'Bad Teacher' Mini Review

This is a horribly written movie with great actors. A few chuckles may be had but is definitely not worth watching. The best and funniest parts really were in the trailers, which really is a shame because I had such high hopes for this film.

'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' Review . . . . Kind of

Now I had all intentions of doing a "normal" review for 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' but life kind of got in the way and I ended up not writing one. What I did write though was an assignment for my writing class about the different aspects of the film.  I have also included a brief summary at the end giving my over all thoughts about the film as well.

Universal Themes - For this film it showed how most people look down upon animals regardless of intelligence and how they don’t know how to open their minds and accept anything different than what they think is “normal.” Which then fits into the much larger topic of bigotry and not being able to accept anything different and treat them as equals. The movie digs a little into this topic and very much into the repercussions of acting this way.

Personal Impact - As a huge animal lover this movie hooked me very easily and made me hate the humans in this film. Now sure it didn’t change anything about what I already thought, but it put a huge reinforcement into how I feel. I just really think it’s wrong what people do to animals and I wish I had some control over how they were treated. (Both parties, animals and loser people who treat them badly.)

Character / Plot Arc -  This movie did a great job of showing the relationship between man and ape. An even better job was done in showing the final break of they’re relationship and well, the rise of the planet of the apes. Now some of the human relationships between each other weren’t really developed very well and almost just shoved to the side, but I give major kudos to the film for doing that instead of putting the actors as the main characters. The movie is about apes, so the main character should be an ape, Michael Bay could learn a thing or two from this film.

Art Direction - Everything from sets to costumes was done very well, though it was set in current times so there really wasn’t much challenge there, although some films can’t even get that right, so good job, I guess. As for the effects, they were on the top side of “ehh” or maybe the low side of good, but nothing spectacular. There was really just one thing were they messed up too, the faces of the apes. It was super cool that they decided to CGI the faces because it did add a lot to the film but at the same time, it always looked fake. Now this wasn’t a HUGE problem but there were a few times were I was pulled out of the film and though to myself, “Wow, that looks fake.” Those scenes were very reminiscent of ‘Matrix Reloaded’ and ‘Spider-Man’.

Performances -  The performances were all solid across the board. You had a movie full of great actors, which after ‘Cowboys & Aliens’, I know for a fact means absolutely nothing but still it’s James Franco backed up by Freida Pinto and Tom Felton. Everyone was just very believable in there roles and had you rooting either for or against them. None of them made me wish they had cast someone else thanks to over or under acting, which is also a huge plus.

Final Thoughts - This was an amazing film and in my opinion the best film of 2011. I just don't see how anything will be able to "rise" above this film. Great acting, great story, great cinematography, this film has it all and I definitely recommend checking it out.

'Cowboys & Aliens' Review

'Cowboys & Aliens' a movie about a very one sided battle between, well, cowboys and aliens. The movie was directed by 'Iron Man 2' director Jon Favreau. An excellent cast was put together for this film as well with Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Olivia Wilde as our main characters.

What I haven't gotten over about this film is the acting, it was just so bad. The main culprit here, Harrison Ford. It was as if he just showed up to get his paycheck. He never looked as if he was taking the movie very serious and every scene he was in, was just him being there, he never put any effort into the role and it showed. Wilde also didn't do as good as I had hoped but was the opposite of Ford. Instead of not caring about the film, she seemed to care a bit too much, to the point that it made her acting very hammy. Some scenes with her, serious scenes I might add, were turned into comedy just because you can't take someone acting like she was serious. As for Craig, he did a great job. He was very believable as the amnesic cowboy, even down to the way he moved and his expressions, it's just a shame that the rest of the cast didn't follow his lead here.

The effects here were great. Something about the aliens reminded me a lot of ‘War of the Worlds’ but that’s not really a bad thing, they just had a very cinematic look to them if you will. Also the gun fights in the movie were awesome, typical cowboy stuff mostly but the confrontations with the aliens really took it a level up. The problem though came in with the lack of these great battles, the movie relied too much on the acting and story to carry it which resulted in a very slow and forgettable movie.

Overall the film is a dud, which truly is a shame. With the plethora of talent in the movie, it could’ve been something great. I would say it’s still worth a watch if you’re a fan of the comic or if you really like Daniel Craig but just wait for it to come out in Redbox or something and pick it up as a rental.