Movie Review: Equilibrium

TITLE: Equilibrium

STATS: U.S. RATING: R RUN TIME: 107 min GENRE: Action/Drama/Sci-fi DATE: 2/26/2003 COMPANY: Dimension Films LANGUAGE: English

MY SUMMARY: In a post-World War III world, the government has decided that the cause of violence and war is human emotion and thus has banned it. Within this strict totalitarian government is a branch of law keepers known as Clerics, the top-ranking being John Preston. After Preston misses his scheduled dose of the emotion-blocking drug Prozium, he discovers the ability to feel. The underground resistance has learned of this and has recruited him to take down the government.

IMDB SUMMARY: In a futuristic world, a strict regime has eliminated war by suppressing emotions: books, art and music are strictly forbidden and feeling is a crime punishable by death. Cleric John Preston (Bale) is a top ranking government agent responsible for destroying those who resist the rules. When he misses a dose of Prozium, a mind-altering drug that hinders emotion, Preston, who has been trained to enforce the strict laws of the new regime, suddenly becomes the only person capable of overthrowing it.

DIRECTOR: Kurt Wimmer

ACTORS: Christian Bale, William Fichtner, Angus Macfadyen, Taye Diggs, Emily Watson, Sean Pertwee, Matthew Harbour

MY RATING: 7 out of 10

ROTTEN TOMATOES RATING: 36%

MOVIEFONE RATING:  2 out of 5 stars

ROGER EBERT RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

THE GOOD: This movie is a mixture of the novels “1984” and “Brave New World” and the movie “The Matrix”, just without some of the more interesting camera shots. However, even without the incredible special effects of some blockbuster sci-fi movies, many of the fights and the new type of martial arts made for the movie, the “gun kata”, are really cool and don’t need special effects to make you notice. The movie also leaves hints and clues throughout about who is a “sense offender” and by the end of the movie, you notice these hints. It makes the movie a little more interesting and fun. Although this isn’t an incredibly great film, I’d recommend it to anyone. The movie actually carries a message much like the novels mentioned above, but incorporates them in a more contemporary setting. So far, everyone I have recommended this movie to has enjoyed it.

THE BAD: Because this movie didn’t have the budget of many of the high profile blockbusters, some of the special effects are pretty cheesy. A few of the fights are cheesy as well, but they didn’t bother me nearly as bad as some of the effects. However, the worst thing that always upsets me is that the ending seems rushed. The battle to get to Dupont seems too easy, the worst fight being with Brandt. After all that smack-talk and even showing his skills earlier in the movie against Preston, he gets taken down way too easily. The fight with Dupont is okay, but still a little too quickly ended. Other than that, the rest leading up to these fights is really good in my opinion.

FUN FACTS:  The inspiration for the cityscapes and the design of Libria come mainly from the works of Hugh Ferriss, an early 20th century conceptual artist Despite popular belief, absolutely no wires were used in the film at all. All of the gravity-defying stunts were done through conventional means. For example, the back flip off of the motorcycle was done with a trampoline John Preston kills 118 characters in this movie, which makes him responsible for exactly half of the total 236 deaths shown. As of 2009, he continues to hold the 3rd place record for most deaths in a movie caused by one character

WORD OCCURS WORD OCCURS A** 0 RACIAL FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN 0 A**H**E 0 B*****D 0 RACIAL FOR HISPANIC 0 B**CH 0 C*** 0 RACIAL FOR ASIAN 0 D**N 2 F*** 1 RACIAL FOR CAUCASSIAN 0 G**D*** 1 H**L 0 RACIAL FOR OTHER 0 M*****F****R 0 S**T 2 LORD'S NAME IN VAIN 0 * These numbers are as accurate as possible, but some mistakes may be present. This is to give a general idea of the vulgarity and not to represent a precise measurement system.

The Social Network: the Facebook movie

Just when people thought Hollywood was running out of ideas for movies, Hollywood proves them right…

The Social Network - A story about the founders of the social-networking website, Facebook.

Based off the book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich and directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), the movie is a loose account of the history of Facebook and its founders.

In The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield will play Facebook co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, while Justin Timberlake will star as Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster and the founding president of the site. The screenplay for The Social Network was penned by award winning writer Aaron Sorkin, and production on the film is slated to begin next month in Boston. The film will be produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures, Scott Rudin, and Kevin Spacey. – Screencrave.com

So far, the three people who have been confirmed for roles are Jesse Eisenberg (as Mark Zuckerberg), Justin Timberlake (as Sean Parker) and Andrew Garfield (as Eduardo Saverin).

The funny thing is that the book that The Social Network is based off of is not really doing so well according to Amazon user ratings. Out of 44 user ratings, the average is 3 out of 5 stars, but there are 10 one-star ratings (at the time of this post). That is not very good comparatively. Most of the lower-rating critics say Mezrich’s books are formulaic and his characters seem like puppets. But who knows? Never judge a book by its cover and never pre-judge a movie by its book – as we’ve seen with Twilight.

Movie Review: Stick It

TITLE: Stick It

STATS: U.S. RATING: PG-13 RUN TIME: 103 min GENRE: Comedy/Drama/Sport DATE: 4/28/2006 COMPANY: Kaltenbach Pictures LANGUAGE: English

MY SUMMARY: A troubled youth gets a second chance at a prison-free life after getting in trouble with the law when her father pays for her to basically come out of retirement and get back into gymnastics. She is rebellious in nature and has a hard time agreeing, but it is that or prison for her. Her rebelliousness eventually rubs off on her teammates and others at the world competition.

IMDB SUMMARY: After a run-in with the law, Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym) is forced to return to the world from which she fled some years ago. Enrolled in an elite gymnastics program run by the legendary Burt Vickerman (Jeff Bridges), Haley's rebellious attitude gives way to something that just might be called team spirit.

DIRECTOR: Jessica Bendinger

ACTORS: Jeff Bridges, Missy Peregrym, Vanessa Lengies, Nikki SooHoo, Maddy Curley, Kellan Lutz, John Patrick Amedori

MY RATING: 6 out of 10

ROTTEN TOMATOES RATING: 31%

MOVIEFONE RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

ROGER EBERT RATING: 2 out of 5 stars

THE GOOD: Being a musician myself, the soundtrack to a movie is very important to me – a soundtrack can make or break a movie in my eyes (and ears). With this movie, although it wasn’t an original, instrumental soundtrack, I think the soundtrack fit the attitude that they were trying to go for, the pop-punk skater vibe. The soundtrack was basically a mixture of alternative rock and hip-hop with a few other songs sprinkled in. I liked it. As for the characters, I think Joanne made a very good innocently dumb girl. She was quite believable. Hopefully it was only good acting and not natural… I also liked the courtroom judge, Polly Holliday. I’ve grown up with her as Jill’s wife on “Home Improvement” and I just like her “essence”, for lack of a better word. Also, since I would like to be a film director one day, I put a lot of observation into special effects and cinematography. I don’t mean to say that I’m an expert in these fields except in what I like and I really liked the scene in which all the girls are competing in their own little civil competition in order to find out who is going to the main competition. I thought it was pretty neat how they timed everything out and overlapped it all. But I’m simple like that. Lastly, I do like when my questions that the movie brings up are answered and all loose ends are tied. For example, towards the end, we find out why Hailey left the Worlds competition and how Vick pays her restitution. Everything is finished and you’re left feeling pretty complete.

THE BAD: One main thing that bugged me from the start is how it felt like the director was trying way too hard to make Hailey seem skater-ish. Now, I’ve known quite a bit of hardcore skaters and none of them have a room that looks anything like hers. First of all, their rooms are usually completely messy. Second, none of them took the time to artistically spray paint their furniture. Usually, they were too busy skating! Another thing that bugged me (and this is just because I am who I am) happens right after Hailey learns about how much her dad is paying Vick and her two friends pick her up. As they are driving down the road, there is a vehicle that is way too close behind them. Seriously, they are on the main characters’ tail! If those boys were as much punks as they were made out to be, they’d totally “brake check” that person. Just wait, once you notice it, you won’t be able to stop noticing it.

FUN FACTS:  Kassandra Nelson played the girl who threw a soda on Haley. She also was the stunt double for Haley Nastia Liukin, the 2008 All-Around Gold Medalist at the Beijing Olympics, played herself. In the movie, she was 'chosen to win' the uneven bar competition Missy Elliot's video for the movie, "We Run This," won a 2006 MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects

WORD OCCURS WORD OCCURS A** 4 RACIAL FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN 0 A**H**E 0 B*****D 0 RACIAL FOR HISPANIC 0 B**CH 2 D**N 1 RACIAL FOR ASIAN 0 D**K (Penis) 1 F*** 1τ RACIAL FOR CAUCASSIAN 6 G**D*** 0 H**L 0 RACIAL FOR OTHER 0 M*****F****R 0 S**T 5 LORD'S NAME IN VAIN 2 * These numbers are as accurate as possible, but some mistakes may be present. This is to give a general idea of the vulgarity and not to represent a precise measurement system. τ This was heard in the soundtrack music during a scene and not actually said in the dialogue.

Movie Review: Orange County

TITLE: Orange County

STATS: U.S. RATING: PG-13 RUN TIME: 82 min GENRE: Comedy/Drama DATE: 1/11/2002 COMPANY: Paramount Pictures LANGUAGE: English

MY SUMMARY: A high school senior picks up a book he found on the beach after one of his best friends dies. After reading the book, he decides he wants to become a writer and basically changes his whole lifestyle. He writes to the author of the book who happens to be a professor at Stanford and basically commits to the idea of being accepted to that university. However, his oblivious counselor sends in the wrong transcript and he gets denied. The movie is then mainly about him trying every means possible to get into Stanford while he balances his girlfriend and trying to keep his family from “ruining” his life.

IMDB SUMMARY: Shaun Brumder is a local surfer kid from Orange County who dreams of going to Stanford to become a writer and to get away from his dysfunctional family household. Except Shaun runs into one complication after another starting when his application is rejected after his dim-witted guidance counselor sends the wrong application. So, Shaun goes to great lengths with a little help from his girlfriend Ashley and his drugged-out loser brother Lance to get into Stanford any way they see fit.

DIRECTOR: Jake Kasdan

ACTORS: Colin Hanks, Jack Black, Schuyler Fisk, John Lithgow, Catherine O'Hara, Lily Tomlin, Carly Pope

MY RATING: 6 out of 10

ROTTEN TOMATOES RATING: 47%

MOVIEFONE RATING: 53 (3 out of 5 stars)

ROGER EBERT RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

THE GOOD: Although the movie is defined as a comedy, there aren’t many singular “laugh-out-loud” moments, but the movie as a whole is pretty funny; it’s just not the same kind of funny as watching a good comedian on stage. The movie moves along pretty well so it doesn’t make you want to look at your watch and wonder how much longer until it ends. All the characters have a pretty good mix of realism and exaggeration to them. It’s just enough where you don’t pass the movie off as just a slap-stick type of comedy, but also enough embellished enough to not make it a Hallmark kind of movie. I also wanted to note that I loved the soundtrack to the movie, which is mainly a collection of alternative rock.

THE BAD: If you want to watch this as a family, you have to be careful. Although there isn’t a ton of swearing, there are a lot of drug, alcohol and sexual scenes and innuendoes. Most of the “high school kids” in the movie are perpetually drunk, high or having sex or some combination. This isn’t a surprise as this is also an MTV movie. Again, if you were looking for a comedy that will leave your sides sore, this probably is not the movie for you. Don’t get me wrong, I like it, but it just isn’t hilarious for the most part. Instead of a howling laugh, it’ll leave more of a half-smile on your face the whole way through. Also, when you watch the movie, there is a little boy that makes you just want to reach in the TV and slap him across the face. This was obviously done on purpose, but maybe it was done a little too well. I don’t know if the boy could be that good of an actor that young… Just a little side-note.

FUN FACTS:  Jack Black wore a wig throughout the entire film Three people involved in the production have famous parents. Colin Hanks is Tom Hanks' son, Schuyler Fisk is Sissy Spacek's daughter and director Jake Kasdan is Lawrence Kasdan's son Jack Black is writer Mike White's next-door neighbor; his part in the movie was written specifically for him. Surprisingly little was improvised

WORD OCCURS WORD OCCURS A** 6 RACIAL FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN 0 A**H**E 1 B*****D 0 RACIAL FOR HISPANIC 0 B**CH 1 (used as “bitchin’”) C*** 0 RACIAL FOR ASIAN 0 D**N 2 F*** 1 RACIAL FOR CAUCASSIAN 0 G**D*** 2 H**L 0 RACIAL FOR OTHER 0 M*****F****R 0 S**T 1 LORD'S NAME IN VAIN 12 * These numbers are as accurate as possible, but some mistakes may be present. This is to give a general idea of the vulgarity and not to represent a precise measurement system.