CW21's Movie Review Thread (3rd Times the Charm)

[CWood21]

So I've done this twice before, but I plan on trying to make this a regular thing...so give me feedback, and more importantly suggestions and I'll try and watch them.

WARNING: This thread will contain spoilers, so if you don't want them don't read my thread.  I'll leave links and scores in the index page, but if you want feedback go into the thread.

Scoring System 
97-100: One of the Best Movies I've seen 
90-96.9: A Great Movie 
80-89.9: Well Above-Average Movie 
70-79.9: Pretty Good Movie, Probably Won't Watch Again 
60-69.9: Struggled To Make It Through 
0.1-59.9: Stopped Watching It Part of the Way 
0.0: This Movie Deserves To Be Burned and the Director shot

[CWood21]

Index

-----A-----
Avengers: Age Of Ultron [Joss Whedon; 2015] (80/100)

-----B-----
Battleship [Peter Berg; 2012] (65/100)
The Boondock Saints [Troy Duffy; 1999] (80/100)

-----C-----

-----D-----

-----E-----

-----F-----

-----G-----

-----H-----

-----I-----
Interstellar [Christopher Nolan; 2014] (95/100)

-----J-----

-----K-----

-----L-----

-----M-----

-----N-----

-----O-----

-----P-----

-----Q-----

-----R-----

-----S-----
Star Trek Into Darkness [J.J. Abrams; 2013] (85/100)

-----T-----

-----U-----

-----V-----

-----W-----

-----X-----

-----Y-----

-----Z-----

[CWood21]

Feel free to post, most of the original movies will be ones I'm adding from the old threads.

[CWood21]

Avengers: Age of Ultron [Joss Whedon; 2015]

Admittedly, I didn't read the comics as a childhood but I came into this movie with high hopes especially after being a big fan of the first Avengers movie. While this movie didn't quite match my expectations, it is still a movie that I'd enjoy watching again. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, and Scarlett Johansson reprised their roles as Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, and The Black Widow respectively. I While Chris Hemsworth returned as Thor, I felt as his screen time was extremely limited especially in comparison to the others. I also felt that Hawkeye was a more minor "star" in the movie as well. The film introduced three new characters who should play a significant part in future movies with the twins (Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver) and Vision. While Quicksilver unfortunately was killed near the end of the movie, Scarlet Witch and Vision likely will have a large role in future movies. Scarlett Witch was portrayed by the sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Elizabeth Olsen while Vision was voiced by Paul Bettany whom was the voice for J.A.R.V.I.S. as well. 

This movie was focused heavily around Tony Stark and Dr. Bruce Banner as the Avengers raid a Hydra hideout to find the scepter that was previous wielded by Loki in the first Avengers movie. After decyphering the scepter, they find an AI inside the score that helps lead to the Ultron Initiative, which would provide a universal defense system without risking human lives. Unfortunately, this AI takes over the JARVIS system and creates a robot whose vision for peace includes exterminating all humans. After escaping, Ultron searches for vibranium to create an army of robots for his bidding. During this time, Banner and Natasha discover a romantic interest and discuss leaving the Avengers to move away. Originally, the twins were on the side of Ultron but after Wanda (Scarlett Witch) was finally able to read the mind of Ultron when he was receiving a human body, they switched sides after realizing Ulton's ultimate plan was extinction. After discovering JARVIS hiding on the internet, Stark uploads him into the body that Ultron was planning on using one of the Infinity Stones. As Ulton begins to destroy the earth by creating a collison with the ground similar to what destroyed the dinosaur, a fight breaks out amongst the Avengers and the robot army. During this battle, Quicksilver is shot but the earth is saved from annihilation. Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff go in the sunset while Vision confronts the final Ultron body and defeats him once and for all. The film ends with a new base by Fury training potential new Avengers. In the mid-credits, Thanos is shown wearing the Infinity Gauntlet saying that he'll get all the Infinity Stones himself. 

Grade: 80

[CWood21]

Star Trek Into Darkness [J.J. Abrams; 2013]

I swear, I'll do a movie besides a sci-fi movie but this was playing at my friends apartments the other day in the background and I decided to watch the movie on my own. I'm a very big fan of the dynamic between Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, who play Captain James T. Krik and Commander Spock respectively, as their almost opposite personalities seem to compliment each other quite well. Ultimately though, I think Benedict Cumberbatch was the best acting in the entire movie as he played Kahn. His acting nailed the part of the brilliant, yet cunning villain was very believable. The plot as a whole seemed very believable almost watching James Kirk grow up in our eyes, and almost a very different yet same character development for him. In the first movie, I thought he was more of the underdog story being rehashed while this movie saw more of the roller coaster of life and learning his lessons the hard way. As much as I enjoy watching Alice Eve, I thought the plot involving her and her father was undersold throughout the movie and wasn't developed nearly enough. The movie seemed as a whole very believable in that you could be there (obviously in the future), and not have to make giant leaps of faith. Ultimately though, this movie was really made for a sci-fi movie. 

The movie begins with the USS Enterprise saving a primitive species they were studying from an extinction-level volcano but in the process managed to break the Prime Directive while saving Sock. From this situation, Kirk is demoted and Spock is re-assigned to another ship. After a secret military weapons development building is destroyed in a terrorist attack, the leaders meet according to statutes that Khan knew and exploited. During this meeting, renegate Starfleet John Harrison attacks the high ranking officials before transporting himself to Kronos, in the land of the Klingons where he knows that Starfleet can not go. After this disaster, Admiral Alexander Marcus promotes Kirk to Captain and sends he and Spock to kill Harrison. After unknowingly having their warp core malfunction, they're left on the edge of the neutral zone before going down to Kronos to recover Khan. While there, they run into Klingon patrol and are forced to battle with them with Kahn supporting Starfleet in this battle. Using 72 new prototype misses as his threat, Kahn is forced to surrender to Kirk. Unfortunately, Marcus intercepts the USS Enterprise asking for Khan when the USS Enterprise warps back to Earth to expose Marcus a battle ensues. Fortunately, Scotty, who had previous resigned from his position after refusing to allow the weapons on the ship, had sabotaged Marcus' ship. Khan and Kirk travel to the USS Vengeance but Khan double-crosses Kirk to get his crew back and returns Kirk to his ship. Spock manages to arm the missles, but removes the cryogenic tubes that Khan's crew are hidden inside. With both ships dropping into Earthy's gravitational pull, Kirk goes into the radiocactive room to return power to the USS Enterprise dying in the process. After learning that Khan's blood has regenerative process, a chase ensues as Spock chases Khan to revive Kirk which he successfully does. 

Grade: 85

[CWood21]

Interstellar [Christopher Nolan; 2014]

A friend mentioned this movie to me, and I must say that he didn't lie. Most movies that get suggested to be often lead me underwhelmed because of over-expectations, but Interstellar actually blew my expectations. I'm not sure there was a portion of the film where it didn't excel. From CGI to acting to the score, they got high marks from most critics and from myself. Matthew McConaughey, whose one of my favorite actors, showed his versatility after going from movies where he stars as the funny guy to a much more serious role. I'm not a huge fan of Anne Hathaway (blame it on the Princess Diaries for ruining it for me), but I thought she did a pretty good job. Ultimately though, I think young Murph portrayed by Mackenzie Foy was the best acting of them all. Even Matt Damon got into the action with this movie. I thought the development of the film was really well done, although the last thirty or so minutes were a bit hazy so it took a second watching to really understand where the direction was going with that. No expense was spared as they hired a theoretical physicist to make sure there were no clear issues from this film. With a budget of $165M, the movie made $672.8M at the box office easily surpassing expectations. The film was really done all the way around, and I've already watched it three times in the last month. 

On earth, crop blight is causing the earth to break down by not giving humans the required food they need to survive. Coop, a widowed pilot, works on the farm with his father-in-law, son, and daughter. Throughout the entire part of the beginning of the film, Coop's daughter is convinced that her room is haunted by a poltergeist. This "poltergeist" leaves coordinates to a secret NASA facility using gravitational waves to send messages through dust. Once there, Dr. John Brand, whose portrayed by Micahel Caine, informs them that the earth is dying and that there were secret missions to find life outside of our solar system through a wormhole that was apparently was placed beyond Saturn by an unknown alien race. Coop sets off with Brand's daughter, Amelia, as well as a few other scientists and two robots for assistant as they go to search for a new home. In the meantime, Dr. Brand will continue to work on his the equation that solves gravity that will allow them to harness gravity to escape earth with humans. Plan B involves cryogenically frozen embryos used to repopulate in a new environment. The Endurance makes it through the wormhole and goes to the first planet where it finds that the world is uninhabitable and that the scientist died shortly after arrival. After surviving a massive wave which kills one of their fellow scientists, they manage to escape the planet. Two more scientists are sending positive signals. Low on fuel, they only have the ability to visit one more planet. Amelia points to Edmunds being the better planet, but the rest of the team decides on Munn since he was still emitting. After checking out the planet, Munn tells Cooper that it was a lie and that the planet is uninhabitable. After escaping from that planet, they're forced to chase Mann to the Endurance where he Mann fails to properly dock and ends up being sucked into space. They decide to sling shot around Gargantua, a super-massive blackhole to make it to the 3rd and final inhabitable planet. After escaping it's gravity pull, Cooper breaks away from the Endurance to hopefully see what the center is like. While in there, the alien species creates a tesseract to show what 5 dimensions looks like in three dimension that humans understand. There, he sees his life specifically Murphy where he manages to communicate to her via an old watch he gave her. 

Grade: 95

[CWood21]

The Boondock Saints [Troy Duffy; 1999]

On a personal reference from a friend, I borrowed this movie from him a few months ago, but just got around to watching it a few days ago. Needless to say, his track record for movie suggestions have been far from great choices, but The Boondock Saints was a great movie. Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus were excellent picks as Connor and Murphy respectively. William Defoe, Special Agent Paul Smecker, was extremely creepy in this movie, but again was a very good choice. The rest of the actors did a great job as well. A really great job all around. 

The Saints, played by Sean Patrick Flanery (Connor MacManus) and Norman Reedus (Murphy MacManus), pose as two Irish Catholic Twins, who after being confrontted in one of their bars by a couple of mafioso end up killing them a few days later realizing an epiphany to rid the streets of the evil and corruption. Connor and Murphy are found bickering throughout the movie with each other like most brothers do, but are there for each other when the job is needed. As they planned their next vigilante murders, their buddy David Della Rocco, played by David Della Rocco, added comedic value that helped break the tension of the movie. Throughout the movie, Connor and Norman found and killed many mafioso to help clean up the street and with a single shot to the back of the heads, the bullets crossed paths and exited out the eyes. After shooting the last victim, they put pennies over the eyes to pay the toll to cross the River Styx. All the while, an FBI Agent by the name of Paul Smecker is called into find the killer, but as the movie progresses he has a battle with his conscious as to whether The Saints are actually doing the right thing. After a while, he decides that he wants to support them and helps them infiltrate one of the most notorious mafia killing all but the head of the family, Giuseppe "Papa Joe" Yakavetta. In response, Papa Joe calls Il Duce, who unbeknownst to both Connor and Murphy is actually their father. After finding the last mafia member in the Yakavetta house, The Saints begin their mily prayer before executing the last person when Il Duce walks in and a standoff occurs before Il Duce finishes the prayer up, thus confirming that he is Connor and Murphy's father. The movie ends with Special Agent Smecker helping The Saints and Il Duce infiltrate the Court Room where Papa Joe Yakavetta is being tried and is likely to be acquitted of all charges. The Saints quickly move into the court room and move everyone to the back of the court room bringing Papa Joe to the center of the court room and put him down on the knees. After putting him down on his knees, The Saints proceed to explain their actions and say their family prayer before executing him in front of all those in the court room to help spread the word. The movie ends with the public reflecting on the question "Are the Saints ultimately good...or evil?" 

"And shepherds we shall be, 
for Thee, my Lord, for Thee. 
Power hath descended forth from Thy hand, 
that our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command. 
So we shall flow a river forth to Thee 
and teeming with souls shall it ever be. 
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti." 

Grade: 80

[CWood21]

Battleship [Peter Berg; 2012]

Given that I was bored, I headed over to the local movie theater and for some reason I decided to watch Battleship. Needless to say, if you liked Transformers you'll like Battleship. But if you hated Transformers, you're better off not wasting your money to go watch Battleship. A lot of similarities aside from the directing from the Transformers movies like the intense effects along with the extreme mechanical creations. Definitely not one of the better movies Peter Berg has directed, and sort of was too much of a mix between War of The Worlds/Alien Takeover and Transformers combined which really turned me off. 

In 2005, NASA discovers a faraway planet that shares similar characteristics to Earth and they send a high powered beam to send signals to this new world in hopes of communication. Slack off Alex Hopper played by Taylor Kitsch attempts to impress a girl by breaking into a local convenient store for a chicken burrito. His older brother Stone Hopper, played by Alexander Skarsgård, as a result has his younger brother enlist in the Navy. A few years later as the worlds' nations are competing in the RIMPAC naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean. While in the middle of exercises, alien spaceships enter the earth's atmosphere at alarming rates with four of the five ships crashing into the Pacific Ocean while the fifth hit an orbiting satellite and crashing in Hong Kong. The alien ships set up a barrier keeping everyone outside of the barried out, but Alex Hopper and a few of the ships are on the inside the barrier. As one of the Japanese ships is destroyed, one of the American ships rescue the survivors. One of the survivors is Captain Nagata who is played by Tadanobu Asano who suggests they use buoy readings to figure out where the alien ships are. They essentially play a game with battleships to kill teh alien ships. Liam Neeson, Rihanna, and Brooklyn Decker are all prominent characters in this movie.

Grade: 65

[holt_bruce81]

This is just my opinion of course, but I really don't think Boondock Saints is a good movie....at all. I enjoyed it when I first watched it, but watching it a 2nd time, I could barely get through it. 

[CWood21]

2 minutes ago, holt_bruce81 said:

This is just my opinion of course, but I really don't think Boondock Saints is a good movie....at all. I enjoyed it when I first watched it, but watching it a 2nd time, I could barely get through it. 

I definitely understand that train of thought.  I guess it depends on what you expect when you watching it.  I'm pretty sure I gave it a 90 grade when I did this thread the first time, and I've adjusted my grade accordingly.  I'd watch it again, but I'm not in a race to watch it again.

[UKTexans]

65 for Battleship is generous. I often wonder who signs off on these ideas? And do the actors realise its trash?

[BroncosFan2010]

I thought Boondock Saints was a 10/10 movie back in my college years. Now even at an immature 30 years of age it comes off as nearly unwatchable. Crazy how things change so much.

[CWood21]

10 hours ago, texans_uk said:

65 for Battleship is generous. I often wonder who signs off on these ideas? And do the actors realise its trash?

Honestly, it was a cash grab pure and simple.  Everyone knows the game Battleship, it's an easy way to make some money using the name value.

[kyle21121]

2 hours ago, CWood21 said:

Honestly, it was a cash grab pure and simple.  Everyone knows the game Battleship, it's an easy way to make some money using the name value.

The producer drove a dump truck full of my to my house I'm not made of stone. 

Anyways ive never seen battleship or do intend to but I've seen every other movie you've listed and aside from Boondocks Saints which you were a little higher on than I was but I did enjoy it so I'm cool with it we are pretty similar thus far in ratings. 

I really loved Interstellar but I've only seen it once I do wonder if my opinion would change on a second viewing. 

[CWood21]

5 minutes ago, kyle21121 said:

The producer drove a dump truck full of my to my house I'm not made of stone. 

Anyways ive never seen battleship or do intend to but I've seen every other movie you've listed and aside from Boondocks Saints which you were a little higher on than I was but I did enjoy it so I'm cool with it we are pretty similar thus far in ratings. 

I really loved Interstellar but I've only seen it once I do wonder if my opinion would change on a second viewing. 

Honestly, I have the same feelings about the new Flatliners movie.  I know it's being billed as a sequel to the original movie, but it's mainly trying to capitalize on the original movie.