Showing posts with label John Goodman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Goodman. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Kong: Skull Island

I saw this movie the other day as a birthday gift from my parents. 17!!!



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                  I was very impressed with this movie overall. The CGI was phenomenal and I really like that I got to see so much of Kong. It seemed like the CG Artists forgot virtually nothing when constructing his physique and movements.
                  Overall, character development didn't seem like a very important thing. It seemed like they just wanted to show off a giant ape, giant spider, giant grasshopper, and whatever the hell the
"Skullcrawlers" were. However, Kong was portrayed as a "good king. Keeps to himself", and he protects the native inhabitants of the island who are human. It was like Kong understood that the people didn't want to hurt him at all, and he inherited his duty to protect the natives from his murdered parents.
                  The story to get to the island was quick, underdeveloped, and rushed. The opening sequence was cool though, going from World War II to Vietnam through a series of clips and reels that set the stage nicely for when Kong was first discovered. How he will resurface for his big fight with Godzilla though is a good question that I hope the writers for that big film address.
                  Alright, characters: John Goodman played a man obsessed with the idea of giant monsters being the original inhabitants of Earth before mankind came on the scene. What isn't really explained is why the monsters went into hiding once man "took over". Maybe they were alive when the dinosaurs were so they went into hiding during the meteor shower.
                  Samuel L. Jackson is a general that was originally stationed in Vietnam. And he's just itching for a fight. Sam basically played himself, screaming at everyone and making sure that the giant monsters don't hurt anymore people.
                  Tom Hiddleston is supposed to be an explorer that can handle himself in uncharted jungle terrains. His abilities aren't really showcased, but he looks pretty cool with a sub-machine gun and not a staff (for those Marvel junkies out there, I'm one of y'all).
                  Brie Larson is an anti-war photojournalist who actually contributed to the public's outrage over the war in Vietnam. At this point in the movie, American troops are being pulled home from Vietnam, and Brie is pretty happy about that. She's got a pretty nice camera, too.
                  Those are the main folks, and I'm dipping my toes in the waters of actually going for reviews rather than giving y'all a synopsis of what happens. So we'll see how you like it. If you don't, please comment and I can go back to telling you the movie.


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Ratings:
Family Friendliness: 7/10 Helicopters I was rather impressed with the whole movie being relatively kid-friendly. I mean, apart from short sequences of people getting eaten and blood spattering, it's pretty clean. I don't really remember any cursing, but don't take my word for it. I'm sure Samuel L. Jackson would be the one to drop a language bomb.
Story-line: 7/10 Mountains Not really much to go on except for the fact that they just want to get off the island. I guess that's easy to follow, so I gave it a decent rating.
Story-Action Balance: 7/10 Islands I guess there was good balance. We meet an old World War II vet that's been stuck on the island for about twenty or so years and he basically gives the gist of Kong's background and his role as king and protector of the native people. I'm glad that not all of it was shooting and fighting, but there was definitely a good chunk of it.
Acting: 8/10 Monsters Don't gemme wrong, each actor lived up to their character, but because the characters weren't that well-developed, there wasn't a lot of acting to fill into their characters.
Intensity: 8/10 For sure, I was on the edge of my seat for all of the monster fights. At one point I was really worried about Kong, but then I remembered that they're going to do a fight between him and Godzilla so I was okay. But still, all the fights were intense.
Rewatch Probability: 7/10 I probably wouldn't rewatch this as much as I would Hacksaw Ridge or something along those lines, but it's still a decent film overall.
Overall: 7/10

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Friday, October 14, 2016

PoC's Halloween: 10 Cloverfield Lane

                  Hiya everyone! I haven't really seen any new movies as of late, so that's on me. But the other day I decided hey, let's get a Redbox film, and I saw "10 Cloverfield Lane"! So we'll dive right into it. Part 2 of PoC's Halloween!
               


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                   The movie begins with a woman who is packing up her things. She finishes up and the last thing she has gotta pick up is her phone, which is sitting on a dresser. She stares at it for a solid minute or so and decides to finally pick it up. She calls someone, and the sound is taken out at this point and you see her talking and ends up kind of distressed. She then hangs up and leaves the house.
 
As she walks out with her last box, the camera unblurs on a section in the lower left hand corner... a wedding ring. 
                    She drives far away. Not just like down a few streets far. Like FAR FAR AWAY. She's on the move for the majority of the day and then she makes a stop for some fuel. However, a sketchy truck comes up and makes her a little uncomfortable. So she finishes filling up and then she's on the road again. 
                     Her phone rings and the caller is labeled Ben. She takes a second and considers answering, and eventually does. "Michelle, please come home." Ben starts pleading with Michelle to come back, and says that they just had a small fight and that that was no reason to just pack up and go. So now we know what kind of a person Michelle is. She hangs up on him.
                    She turns on the radio and there's been reports of city wide and worldwide black outs. They are mostly in major cities, but a lot of people have lost power. Michelle isn't really paying attention, though. Her phone rings again and it's Ben. 
                    She starts considering whether or not she should answer the second time when she looks
at her driver-side side mirror, and a truck is driving up behind her. It has an odd similarity to the sketchy truck that she saw earlier at the gas station. The truck slams into her and she spins out of control, crashing off of the road and then coming to a halt upside down in a patch of grass.
                    Michelle wakes up with a I.V. in her left arm. She follows the trail of tubing up into the pouch of fluids. But what she notices is that she isn't in a hospital. There's a gray brick wall behind the mounted pouch. She looks around and sees that in fact, this is no hospital. She was kidnapped.
                    She tries moving away from the bed after seeing her stuff across the room from her bed, but is cut short. She looks to her right and sees that there's a brace on her leg that is cuffed to a metal bar. She starts wrestling with it to free herself but is unsuccessful. Well, she needs her phone for sure.
                    Here we see the genius that Michelle has. She knocks down the stand that was holding the pouch for her fluids and disconnects the pouch and the I.V. from her arm. She uses the stand as a sort of hook and successfully gets her phone. But... of course, there's no service. There is no way that she's calling 911. This means she's underground. 
                    John Goodman unlocks the giant metal door and comes in with a tray of food for Michelle. He sets it down in front of her and she puts her hands up in an innocent sort of way and pleads with him to not hurt her. In reply, John Goodman says, "You need fluids." 
                    He takes the I.V. pouch and stand away and then returns with a pair of wooden crutches.
He tells her that she better get used to using those. He also gives her the key to her cuffs and then leaves. 
                    Michelle uncuffs herself and then immediately tries working on a way to escape. First thing she does is pull off the rubber covering off of the bottom of one crutch and takes the key for her cuffs and sharpens the end of the exposed crutch so that it's got a nasty cutting edge. She then plans to wait for John Goodman to return. But there's no luck. She waits for awhile and he doesn't come back. So naturally, make a way for him to come back, right? Sure, let's make the creepy man come back. Brilliant. 
                   She rips off a piece of cloth from her bed sheets and wraps it around the end of one of her crutches and then lights the cloth on fire and puts it into the small vent that is a little higher than the door and slightly to the right. She reassumes her position of waiting for John Goodman to return and the smoke quickly spreads. 
                   John unlocks the heavy door quickly and walks in looking around for Michelle, and as he is doing so, Michelle charges him with the sharpened crutch. He is able to see it coming but Michelle
hits him good and stumbles out. John gets her though and puts her back into the room.
                  John comes in again and then sets another tray of food in front of her. He talks with her and tells her that he saved her life, but from what he doesn't exactly say. Before leaving, he says, "I'm Howard by the way." Good thing, too. Cuz writing John Goodman over and over again is a pain in the butt.   
                   Okay, later on, Michelle is released from her confinement and is able to roam around the bunker. She makes a friend called Emmet. No it is not Chris Pratt. But Emmet and Michelle work together to try and get out of their confinement, while avoiding Howard, who poses their biggest threat... until we see the outside world.

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Ratings:
Family Friendliness- 6/10 Bunkers There's not really anything suggestive about this film. It's another thriller, and there are some inappropriate references from time to time. John Goodman's character is a bit of a creep. Also, there's some disturbing images of disfigured and slaughtered pigs right in the beginning, and then near the end when there's a body in a tub of acid. I'd recommend to parents that you watch this first.
Story-line- 8/10 Tubs The story is really well-done, and I've gotta say that the plot twist at the end of it all really made me mad. Basically, Howard is suggesting that aliens took over the planet, but at the same time, you know that he's absolutely crazy. What's revealed at the end is just... aggravating.
Thriller Level- 8/10 Vents This was beyond stressful. There's a point in the movie where Michelle, Emmet, and Howard are playing a game where you have to guess what the character they're describing is, and Howard gets Santa Claus. So what he says as hints is "I'm watching you. I see you when you sleep." And that just freaked me out because Howard is a real nut case. Not to mention there were the scenes where Michelle is crawling through the vents of the bunker. That may not stress you out, but I'm claustrophobic, and even seeing people in those kinds of situations gets me really worked up.
Acting- 8/10 Generators Alright if you haven't noticed already, I'm experimenting with a lot of different aspects of movies. For thrillers and other things where you can't really measure comic book accuracy, I'm trying to figure out what you guys would like to read about. So just bear with me. But anyway, the acting was phenomenal. I have to say that the actress who played Michelle did a fantastic job, and I don't even know her name. John Goodman contributed too, so obviously that makes it all the better.
Overall- 8/10 Stars The rating should be 7, but I like to be gracious to movies because hey, that's the entire reason I blog.


"10 Cloverfield Lane trailer" <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQy-ANhnUpE>
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