A Good Day To Die Hard (2013, John Moore)
I've been a huge fan of the Die Hard franchise, it was a lot of fun and Bruce Willis just nails the role every single time and all of those films was enjoyable and so much fun even the fourth installment. In this latest installment, it did not feel like a Die Hard film, firstly because Bruce Willis was NOT John McClane, he was this angry dad who just keeps shouting and ranting which in my opinion was not McClane and therefore somewhat ruined the character a bit for me. As for Jai Courtney he was not good suit as the son of Bruce Willis, he was just annoying in this movie and felt like he didn't act at all and just spews out dialogues plus there was no chemistry between Willis and Courtney which downright shuts the belief that they are playing the role of a son and father. This is by far the worst film in the franchise and surely one of the worst films of this year. Such a disappointment. To call this a Die Hard film is a slap to the face of Die Hard fans.
Grade:
Grade:
Airplane! (1980, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker)
In all honesty, this is by far one of the best comedies I've ever seen in my life. The first time that I've watched this, I just laughed at every gags of this film, it all works so well. The lead role which was played brilliantly by Robert Hays was downright hilarious because the character was so serious and when gags are being shown with this character present you are just gonna laugh because he never breaks character no matter how funny that scene is. What I loved most about this film though is Leslie Nielsen, he just hits every joke and just downright one of the best in this craft. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and am glad to have finally watched it.
Grade:
Despicable Me 2 (2013, Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud)
The first installment of this film was surprisingly fun with great well rounded characters this however being fun and all that failed to capture the uniqueness of the first one. In this sequel, Gru is now more developed to be a good guy rather than the bad guy and got recruited by the Anti-Villain League. Gru is actually likeable at it, in fact all the characters are still great even the new ones like Kristen Wiig's Lucy and Benjamin Bratt's El Macho who completely stole the show in my opinion. However, the strongest point of the first one became the weakest point of this sequel. Sure the Minions are a lot of fun to watch, they are funny and adorable but even though they were used a whole lot more in this film but it felt like they were used to have more seats in the cinema and also felt like they were shoehorned but not making the film better. In additional the story is basically the generic sequel story territory.
Grade:
Monsters University (2013, Dan Scanlon)
Monsters, Inc. is not only one of the best Pixar films but also one of the best animated films in general. The voice actors were a perfect fit for the characters and the story of that film was also good and was told really good. After 12 years, we got a prequel to the first movie. I liked what they did in this movie because you get to know more of the duo of Mike and Sully and their relationship was in fact the opposite of what they had in "Inc.". The development of the characters were solid and the story was also quite good however there is one thing that I disliked about this movie, it is the usage of one of the most overused formula in college films and that is the lead characters are forced to be teamed up with the underdogs to take on the ones the top, I just dislike and hate that type premise, I think they could have done a lot better. But still this was a very good film and a great prequel to great film.
Grade:
The Family (2013, Luc Besson)
It's been a while since we saw Robert DeNiro in this type of film and to be honest it was quite a breath of fresh air to see him in this role again because this is where he's good at. The premise of the story was good and the first and second act of the film was quite enjoyable but the film fell apart by the third act and it felt clunky even though that scene really felt like it was directed by Luc Besson, from the camera-shots to the action scene but that wasn't satisfying enough to bring this film to a good closure and to end an acceptable film. The performances of the actors though were surprisingly good especially the son and daughter and also the chemistry between this family was great and it felt natural. But in the end this was still an okay film with only a couple of good scenes.
Grade:
Red 2 (2013, Dean Parisot)
This is the last sequel that I will give my opinion on in this thread. The original RED was perhaps one of the most fun action films in the past years and the usage of comedy to balance out the action of that film was very well put. Moving on, the sequel was a bad installment, it was boring, the action felt forced and a bit out of place at times. Sure there are some redeeming qualities in the movie like Sir Anthony Hopkins who was just damn good in his role Byung-hun Lee who completely owns the action and John Malkovich who was hilarious in the character of Marv but those were not enough to save this movie. The story felt cluttered and basicaly had no coherence or even enough depth and intelligence to it so as to make a bit better. Overall, again, this is a disappointing sequel and completely lacked what made the first one so good.
Grade:
State of Play (2009, Kevin Macdonald)
This was a big screen adaptation of the British mini-series of the same name. I will not talk about that though since I have yet to watch it, so I would rather talk about this movie. This was a carefully crafted thriller that is smart and well-acted. The story was amazing and just gripping, every scene was pivotal to the next and every twists and turns were so good and you wouldn't have a hard time to follow it. The performances were also one of the best I've seen from the actors, Russell Crowe was believable as the journalist who did all he can to find out the truth, Rachel McAdams was also very good in her role as the protege who never gives up and Helen Mirren was really good as the head of this newspaper who pressures her employees for the deadline. But the one performance that I really liked was Ben Affleck's because it didn't feel like it was Ben Affleck, he was compassionate and sympathetic in the role but once you get to know more of him, the more the character shows other motives and Affleck displays that very good.
Grade:
Friday (1995, F. Gary Gray)
F. Gary Gray did a good job in this film and it reminded me a lot of Do The Right Thing. This was basically a movie about the daily life of Craig and Smokey who was played by Ice Cube and Chris Tucker. Their chemistry was great and they looked like real best friends who just wants to spend time with each other. However, despite this film being a comedy, there were some moments that were pretty dark and serious and I thought this film played it out well because it resonated with the theme of the movie. By the time this movie ended, I had a great time watching it and to me it is Gray's finest film.
Grade:
So this concludes the 2 parter of the seventh installment of my Qweekly reviews, hope you have a fun time reading it and stay tuned for the rest of my reviews and my best and worst films of 2013. Till then, take care.
No comments:
Post a Comment