Les Miserables Review

Les Miserables assembled a great cast that delivered, however it failed in the third act which hurt the movie as a whole.

Things I liked:

The movie follows Hugh Jackman and Russel Crowe primarily throughout the movie with a cat and mouse game, however because of the amazing character development and plot movements early on this is disguised and you genuinely feel for Hugh Jackman and sympathize with the character. Hugh Jackman is outstanding in it, and does a great job of delivering his lines through song while using great facial expressions. Likewise, Russell Crowe is a great villian who develops throughout the movie.

The movie starts off with Hugh Jackman as a prisoner who is released on parole and then skips town after a turn of events. His character(as stated above) is outstanding, and he meets up with Anne Hathaway whose struggles are documented throughout the movie to the point which some were reduced to tears. Hathaway also does a fantastic job in the movie, as there is nothing but raw emotion in her character and she does great to further the plot along.

The story was also convincing, while there are some complaints about it the overall journey and triumph of each and every character was really well done and justified. The movie does have slight pacing issues and does repeat the story a little bit, however the pros do outweigh the cons. I cannot go into detail without spoiling something, however you truly do care about the characters and the resolution at the end.

Even the supporting characters of Borat and Helen Bonham Carter are entertaining and serve a purpose throughout the movie. Along with the kid at the end, and the priest at the beginning  these supporting characters throughout only help add to the movie.

And of course I loved the music used throughout the movie. The delivery was great by the actors/actresses and the continuous uses of certain aspects throughout was very well done.

What I did not like:

There are certain things you can do with a movie that you cannot do with a play. A play is limited to a stage, a movie is not. Therefore during a play when a character is on the other side of the stage and singing about the two characters you just assume that they cannot hear her and go with it. In a movie, you could put that character elsewhere and just shoot back to them. It is a minor complaint but there were many times a person woudl be singing right by a group of people who would not hear her.

Also, singing every. single. line. throughout the entire movie was just too much, the music was not nearly as good as the big songs and detracted away from the power of some of the scenes.

The entire french uprising sequence was just terrible, throughout the entire movie you have great characters developed throughout and then you do not care about the french revolution at all. It also starts off with ANOTHER gap in years with Crowe finding Jackman. Its like really? We JUST saw that done. None of the characters aside from the kid are developed, and the love story is worse than a comic book love story. No spoilers here, but it is "I saw her, I love her time to risk everything for her." I am sorry but if you are nominated for an oscar you should not have that in a movie, this isnt Dredd, this isnt Spider-man, this is Les Miserables. Also, someone with a bullet wound is being dragged through the sewers and is covered with feces, but is FINE! That makes no sense. 

My Girlfriends take: Ranked from Love it, eh, Bad she gave it a Loved it.

Overall Les Miserables does a great job of setting up its scenes and delivering a believable plot with good character development. However it ultimately has one glaring hole in it which does harm it. I give this movie a 8/10.

Dredd Review

I did not see the original, however this movie was a fun action movie that I wish had not bombed.

Dredd was a nice fun action movie that you can grab a pizza and a beer and watch.

It starts off with Dredd taking on a girl with psychic powers on a tiral run to see if she is ready to become a judge. The girl failed the tests but due to her powers she is getting a second chance.

The movie does a good job of setting up the world, and for a 90 minute movie to expect more is ridiculous. It starts off with a pretty cool action scene and does not stop.

If you are looking for a movie with a well developed complex plot, with character development, and the like go elsewhere. This is an 80s action flick that delivers.

I will not summarize the movie however Dredd and the girl get caught up in an apartment complex with the main villian who is developed decently well for an action movie, however you never think she is actually going to kill Dredd as she alone is not too powerful but has powerful allies which come in.

The movie does a good job of touching on some social issues such a drug use, poverty, and other behavior that some who have nothing might be forced to do when they have no other options. There was also some pretty entertaining scenes between the psychic and just about everyone and her powers are put to good use throughout and not ignored and relied upon for lazy story telling.

There are some nice shooting scenes in the film, along with some good dialogue for an action movie and some pretty funny scenese as well. The movie itself doesnt really have any dead time, as it cannot afford it with its runtime, and that works to their benefit as the entire movie is a nonstop action thrill.

This was a nice good action movie that should be seen by those wanting a fun action flick for the night with a beer and pizza, I give it a 8/10

Zero Dark Thirty Review

I am reviewing every single movie I see this year, whether it came out this year or not, and whether or not I have previously seen it.

Zero Dark thirty is getting a lot of oscar buzz, however I did not see why. The characters throughout the film are not really developed and tends to drag during certain parts.

The first 30-45 minutes of the movie are torture, or as my dad kept correcting me enhanced interrogation, this is done to show that torture does work while interrogating people and is constantly referenced throughout the entire movie. I felt this part was well paced and accomplished what it set out to do.

The main character is a bitch who has one goal and that is to find osama. This works, as she shuts herself out from having friends or relationships and is completely committed to the task at hand and everything a CIA agent should be.

The movie suffers in the middle portion though, and this is why I feel it was good but not great. The entire middle part is essentially a list of all the historical events that occured during the time when the hunt started and when it ends. It felt more like I was watching a history channel documentary than a movie at some times, and this is why I felt it is not oscar worthy. For instance there are many times when they set up a historical scene, show it, followed by the reaction of the characters and them coming to the conclusion "lets try to find him..HARDER!" Also we all know what is coming, but setting up the actual ending(the seals barging in) took way too long in my opinion, the pacing of the movie could have been better.

The ending was fantastically done however, when the SEALS went in there you know what was going to happen but it was riveting. I will not summarize everything, but they do act like how SEALS act so they were true to form. They did not leave out any of the details, and it was great.

Overall I would give the movie a 7.5/10, good, but not great. The pacing was just too off for me and it felt like a historical documentary at times instead of a film.