Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) review

Movie poster featuring Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky

Ah, what a lovely day! This review is going to be pretty much like every other review, gloating over the masterpiece that George Miller has given us, Now, I haven't seen the first, Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome but if any of them can top this, George Miller should be up there with the directing Gods. I won't give a lot away because you need you need to get to a theater ASAP and see this movie before it rolls out. Unless you have a home theater system (which I still don't think can do the movie justice) you need to see it in theaters. The story centers around Max (Tom Hardy) who is haunted by his past. He is also constantly haunted by the scavenger warboys until he is captured and used as a blood bank for an injured Warboy named Nux (Nicholas Hoult). Meanwhile their tribe, who worship the V8 steering wheels are in war with the other tribes for oil. The overlord Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) sends the warboys and Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) to go to Gas Town and bring back oil. But midway Furiosa commands her squad to take a detour east, Immortan Joe finds out that she is helping his wives escape so their children won't be warlords.Furious, he sends his warboys on the fury road to capture the Imperator and the War Rig that contains the wives. At the same even though injured Nux wants to join the chase and straps his blood bank Max to the pole in front of his car and him and his assistant driver Slit (Josh Helman) join the pursuit!

Nathan Jones as Rictus Erectus and Immortan Joe

I don't want to say how this movie was flawless in specifics but I'll give my general opinion. The practicality of this movie just adds to the beauty that is created by the lush visuals and amazing colorfulness of this movie. Post-apocalyptic movies are usually pretty dark colored and depressing while Mad Max's Wasteland is a visually pleasing atmosphere. Also I read on IMDB that %80 of this movie's effects were practical which is just mind-boggling. This movie isn't an A+ it's just above that.

Fast & Furious 6 Extended Edition (2013) review

The poster featuring the whole cast

Why is Furious 7 rated 18 and above over here? That's basically the reason why we went out of our way to rent the forerunner to the Furious 7 movie, Fast & Furious 6. And because the extended edition was up for the same prize, we said what the hell and got that one. The movie picks up right after the heist from the last movie with the entire crew chilling in their respective lives and not having to think about the mess they went through again. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) (I always cringe when he says family, I don't know why) has settled down with his new life while Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker) and Mia (Jordana Brewster) have found a calm life with their new born son Jack (Max William Crane). But when a British mastermind Shaw (Luke Evans) initiates an attack on a military convoy in Russia but in such high fashion that Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) needs to put together the old crew to take down the former British forces soldier and his group.

From left to right Mia, Brian and Dominic in Brian's new home

I wanted to give this film a 10. I really did. But Gal Gadot's acting is just horrendous. I know she's from Israel but that doesn't warrant a Russian accent, now does it? Also her acting presents more of an ice candy replaceable girl #4 rather than an important part of the film. Also Michelle Rodriguez is frowning in almost every scene but she does that everytime and I can't judge her because maybe that's just Letty's character. Anyway a 9/10 it is.

Welcome To Me (2014) review

Poster with Kristen Wiig

Now, let me just say this movie was...different. Alice Klieg (Kristen Wiig) is a hyper emotional person with borderline personality disorder. She idolizes Oprah Winfrey and buys lottery tickets constantly thinking she is a winner. Finally she wins the big lottery of $86 million dollars. She changes her life, stopping to take meds, cancelling appointments with her psychiatrist
Dr. Daryl Moffet (Tim Robbins) and starts to live in a casino. Does her life take a new meaning or is it just a fantasy ride until the walls of reality come crashing down?

Kristen Wiig and Wes Bentley in Welcome to Me

Ok, ok, ok. I tried to give you as little of the plot as possible because its fun when you go in blind. This movie left me with the impression of how great of an actress Kristen Wiig is. The movie doesn't have a tight story though. It starts out as its own thing but then falls apart in the middle. But the performances were fantastic. Wes Bentley stole the show with his couple of lines but other than that the whole movie is a showcase for Kristen Wiig's acting chops. I wanted to give this movie a 6 based on story but the performances make it worth while so I'll give it an 8. 8/10 it is.

Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014) review

The movie poster

In the honor, or dishonor in my opinion of the new Deadshot (I love the rest of the cast but Deadshot's costume just looks like OK cosplay, I mean there has to be metal, *cries* there has to be a metal helmet) I decided to review an all-around great Suicide Squad which I anticipated so much I actually pre-ordered, I mean I've never pre-ordered movies on iTunes before but I guess this was the rare case.

Hynden Walch's performance definitely put her up there with Tara Strong and Arleen Sorkin

The movie starts off with The Riddler (voiced by Matthew Gray Gubler) having a friendly riddle fest with Amanda Waller (CCH Pounder) who is trying to keep him talking so his location can be pin pointed. But Batman (Kevin Conroy) breaks in and saves Edward Nigma from the ruckus just to interrogate him and send him back to Arkham. Seeing no other choice Waller deploys the task force X also known as Suicide Squad to break into Arkham and retrieve a thumb drive on the Riddler's cane. But first they're collected. Harleen Quinzel (Hynden Walch) is still in therapy where there is little to no progress, Floyd Lawton (Neal McDonough) also known as Deadshot is about to escape Blackgate prison, King Shark (John DiMaggio) is being tracked down for murdering many women in gruesome fashion,  and everybody else are retrieved from similarly bizarre situations. 

King Shark had a cooler design than the comics

Overall, this movie is a testament to how DC's animation studios are the best at depicting comic characters at this point. They modernized the characters to various points such as Joker (Troy Baker) saying "I'm back, bitches!" which is just fantastic. The dialogue was well done and the story really got turned on its head in a fascinating way. Also any movie with Kevin Conroy voicing Batman is top of the crop in my list. 10 out of an insane 10.

Troy Baker nails the Joker's voice to perfection, again!

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) review

James Spader voices ULTRON!!! movie poster

Marvel, Marvel, Marvel, how do you do it? I'm talking about casting James Spader as Ultron, I mean goddamn have you seen this guy on Blacklist? Anyway, in an  attempt to build an everlasting protective system for earth Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) takes Loki's Scepter from Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to build project Ultron with the help of Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). But when he creates Ultron (voiced by James Spader) it doesn't go the way he planned. Ultron destroys Jarvis (Paul Bettany) and vows to help the human race go through an evolution. The Avengers come to blows when Captain America (Chris Evans) compares Tony Stark to S.H.I.E.L.D. who were using the scepter for building weapons, Thor feels used and Ultron is already moving ranks with the two mutants created in Sokovia by the name of Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who even out the odds and now the race is to find Ultron's purpose and bring him down because he is everywhere and is wreaking havoc on Earth. 

Maria Hill is there, Cobie Smulders is back!

I might have not given you enough but man you need to go to the theatres and experience this masterpiece knowing basically nothing. I myself didn't watch any trailers past the first one and I had a great time. The only knock I have againsts this movie is Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) using the same escrima sticks as Nightwing from the DC universe. I mean come on, did she literally go to Gotham and told Dick Grayson that "Hey man, Dick is an irrelevant, old fashioned name." Which would make Dick to burst into tears having heard that a billion times and while he was crying she took away the sticks. But other than that, minor nuisance, the movie was fantastic. A definite 10 out of 10 because it was amazing and Ultron's way of being an artificial intelligence through many robots was well crafted and done.

The sticks looked different in the movie.

Ronin (1998) review

Movie poster featuring Robert De Niro and Jean Reno

Action? Check. Intensity? Check. Thrill? Check. This movie had everything an action movie needs to be perfect but they sort of went beyond that and in the following lines I'll state why I give it the score that I will. This movie is about a retired CIA agent codenamed Sam (played by Robert De Niro) who joins a crew to steal a very precious briefcase, whom the Russian mob and the Irish mob are after. In this crew he has a friend by the name of Vincent (Jean Reno) who is just trying to make a buck as a hired gun. Their chief  Deirdre (played to excellence by Natascha McElhone), the driver Larry (played by Skipp Sudduth), the gunman Spence (played by Sean Bean) and the technician Gergor (Stellan Skarsgard). Their mission is spelled out simple, get the briefcase at all costs before the Russian mob buys it.

Deirdre (Natascha McElhone) and Sam (Robert De Niro) sight seeing in the park near the hotel

This movie features a heavy load of twists and turns but also a lot of great and well done chase scenes. Also things are portrayed more real. For instance in a chase scene down a tunnel in Paris when Seamus O'Rourke (Johnathan Pryce) shoots aimlessly at the pursuers cars he actually shoots civilians by mistake. This is something movies usually avoid. They usually pretend all the gunshots missed the huge crowd they were fired in and when this movie let you know where every bullet was shot it brought something to the table that I had never seen. For being a well acted movie it gets a 5. The action sequences and the well placed twists earns it a 4. And the one extra point that I always save for innovation or surprise is earned for the reason above. So overall I give this film a perfect 10 out of 10.

The Amazing Brick (iOS) review

Amazing brick? More like frustration index meter on flick! (That's a Steve Here And Larson refrence, if you're a friendo, you will probably get it). Back to the game at hand. The Amazing Brick was developed by the same dude lè bros who seem to be the best at frustrating people but keeping it addictive (like the great Dong Nguyen), a.k.a. Ketchapp. They later went on to make other games but I stuck with this one. Mainly because it has non linear boundaries to it such as the ability to bounce back up and not fall while climbing upwards like a vertical Flappy Bird but way more fun than Swing Copters. Anyway overall it's a swell game to play for a while and then get back to other awesome games. The highest medal on this game is cyan colored which can be achieved by scoring 40 hops, points or whatever's or more. Overall I give it 3.5 stars because it wasn't that amazing but still fun. The .5 is there, of coarse for the creativity of letting us bounce back like cougars.