Tag Archives: Movie review

Movie Review – Gangster Squad – LATE POST!

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Late movie review 3 of 7…

Gangster Squad – released January 11th, 2013

Starring: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emma Stone & Ryan Gosling

Plot: I do not remember. Basic storyline…Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling are bad ass cops trying to bring down a mob boss played by Sean Penn in old time Los Angeles. Emma Stone is Sean Penn’s girlfriend but she starts fooling around with Ryan Gosling. It’s probably not a good sign that I don’t remember any of the character’s names. JB & RG get together a rag tag team of other bad ass cops and eventually take down the mob boss. A bunch of the team dies, except for JB & RG who ride off into the sunset with their ladies.

My opinion/rating: Again, as you can probably tell by my thrilling plot description, I was totally enamored with this film…or not. Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it. Reminded me a lot of the video game “L.A. Noir”, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s a really romanticized era for L.A, and it’s fun because I live close to the area they’re referencing, so I understand the references for the most part. This was a very violent movie, pretty sad too, not really my type of movie, this was obviously Aaron’s pick. I’d watch this movie again, but I wouldn’t be thrilled with it. Overall rating – C.

Movie Review – Les Mis – LATE POST!

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Late Movie Review 2 of 7…

Les Miserables – released December 5th, 2012

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, talented newcomers like Eddie Redmayne & Aaron Tveit, and several Broadway vets.

Plot WITH SPOILERS!: Valjean (Jackman) is on parole, Javert (Crowe) is the police inspector dedicated to finding Valjean and putting him back in prison.
Valjean becomes the mayor of a town and helps out Fantine (Hathaway) a single mother to Cosette (Seyfried), who sells ALL her body parts to earn money to raise her. Fantine ends up dying & Valjean becomes Cosette’s guardian.
Cosette grows up, meets Marius (Redmayne), a revolutionary student planning to rebel against the French monarchy with his friends, they fall in love, which is really too bad because his best lady friend Eponine is already in love with him, but oh well. The fight against the French monarchy doesn’t go so well and all of Marius’ friends die, including Eponine. Marius almost dies, but is saved by Valjean, who also has a chance to kill Javert, who has been hunting him this whole time, but doesn’t. Javert doesn’t know how to deal with the split in his moral compass, he wants to keep hunting Valjean because it’s the “right thing to do”, but now he owes him a solid because he let him live. In order to escape this confusion, he decides to kill himself. Marius and Cosette get married. Valjean dies. There is singing. The End.

My opinon/rating: Eh. As you can probably tell by my overly enthused description of the plot, I don’t care a whole heck of a lot for the story of Les Mis. I enjoy the music, but the story itself doesn’t really have a special place in my heart. I thought this was a well done version, I just don’t have a personal connection to it, so it’s not one of my favorite movies. If you’re not really into musicals, I’d probably skip this one since there’s little to no dialogue, it’s JUST singing. All in all, this movie gets a B rating.

Movie Review! Labor Day – LATE POST!

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I’m such a slacker! I have a list of SEVEN movies that I last saw at a movie theater & I’m probably forgetting a couple, but I’m gonna post them ASAP hopefully in the order I saw them in.  I wrote these reviews exactly how I’d explain these movies to a friend, key points are highlighted. Without further ado…

Labor Day – I don’t believe this has been released…?

Starring: Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, and Tobey Maguire

Back story: Aaron and I went to see a movie that I can’t remember the name of now and there were promoters for Labor Day standing outside asking if we’d like to see a free show in two weeks, we just had to stay after and answer questions – the stars of the movie MIGHT stop by! Of course we said yes, of course they didn’t, but oh well – free movie!!

Plot: I signed a non disclosure agreement when I went to the sneak preview that said I couldn’t really discuss anything about the film until it actually came out in theaters because the version we saw is not the final version so they don’t want people judging the movie based on things that might be different in the end. Basically the movie is about a lonely woman & her son taking in a mysterious man & all the drama that unfolds around them.

My opinion/rating: Just a weird, strange movie. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t really like it.  The story is predictable, but heart warming in a bizarre way. I wouldn’t recommend anyone pay to see this movie, mostly because I haven’t seen the final version, so I don’t really know what you’ll be getting yourself into. Based on what I saw though, I’d give this a D rating & recommend you wait for Netflix.