forced ultimatum that he didn't see coming: quit his job or keep getting personally attacked and humiliated by the internet, thus giving a bad name to the restaurant he works at. Chef makes good use of social media in its script. I can see people saying that it feels forced, but I honestly feel it serves a purpose to the story. Actually, it's a main part of the story. It also doesn't feel like the Twitter exchanges between Carl and his fans/haters is the predominant worry surrounding Carl's life. It's actually him and his son. Carl needs to mend his family life and his work life to be content. Chef is a film ultimately about finding something that makes you smile and being happy with yourself. Carl's rut reminded me of myself. Before I started writing in a blog, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I was studying something that made me anxious and depressed, I was living with thoughts that caused me to sink deeper into loneliness, and I wasn't able to handle the pressure that I put on myself. I kind of had a mental breakdown and later that night I wrote my first review of Inside Out. This was back last July. I've written every week since then. Sometimes I can't make deadline due to many of those personal issues, but hey, I try. Bringing it back around, like Carl in Chef, I could relate to the rut that he was in. Like I said, the script is smart and heartwarming. It's freaking funny too, in a realistic sense. All of the comedy is real-life-what-I-see-my-family-doing kind of comedy. Speaking of family, people whose lives were influenced by family cooking are going to get a huge nostalgic kick out of seeing a father and a son cook their butts off.

Some damn good food...

    I can say that as Latino, I enjoyed Chef very much. The story gives off a strong Hispanic vibe towards the latter half of this movie and I couldn't help but be incredibly engaged not only with the food, but also the music. It's catchy as f**k! One of the biggest warnings I can give you before you watch Chef is that you should eat beforehand. Seeing all the yummy food and drinks made me get out of bed and eat a sandwich. Unfortunately, I did not have the ingredients to make a Cuban sandwich right away. Despite that big flaw that can be easily fixed by eating a granola bar, I would say that Chef hit all the notes of being an excellent independent film: top notch script, heartwarming story, and originality, in this case consisting of well utilized social media use and food.

...And some even more damn good food!

Chef is rated R for language, including some suggestive references

Click here to watch the trailer

Chef is now available on DVD, Blu-ray, some streaming services, and digital download

    Thanks for reading, everybody! I really do appreciate it. Please subscribe to my blog and follow me on Facebook and Twitter to receive updates on new reviews and trailer drops. Also, if you've already seen Chef, comment and let me know what you think of it. I'll post another Check This One Out! next week. Thanks again!

Blair Witch Review

Blair Witch

Lisa: "There's something out there..."

    Blair Witch is directed by Adam Wingard (You're Next, The Guest) and stars Callie Hernandez as Lisa, James Allen McCune as James, Corbin Reid as Ashley, Brandon Scott as Peter, Valorie Curry as Talia, and Wes Robinson as Lane.

Well, it's obvious these people don't know what they're in for.

    After finding his sister's final tapes of her wandering the woods of Burkittsville, Maryland before she went missing 17 years ago, James is now determined to find out if she's alive, even if it's just a trace of evidence of what happened to her. Lisa, a friend of James and documentary filmmaker, decides to film this à la found footage view. James, Lisa, and two more of his friends, Peter and Ashley, are joined by mysterious residents of the Burkittsville on their night into the woods. As always in a horror movie about going into a forest, bad and scary things happen. Is the legend of the Blair Witch who haunts these woods real? Yeah, of course. However, it's still creepy as f**k

Please tell me in 10 seconds why you think I should grab your hand and help you because all I've seen you do, so far, is make bad decisions at every corner.

    I don't know how many might recall my review back in October of last year, but I made a list of my top five favorite horror movies of all time. The Blair Witch Project was number five on that list. Yeah, it's probably the opposite opinion that a lot of people have for that opinion, mainly due to the shaky camera and very open interpretation to ending, but I have a soft spot for it because of the mystery vibe it gives off. Unlike a lot of people, I personally tend to not get sick over shaky found footage. I know a good amount of people do get sick (my friend I saw it with had to leave Blair Witch for a second because it was hurting his head). So I do understand, but I won't notch that down from the movie, as a whole. It's really just a style of filming that most everyone isn't used to. Anyways, when I saw the original trailer of Blair Witch, it was actually named The Woods. I guess I wasn't too excited about it. However, when the new unveiling of the name came about, naming it Blair Witch, I had high hopes and expectations for this sequel. The original, like I said, is one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Unfortunately, Blair Witch is pretty much the same film as its original. It's a rehash. The same beats throughout the movie are felt: a group of friends go to the Burkittsville woods to film a documentary, they're told about the legend of the Blair Witch, they don't pay attention to the warnings and spend the night, weird s**t happens, people die, there's a scary house, a person is in the corner of the room with their head down, then the movie ends *QUICK SPOILER* with the camera being dropped on the ground. I swear, there wasn't much that this movie improved on. It had some improvements that I liked, but I wish those improvements took the movie in a way that isn't a retread of the original. Blair Witch takes place 17 years from the original. There are obvious technological updates that have been made, but they weren't used to its fullest potential. What I'm thinking of specifically is the drone that had the camera mounted on it. It allowed the characters and the audience to see more of the woods from a higher distance, but all that it does, in the movie, is fly high and look at trees and the sky. I just believe that with time, better opportunities for advancements are presented and should be achieved. Yet, Blair Witch doesn't use them well.

This is the new snot bubble moment.

    I'll give it this: the lore of The Blair Witch Project is refined with more information because of Blair Witch. I wasn't expecting more elaboration with what and how the witch manipulates people, but I'm glad I saw it because it was the best part of the movie. Once you step into the witch's environment after nightfall, time starts to act strange. One character assumes to have remembered another character "just as they remember" days ago, even though it's been just about five hours since they haven't seen them. Another addition to the lore is an explanation of why, in both The Blair Witch Project and Blair Witch, people are facing the corner of a room. It's interesting information, thus garnering it more points as to why I didn't dislike this movie totally. Blair Witch just drops the ball on how the story is presented. The little details, like additions to the lore, are really cool, but that only goes so far. In retrospect, Blair Witch may have just been a short film or at least written as a part of a wiki page.

This scene is one of the new interesting aspects that wasn't in the original film.

    The last act of the film dives a little more into the originality, in terms of adding to the lore. It's genuinely scary and that's what I wanted out of a movie that shares the same name as one of my favorite horror films. Those frightening parts were held in mostly the last act (I would say the last 20 or 30 minutes). The rest of Blair Witch used jump scares. I f***ing hate it when horror movies use these cheap tactics in order to "get" the audience. I mean, it works in some respects when it works together with the movie, but when there's a sound and someone points a flashlight to the empty woods at night, you can't just have their friend tap the person on the shoulder and get a scare that way. It doesn't blend well with the story and it doesn't allow the viewer to be legitimately scared. Still, the last 20 to 30 minutes of the movie actually had me stapled to the chair so I wouldn't jump.

Come back! I'm sorry it was such bad timing that I said "hello" to you behind your back!

   

    In the end, all Blair Witch has to offer is some interesting cool facts provided to capture the fan's attention, but not much else. If you haven't seen 1999's The Blair Witch Project, it might actually be more useful to you to see 2016's Blair Witch instead. The only reason I'm saying this is because this is literally the same movie. If the 1999 version did not exist, I would probably be giving this a much, much, much higher score. Sadly (but not truly sad), it does exist. I'm not taking a big crap on this movie, even though it sounds like I am. It's a horror movie that teenagers could put on TV during Halloween to be freaked out. Otherwise, Blair Witch is just pretty OK. Two last notes: I didn't want to mention Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 because it doesn't exist. Don't even think about it. Also, even though the lore was beefed up a bit more, there are STILL more questions that I have. What was in that girl's leg?...

2.5/5

PRO

• New additions to the fable
• Last act is genuinely scary

CON

• Pretty much the same movie as the first one
• Jump scares galore!
• Disappointing tech updates

Blair Witch is rated R for language, terror, and some disturbing images

Click here to watch the trailer

Blair Witch is now in theaters everywhere

    Thanks for reading, everybody! I really do appreciate it. Please subscribe to my blog and follow me on Facebook and Twitter to receive updates on new reviews and trailer drops. Also, if you've already seen Blair Witch, comment and let me know what you think of it. Thanks again!

Check This One Out! - Crazy, Stupid, Love

Check This One Out! - Crazy, Stupid, Love

Hannah: "Will you take off your shirt?...F**k! Seriously? It's like you're Photoshopped!"

    Crazy, Stupid, Love is directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I Love You Phillip Morris, Focus, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot) and stars Steve Carell as Cal, Ryan Gosling as Jacob, Julianne Moore as Emily, Emma Stone as Hannah, Kevin Bacon as David Lindhagen, Marisa Tomei as Kate, Jonah Bobo as Robbie, Analeigh Tipton as Jessica, and Joey King as Molly.

I'm assuming Gosling is trying to keep Carell form getting too excited about the cast. Although, it would be cool to have a Brick Tamland interact with the other people.

    After his messy ask of a divorce from his wife, Cal is now single, but really clueless when it comes to picking up women. This is where Jacob, a young and hunky player, takes Cal under his wing to learn how to woo beautiful females at a bar. Things turn south, though, when Jacob falls in love with someone close to Cal, causing animosity among the family members of Cal's family. This story about losing love, finding love, and returning to love is hilarious and charming. It hits you in all the right places (especially Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Damn, they're beautiful together).

Oh damn, something went wrong. You can tell if the men are sitting like this, the women are piiiiiiised off at them.

    I know there are many romantic comedies out there and I know Crazy, Stupid, Love probably wouldn't be on peoples' top five romantic comedies (maybe, maybe not), but I'm head over heels with this modern love story. Nowadays, it's hard to make a good romantic film, let alone a romantic comedy. Sometimes the main actors don't have the chemistry that their characters need or sometimes the script is just clichéd and awful. Luckily, Crazy, Stupid, Love has nothing of that nature. This film warms my heart when I see that I can truly believe the multiple romances going on. The couple that I find the most likable in this film is...take a guess. Take a wild guess. Yeah, of course it's Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. I'm not sure what it is about them, but I can watch them in whatever project they do together. They're young, silly, and real. That's actually why I can't wait for La La Land coming in December. Honestly, I'm super f***ing excited! Sorry. I've got to calm down. Anyways, it isn't just those two lovebirds that made me smile throughout the movie, it was also the chemistry between Robbie, a young middle-schooler, and Jessica, the 17-year-old babysitter. Although, it's just a one sided relationship (obviously Robbie loves Jessica), Robbie's determination to win her heart is incredibly funny. I know everyone reading this, at some point in their childhood, had a crush on someone much older than themselves. Crazy, Stupid, Love actually has two of those relationships, and they all intertwine, which is the crazy thing. That's primarily what charmed me the most: the script is beautiful and connects all the characters, as distant as they sort of seem, together. Even though this film focuses on one family in particular, they all have their separate love storylines. And when they do sync up in the end, it's in such a way that almost destroys the family, but eventually mends it.

Oh, how we all would like to have Ryan Gosling sweep us off our feet.

    If you're tired of unbearable characters and actors not even having a spark of clear romance on screen, then watch Crazy, Stupid, Love. If you're bored of seeing the big budget action movies that most everyone is accustomed to, then watch Crazy, Stupid, Love. If you like movies in general, watch Crazy, Stupid, Love. I swear, I enjoyed following Cal's transformation from depressed alcohol drinking soon-to-be bachelor to a more confident man who cares even more about his family than he did at the beginning of the movie. I would consider 3 things being essential to romantic comedies: chemistry, good screenplay, and genuinely funny. Crazy, Stupid, Love checks off all those things plus more.

What're you waiting for? Go watch it and have fun!

Crazy, Stupid, Love is rated PG-13 for coarse humor, sexual content and language.

Click here to watch the trailer

Crazy, Stupid, Love is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital download now.

    Thanks for reading, everybody! I really do appreciate it. Please subscribe to my blog and follow me on Facebook and Twitter to receive updates on new reviews and trailer drops. Also, if you've already seen Crazy, Stupid, Love, comment and let me know what you think of it. I'll post another Check This One Out! next week. Thanks again!

Sully Review

Sully

Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger: "Everything is unprecedented until it happens for the first time."

    Sully is directed by Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, Gran Torino, Million Dollar Baby, American Sniper) and stars Tom Hanks as Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger, Aaron Eckhart as Jeff Skiles, Laura Linney as Lorraine Sullenberger, Anna Gunn as Elizabeth Davis, Mike O'Malley as Charles Porter, Jamey Sheridan as Ben Edwards, Valarie Mahaffey as Diane Higgins, Delhi Harrington as Lucille Palmer, and Molly Hagan as Doreen Welsh.

Look at this champion of acting, rocking that mustache. The most awesome person ever.

    Now into the air, Flight 1549, captained by Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff Skiles, collides with a flock of birds that ruin the thrust on both engines. This endangers all 155 passengers and crew members on board the airplane. Every second is precious because the plane is losing altitude over New York City and could, at any moment, crash into buildings to cause catastrophe. Sully had only 280 seconds to make life-changing decisions that would save the people who are under his watch. He does so and he is now a national hero, but what you don't see is the behind the scenes of what Sully went through, professionally and psychologically, after the heroic action of safely landing the a plane in the Hudson River.

Can you believe that 155 actually survived this? It could've been a disaster, but Sully did it. He did it.

    Ah. Tom Hanks and Clint Eastwood. Two talented Hollywood heavyweights. They're taking on the story of one of America's most recent and jaw-dropping saves. Think of that and tell me that it's not (or going to be, if you haven't seen it yet) good. Sully is great. I honestly don't think I could've disliked this movie even if I tried. All across the board, the performances from all the actors are solid and the directing is strong. It's annoying that most of the movies that have come out this year with a big named actor (or multiple) and a well-known director aren't really up to par with the phenomenal independent films that have come out so far. Luckily, Hanks and Eastwood brought the big guns and filmed a movie about a plane crash...that sounds so dark. However, it is an amazing true story that we don't know much about. All most people really know is that a plane landed in the Hudson River in New York and everyone survived the landing. Sully, the pilot of that flight, really went through a lot after the event and Tom Hanks portrays that excellently. It's unfair to use "Tom Hanks is a fantastic actor" as a component of how Sully is good, but I can't help it. The guy is a legend. It's almost as if he isn't trying to be a regular Joe. That's ridiculous to think of since he is Tom f***ing Hanks, but he really is the everyday guy that's walking on a sidewalk going to work. His acting skills surpass the outlandish and loud performances that we see in cinema today to something much more subtle: the ordinary citizen. It's not even just his grounded personality that allows the audience to connect with the character of Sully. Tom can take a lead role and hand the torch of expertise to other actors. In this case, Aaron Eckhart had a moment in the limelight. His performance as Jeff Skiles compliments Hanks' Sully as almost a brotherly bond (which is what I expect after the profound and dangerous experience they both went through). I wouldn't be surprised if Tom Hanks is awarded the nomination for best actor in a leading role by the Academy Awards. Although that may seem like it's not saying much, you can't argue with the results of Hanks' work. If Eckhart is awarded the nomination for supporting role, then I would be surprised. Nonetheless, I would still be happy with that too.

He's just one of those crazy talented and nice people I'd love to hang out with.

    I can give you many reasons why Tom Hanks is one of the (if not THE) greatest Actor working today, but I don't have as many reasons to support how Clint Eastwood is one of the greatest directors working today. In fact, he has had his share of not-so-good films. However, his role as "captain" of the film is particularly noteworthy of a mention. Don't worry, I love Clint Eastwood's work as a director. All I'm saying is that, like any director, he has a very good amount of stink bombs. On the plus side, he has his pile of treasures that are timeless. Unpopular opinion: my favorite film directed (not starring) by Clint Eastwood is Letters from Iwo Jima. From what I notice in his films, his choice to use darker/bluish colors allows for more mistakes in his films overall. If there is supposed to be a happy or exciting scene, the colors pretty much are the parallel of what you want to have in those scenarios. Then again, I'm not a cinematographer. I just don't think it fits. In Sully, this color scheme fits perfectly though. Actually, mostly everything about Sully fits perfectly with the story surrounding the man of the hour. Clint Eastwood, even at his age, still is a tour de force. Although, now he's more of a tour de force in the directorial department. There's just one problem with one of his choices that I can't seem to stop thinking about...

Clint Eastwood: "I'm a nice guy. I really am. But if you touch me, I will destroy you. Take four steps back and we're good."

    The use of storytelling is a bit bizarre. I totally understand the usage of flashbacks to tells the story, as long as it's not overused or in your face about it, but I didn't expect Sully to have sort of a different way to tell this courageous story. I honestly feel like it could've gone better in a different route. As an example, the film, at one point, goes back in time to when Sully was just a teenager finding his love for flight, then the scene cuts to present day (after the event). I can't get behind the huge jumps in time, or from seeing what's going on in the cockpit of the airplane to dialogue between a father and his son in the passenger seating area wondering how the other son is doing in the far back seats. I can actually trace these kinds of scenes to the under-utilization of characters. Although everyone does a great job, in terms of acting, there isn't enough of some characters to make me want to want more from them. I don't want to say the word "care" because I do care about them. I get that Sully is about Sully the airline pilot, but if there are more characters involved with more screen time than an extra but less than a secondary character, I don't want those characters to feel forced either. Sully's wife Lorraine is one of those characters who I'd like to know more about, but she doesn't get enough screen time. It just seems like the filmmakers put her in there to remind everyone that Sully has a family back home. I know I'm sounding kind of cruel or rude, but I honestly think no characters should be put in the position to be less than a secondary character, but more than an extra. It's unfair to the story.

The only two people in the movie because nobody else really mattered. Except the passengers and the crew. Without them on board, Sully would have no one to save.

     Sully has a lot going for it. I know it sounds like I'm either contradicting my appreciation for this movie, but all I want to get through to everyone is that the pros outweigh the cons by 7 miles away (just like Flight 1549 was from an airport. Bad joke, right?). Tom Hanks is still the talented everyday man that we all love, Clint Eastwood is a brilliant director, and there are some minor things that I didn't love about Sully. To be perfectly frank, the story is truly amazing and that's what got to me. Captain Sullenberger is a true American hero. The message that this movie provides through Sully's precise and mind boggling is one that I will remember for a long, long time. A salute to you, Sully!

4.4/5

PRO

• Performances (Tom Hanks especially)
• Clint Eastwood's directing
• Amazing story of a hero

CON

• Storytelling technique is a bit all over the place
• Underutilized characters

Sully is rated PG-13 for some peril and brief strong language

Click here to watch the trailer

Sully is in theaters everywhere now

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