Self/less Review

I really don't understand the title of this movie or why it's stylized the way it is. Self/less? I'm trying to figure out what that means and why they felt the need to put a slash in the middle of the word "selfless" to come up with the title of the movie. Oh well. A title's a title. When I saw the trailers for this movie, I was intrigued. I really love a thought-provoking sci-fi thriller. I was hoping that this movie would turn out as such. But it was a proceed with caution sort of thing, not letting myself get too excited, because this could go one of two ways. It could be like this year's Ex Machina, which is still one of my top movies of the year. If you haven't seen it, then you need to fix that. The other direction this could go is last year's Transcendence, which had good ideas that were extremely poorly executed. Early reviews started to clue me in that this would sadly turn out more like Transcendence, but I still held out hope because there have been movies like this that the critics hated, but I enjoyed. Critics weren't too nice to Lucy and they hated Chappie. I loved Lucy (ha ha, that wasn't intentional, but I do enjoy the show I Love Lucy) and I enjoyed Chappie. So yeah, there was hope. Unfortunately, though, I do have to side with the critics on this one. Self/less is about as weird and dumb as the title of the movie. You can kinda see where they are coming from, but overall it's a miss.

The idea of this movie is not an original one. I was watching a review just now from YouTube channel "What the Flick" and on there Alonso Duralde mentioned that there is a 1966 movie directed by John Frankenheimer called Seconds that Also said is this movie done right. I haven't seen that movie, but I go look it up on IMDb and this is what I read, "An unhappy middle-aged banker agrees to a procedure that will fake his death and give him a completely new look and identity - one that comes with its own price." Yup. That's what I essentially just watched with Self/less. That movie is at a 7.7 on IMDb and a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Apparently I need to go give that movie a shot so I can see this premise executed well, because it is an interesting premise. In the movie, Ben Kingsley plays a very rich man who is dying of cancer and is approached by a guy who offers him to take part in a procedure where he can essentially gain immortality by putting his soul into a young man's body and live life again. But of course this comes with a price. A price that Ben Kingsley is not informed of until after he is conned into going forward with this and is already in the body of Ryan Reynolds.

I won't inform you what this price is because I don't like spoiling movies for people on my blog unless I have already warned them early on in the review. This is not a spoiler review. No spoilers. However, if you have no interest in this movie and you just want to know what happens, go watch the trailer. It's all in there. Like pretty much the whole movie. I'm wondering when studios will ever learn that they DON'T need to spoil their movie to get people to see it. Seriously. But even so, if you just think about the potential outcomes of this movie, you can probably successfully think of exactly what is going to happen. That's one of the big problems here. I like a sci-fi thriller like this to surprise me by taking some crazy twists and turns. One of the best moments in film is that jaw-dropping moment where you can't believe what just happened. I wanted that to happen in this movie. It didn't. It was just a by-the-numbers sci-fi flick that does pretty much exactly what you would expect by reading the plot. No twist. No turns. Not even much suspense. It was just pretty boring and bland.

The other big problem is that when I go see a movie like this, I want it to actually be thought-provoking. When you leave a movie theater and you are just lost in thought by how deep and interesting the movie was, that's another really good moment in film. Nope. Not here. In fact, not to far into the movie it actually almost stopped being a sci-fi movie and just became a brainless action film. I was like, what? What's happening? Why is Ryan Reynolds suddenly a Jason Bourne-like action star? It didn't make sense. There was no build up. This new body this character was in wasn't this super athletic, coordinated action star. He was a family man. Well, kind of. But when Ben Kingsley turned Ryan Reynolds starts to figure things out, at that very second, this company is somehow right there and they try to stop him. And for some weird reason, they know exactly where he is going to be every step of the way before he even knows it. How everything turns out is even more ridiculous. I can do brainless action movies. But I have to be prepared for a brainless action movie. When a sci-fi thriller becomes a brainless action without hardly warning me, there's a problem. I could even dive more into the brainless part because there are a lot of plot holes and elements of the plot that just don't make sense, but I think you get my vibe.

If there is an area where this movie does get a plus, it's in the acting category. Ben Kingsley is in the beginning of this film and he is good in the film, but since that's all he's in, the person that deserves attention here is Ryan Reynolds. For all intents and purposes, he looks like he's having fun throughout, which is a plus. I also really like the guy on an acting level. He's a good actor. He does a good job in this. He's just stuck in a movie with a lot of bad writing. Coincidental or not, I've also noticed that this is a trend for Ryan Reynolds. He's a good actor who for some reason is just not in a lot of good movies. Green Lantern, R.I.P.D., and now this are good examples of the types of movies he is in. I really like The Croods, but he's just a voice actor there. I liked X-Men Origins: Wolverine more than most people, but I will admit that his version of Deadpool in that is pretty darn weak and I'm glad it's getting a proper redo next year. The Proposal? Is that really his best film? I guess so. I do think that's a decent film. But being classified as the best movie that Ryan Reynolds is in seems pretty sad. Sorry girls. Don't hurt me too much for saying that.

Overall, this wasn't a movie that was hard to sit through, but it's not one that's worth your time or money. Ben Kingsley, Ryan Reynolds, and the other actors in this movie do a good job acting. The cinematography is fine. The idea of the movie is an interesting one, but that idea in someone's mind didn't translate to paper or film quite right. I'm not sure who to point to for blame. The movie is directed by Tarsem Singh and written by David and Alex Pastor. Those three might be good candidates for blame. But whatever the case, this just didn't work out. July is a pretty crowded month with Inside Out and Jurassic World acting as excellent June hangovers into a loaded month of huge new releases. Because of that, this movie didn't get a huge release and it's not getting a lot of attention. This is a good thing. There are a lot of great movies out right now and a lot of interesting ones coming up, so please do yourself a favor and forget about this movie. Don't see it. It's not worth it. There are too many movies out there that deserve being seen right now, so don't waste your time with this one. My grade for Self/less is a 5/10.

Minions Review

Minions. They're everywhere. They started out as little side-characters in the adorable and hilarious Despicable Me movie and now they've evolved into quite the phenomenon. Most of Despicable Me 2 was Minion gags. Social media is full of Minion memes. There's quite a lot of video shorts with the Minions. They're everywhere! In fact, they became so popular that Illumination wisely took advantage of them and gave them their own movie. Quite honestly, this is a movie that I almost don't need to review. You know how you feel about the Minions. If you are part of the group that was abhorred by the idea of a Minions movie because you either are really annoyed by the Minions or don't think that a movie full of Minion gags would be any fun, then this isn't your movie. Don't see it. You won't enjoy it. And I think both you and I have known that since this movie was announced. However, if you are like me and you liked the idea of a 90-minute movie stuffed full of Minion gags, then you need to see this because it's quite the blast from start to finish. And I think both you and I have known that it would be since this movie was announced. Get my vibe? I could finish my review there, but of course I will carry on.

One thing that I really appreciated about this movie was the advertising. It spoils nothing. Not that it really matters in this instance. I could tell you the whole plot of the movie and it wouldn't ruin your experience one bit because the point of this is to go laugh at the Minions. Nevertheless, we know from the trailers that Minions have been around since the dawn of time. They find purpose in serving the biggest and baddest villain around, but they have a hard time sticking with one villain because they keep messing things up and killing these villains. So at one point in time, they have no master to serve and they lose all purpose until one Minion named Kevin decides that he's going to go find a new master to serve. He takes Stuart and Bob with him and the three of them travel to the United States where they discover a Villain Con in Orlando, Florida where they learn of Scarlet Overkill. That's all revealed in the trailer. And that's only like the first 20 minutes of this movie. There's a completely new adventure with the Minions and Scarlet Overkill that's not even talked about or mentioned in any of the advertising and I really appreciated that. Just goes to prove that you don't need to divulge your whole movie to have a successful advertising campaign. With that in mind, I'm going to respect this advertising campaign and not divulge anything else about the plot.

There is one major question that a lot of people have about this movie that I do want to discuss. Many people would agree that the Minions made for one heck of a good side dish in the Despicable Me movies. But can they hold their own as the main entree? In my opinion they definitely can. I really enjoyed this whole adventure that they went on. I thought it was a lot of fun. That said, I will admit that this doesn't quite have the magic of the Despicable Me movies, specifically the first one. With no Gru or no girls, this isn't at quite the same level. Gru is a really great character that has a lot of depth to him. The girls are all really adorable and hilarious. There's also a lot of emotion that comes with them and their relationship with Gru. Add in the Minions along with them and you have a formula for an excellent animated movie. In fact, I would safely call Despicable Me an animated classic. I laugh hysterically and am deeply moved every time I watch that movie. No, Despicable Me 2 didn't quite have the magic of Despicable Me either, but having all pieces to this formula still made for an excellent movie.

So no, without Gru and the girls, this isn't quite the same. The emotion of the Despicable Me movies isn't there. But this is exactly what you would expect. 90 minutes of Minion gags. Since I love the Minions and I find these Minion gags really funny, I was laughing pretty hard throughout. If you like the Minion gags as well, this is a movie that you need to go see. Especially if you have kids that love the Minions. They'll be laughing at least twice as hard as you. I guarantee it. And if you don't like the Minions, but your kids do, then I'd highly recommend you go suck it up and earn yourself some parent points by taking your kids to this because they will absolutely love it. There is a little bit of adult-themed humor thrown in there that I questioned a bit, but most of that will go right over the kids' heads. I suppose something about Minion nudity is more funny than anything. But that's nothing new as it also existed in the other movies. They just take it a little bit further here. But overall, I had a lot of fun with this movie. It's not as good as the Despicable Me movies and it won't become an animated classic. But it's just a lot of fun. I'll give Minions an 8/10.

P.S.- Make sure you stay for all of the credits. There are mid-credit scenes as well as a hilarious post-credits scene

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Review

Summer is in full force right now and if you couldn't tell this by looking at the calendar or walking outside, you definitely could tell by looking at the lineup at your local theater or looking at the release schedule for this month. July has a total of four major sequels being released, three of which are fifth installments. But that's not all. There's also a major spin-off movie, Marvel's 12th movie in their cinematic universe, a book adaption, a horror movie, and a couple of raunchy comedies. There was even a remake scheduled to be released this month, but Pan smartly chickened out and got pushed back to October. Yes, I do enjoy myself a good Summer blockbuster. However, I'm always on the lookout for a good change of pace and thus when a movie that was praised at the Sundance Film Festival gets a nationwide release, I'm usually on it. This year, the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for a dramatic film went to Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Previous winners of this top award at Sundance were Whiplash, Fruitvale Station, and Beasts of the Southern Wild, so it's safe to say that if you're looking for a good movie that's lesser known, Sundance films are a good place to look. Last year Whiplash ended up being one of my favorite movies of the year. This year, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl should be in a similar position when I come up with my top movies of the year because it is definitely one of the best so far in my opinion.

While the subject matter that this movie deals with isn't really unique, what I did find fairly unique was the approach they took. Not many movies tell you what's going to happen right at the beginning. Right at the beginning our main character, who was also the narrator, tells us that this is a movie where him and his best friend make a movie so good that it kills a girl. I was like, wait what? Did you just spoil the movie? Shortly after we actually meet the girl, he also assures us that this character we are becoming so attached to does indeed survive. This approach continued throughout. Often we were informed of what was going to happen before it actually did happen. I found this to be a pretty interesting story-telling method. Obviously it wouldn't work very well in many movies, but in this one they pull it off. Then there's the title. Me and Earl and the DYING GIRL. You should know what you are getting into before you start. The movie is about a guy, his best friend, and a girl they meet and befriend who has been diagnosed with leukemia.

So why, you might ask, should you see a movie where the title describes the plot of the film and the movie tells you what is going to happen before it does? My answer to that is that this is a very real movie that deals with these themes in a very honest way. The movie I was thinking of the whole time was last year's The Fault in Our Stars, which was another movie that dealt with life and death themes. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed that movie, but I do have to say that I liked Me and Earl and the Dying Girl even more. There came a point early in the movie where you thought that it very well could go the exact direction of The Fault in Our Stars in that a guy and a girl meet, one of which is diagnosed with cancer, then they fall in love and become what is seemingly a doomed relationship. But no. It specifically stresses that this is not a cheesy romantic movie. And it isn't. Our main character does a good job of making peace with everyone, but he has almost no self-confidence and thus nothing overly sappy ever happens. Thus the chemistry in the movie feels a lot closer to an actual friendship that would happen in high school.

This movie also took me on quite the emotional rollercoaster. And I don't mean to say that it was super sad and depressing the whole time. I mean that there were a whole lot of different emotions throughout. This movie was actually very quirky and hilarious most of the time. The first half of this movie was an all-out comedy. I was laughing so hard and I didn't even think I was going into see a comedy. It was great. Then things happened. Tempers flared. Things got serious. You can go through all the movie cliches about life and death and still please me. The Fault in Our Stars was very pleasing for me in the messages it shared. But this one felt more real to me and thus it completely hit home. I know what it's like to deal with someone who is dying. I've also seen plenty instances of other people trying to deal with this. I won't dive into any details, but there is a whole lot that is crammed into this movie. Every scene feels very important, especially when you spend time afterwards thinking about everything. There's a lot of movies that have messages that I have appreciated. There's also a good chunk of those that I forget about several days later. That's not the case here. This one stuck with me and I have a feeling that it'll be one of those movies that won't ever leave my mind. It's been almost a week now since I've seen it and so far it has only gotten better with time.

What really makes all of it work are the excellent performances by all three of our main characters referred to in the title of the movie. Thomas Mann plays our title character, named Greg, and RJ Cyler plays his best friend Earl. I knew neither of these two going into this movie, but they had a great camaraderie as best friends and because they have known each other their whole lives, they are able to be blatantly honest with each other when the time comes, specifically Earl to Greg in the second half of the movie. The third member of this acting trio I actually do know. Olivia Cooke plays our dying girl. Coincidentally, the other role I know her in is Bates Hotel wherein she also plays a dying girl. She's rather excellent at both roles, so I suppose she's just naturally good at playing a dying girl. It would be interesting to see her in a role where she is perfectly healthy. I'm sure she's great at that, too.

Overall, in a Summer crowded with big blockbusters, if you need a change of pace from the typical Summer affair, I'd highly suggest that you give a shot to Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. There's a lot of great movies that come out of Sundance and in general, I really think it's a worthwhile venture to look up some of these movies that won awards at Sundance and really give them a shot because you'll find a whole lot of hidden gems. That's the case here. Everyone is talking about movies such as Jurassic World and Inside Out this Summer. And for good reason. But I'm betting a lot of people went to the theater this weekend and didn't even think twice about seeing Me and Earl and the Dying Girl as it did enjoy an official wide release this weekend. I'm here to tell you that this is the movie you should be seeing as it's the best one in theaters at the moment and is one of the best of the year so far. In fact, there's only two movies that I've seen this year that I would put ahead of it and thus if I can convince at least one person to decide to check this gem out, then I will have succeeded with this review. My grade for Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a 9.5/10.

Movie Preview: July 2015

According to the calendar, Summer 2015 is only a couple of weeks old. However, in the eyes of Hollywood, Summer is halfway over as it begins in May and goes through August. Being even more specific, though, the biggest three Summer movie months in Hollywood are May, June, and July, with leftovers being given to August, so in reality we're heading into the last big movie month of this Summer. More often than not, July ends up being the highest grossing movie of the Summer. However, that wasn't the case last year and it's questionable as to whether or not that will be the case this year with how huge both Jurassic World and Inside Out ended up being this past month, but one thing is for sure and that is that there are a whole heck of a lot of big releases to talk about as this will be a rather crowded month, so without anymore delay, let's jump right in and see what July has in store for everyone!

July 1st - 5th- 

In order to get a head start on the Independence Day holiday, all of the new releases officially came out on Wednesday instead of Friday this week, which means I'm a bit behind with this post. As far as the five-day weekend, there's a good chance Jurassic World and Inside Out end up at the top of the box office again, but Magic Mike XXL came out on top on Wednesday, so I'll talk about that one first before getting to the new Terminator movie. Three years ago at around this time, Magic Mike became a surprise hit at the box office. Not many thought a movie about a group of male strippers would be a hit outside the female audience going for some good eye candy, but turns out it was a hit and those who saw it were surprised at how much heart the movie had as it got very positive scores by critics. It also proved that Channing Tatum was quite the box office draw as that was his third huge hit in just a matter of months. Now most of the crew is back, outside Matthew McConaughey and as such most of the audience that enjoyed the movie will be back in theaters to enjoy the sequel. Director Steven Soderbergh has left the directing chair for this one, but his first assistant director in a lot of his movies, including Magic Mike, is the one in the directing chair, that being Gregory Jacobs. Going against Magic Mike XXL are the less than stellar reviews as well as the high competition that may make it hard to attract the male audience who'd rather see Jurassic World or Terminator Genisys than a male stripper movie, so this sequel probably won't fly as high as the original, but with how small the budget is, that really isn't necessary.

Speaking of Terminator Genisys, let's jump right into that discussion. The Terminator franchise is, of course, a very popular franchise thanks mostly to the huge popularity of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which is considered as one of the most iconic movies in recent history, at least for its genre. It's also Arnold Schwarzenegger's most famous role. Thus Terminator Genisys has a lot going for it. The fact that it's a Terminator movie will definitely be a draw in and of itself. Also, Arnold holds true to his word in this with his famous line, "I'll be back." He took the fourth movie off and now he's back for this fifth installment. However, despite these benefits that the movie has, Terminator Genisys probably has more working against it. First and foremost is the general reaction that audiences have had towards the previous two installments. People didn't like Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines nearly as much as its predecessor and Terminator Salvation really put a sour taste into fans' mouths. Thus a lot of the die hard Terminator fans are no longer interested in more Terminator movies. Had this fifth installment pleased audiences, fans may have been more forgiving, but reactions to the trailers weren't good and early reaction to the movie itself is even worse. The movie is currently being panned by critics and general audiences aren't being that much nicer to it. With this poor word of mouth, audiences are much more likely to give their money to Jurassic World over the holiday weekend. Terminator Genisys will most likely be relying heavily on overseas totals to make up for the financial losses that it will be experiencing domestically.

Finally, sneaking into a wide release this weekend is Faith of Our Fathers. It's not likely that this will make a huge dent in the box office this weekend, but this is from Pure Flix Entertainment, which is a studio that has made a whole lot of small Christian movies which usually attract a few Christian movie goers, but not a whole. Last year they surprised the world by having God's Not Dead breakout in a huge way. Since then they have been trying their best to replicate that surprise success and have been more aggressive in booking theaters, but expecting that type of success every time is probably unfair. There will be a few that will be interested in checking this one out, especially because it does have a holiday tie-in as well as a Christian theme. But most people will probably overlook this one. If anything, look for it to be closer fellow Pure Flix release Do You Believe? which opened to $3.5 million this past March.

July 10th - 12th-

So far this Summer, each month has been able to produce a movie that has gone on to earn at least $400 million at the domestic box office. This is of course a very unique trend, but if there is one movie from July that has potential to keep that trend going it is Minions. Now I'm making no prediction there, so don't hold me to that, but the buzz for Minions has been through the roof this last month leading up to it, so if it doesn't reach $400 million, it should at least hit the $300 million mark. If it does so, it will be the fifth movie of the year to reach that following Furious 7, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, and Inside Out (which hasn't yet, but will by the end of its run). Normally popular sidekicks in huge animated movie don't fair as well when they get their own movies. Puss in Boots wasn't even close to matching the Shrek movies and Penguins of Madagascar ended up being a huge domestic flop, but Minions should be different as they pretty much were the stars of both Despicable Me movies. Yes, there are plenty of people who are annoyed by the minions and are mad that they are getting their own movie, but the number of people who love the minions far outweigh the haters. To put into perspective of how many people love the minions, the facebook page for the Minions movie recently passed 30 million likes, which puts it into the top 10 most liked movie pages ever on facebook. And it hasn't even been released yet. Yeah, people are excited for this movie. Inside Out opened to $90 million last month. Despicable Me 2 opened to $83 million. Minions should at least get in that range. The record for an animated movie on opening weekend is Shrek the Third at $121 million. I'm not going to predict a record for Minions, but with how this year has gone so far, I won't be surprised if it gets it.

Horror movies are a dime a dozen these days as it seems like I'm talking about at least one every time I do one of these movie previews. This month's horror movie is The Gallows. This one also comes from producer Jasom Blum, who has had pretty decent success with the horror movies that he's produced. His horror movies include the Paranormal Activity movies, the Insidious movies, the Sinister movies, and last year's Ouiji. Love or hate the genre, these type of movies are really cheap to make, thus even a final total of $20 or $30 million is considered a profit. The Gallows follows a group of students at a high school who attempt to honor the 20-year anniversary of a play that was put on at the school which resulted in the accidental death of one of the students at the time. You could probably guess what happens next. The advertising on this movie has focused heavily on the reaction of people who have said that this is a terrifying movie. If that holds true, then this could end up as a decent success for Jason Blum. Personally I'm reminded of last July's Deliver Us from Evil, which opened just below $10 million and tripled its opening weekend with a final total of $30 million. If The Gallows replicates that, it would still be considered a success.

The last movie of this week is the sci-fi thriller Self/Less. In this movie, Ben Kingsley plays an old, successful rich man who is dying from cancer, so some huge scientific break through allows him to transfer his consciousness into the body of a young, healthy man (Ryan Reynolds) in order to extend his life. This of course will bring a whole lot of moral dilemmas into the equation that the movie will most likely discuss. The tagline in the trailer is "Would you take a life to live forever?" This is followed by the advertisement of their website at the end which is www.outlive.life. Sci-fi movies recently have been a bit of a hit or miss. An example of a miss was last year's Transcendence or this year's Chappie. An example of a hit was Ex Machina from earlier this year. It's hard to predict which route Self/Less will take. In a crowded July with a moderate release, if it ends up being a miss, there is a strong chance that the movie could be completely ignored. However, if well-liked it could be a sleeper candidate.

July 17th - 19th-

After a huge showing in May with Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel is back at it with their final Phase II, that of Ant-Man. It's hard to bet against Marvel right now as they have shown time and time again that they are really good at making great super-hero movies and have surprised fans on multiple occasions, the most latest being last year's Guardians of the Galaxy. However, Ant-Man is a project that has had a lot of people raising their eyebrows. Not only does it not sound like the greatest idea for a superhero movie, but the reaction to the first trailer was less than stellar. Many have predicted that this will be Marvel's first slip-up. Not so fast, though. The premier for this movie has happened and the early word is very positive. James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy, said that this was his favorite Avengers movie since the first Iron Man, excluding the one that he is obviously partial to. For those who don't know much about Ant-Man, he was actually one of the first Avengers in the comics and has a lot of great abilities that recent trailers have done a great job of showcasing, like his ability to gain super-human strength when he shrinks. Marketing has also made sure to let audiences know that this will once again be a very light-hearted, humorous movie. A common comparison has been that of Guardians of the Galaxy, which was another risky project by Marvel that payed huge dividends. It probably won't reach those levels, but this also won't be Marvel's first bomb. It seems fair to predict that this ends up in the range of the first Thor and Captain America  movies.

The other wide release for this is the first of two adult-themed comedies being released in the second half of July, that being Trainwreck. Those who watched the NBA Finals this year should be very familiar with this movie, as it was heavily pushed during the finals due to the presence of LeBron James in the movie. LeBron James was, of course, playing during these NBA Finals, so that heavy advertising was very smart as all of the TV spots spent most of their time showing LeBron's scenes in this movie. After seeing all of those, you would've thought he was the main star of the movie. But he's just a side kick. The actual stars are Amy Schumer and Bill Hader. Amy plays a girl who doesn't believe that a committed relationship is possible for her, which of course is put into question when she meets Bill Hader's character. The movie is directed by Judd Apatow, who has had a lot of success with this genre as both director and producer, so the probability of success here seems pretty good.

July 24th - 26th-

As you can tell, this month has been full of some pretty big franchise names and sequels. However, one of the biggest movies of the month will be a non-franchise movie and that is Pixels, Some saw the trailer for the first time, noticed that it starred Adam Sandler and Kevin James, and immediately categorized it with all the other Adam Sandler comedies. That's definitely not the case here. This is much different than the typical Adam Sandler comedy. A more interesting comparison might be Disney's animated flick Wreck-It Ralph as both movies deal with classic 80's video game characters. In this case, NASA has sent a time capsule into space with examples of our life and culture in hopes to send a message of peace to other life forms. Unfortunately this was taken the wrong way as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Centipede, and other classic arcade game characters have come down to attack the earth. To stop them, the government has turned to four video game experts from the 80's played by Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Josh Gad, and Peter Dinklage. This is definitely a movie that's not taking itself seriously and is instead just having a lot of fun with a silly idea and audiences going into this should take the same approach. Because, you know, who doesn't want to see a movie where Pac-Man and Donkey Kong are attacking earth?

Last Summer, The Fault in Our Stars became a surprise hit. This Summer, another best-selling John Green novel gets the big screen treatment and that is Paper Towns. This movie is a coming-of-age drama in which Nat Wolff, who also played a role in The Fault in Our Stars, plays more of a straight-edged teenage kid who gets a visit from his female neighbor played by up-and-coming actress Cara Delevingne. She takes him on quite the adventure that night, trying to teach him how to live life a little. Right after this, she disappears, leaving clues behind for him and his friends to follow in order to find her. The Fault in Our Stars hit all the right chords last year, which is why it became a big hit. If Paper Towns is able to replicate that, it should be able to have a decent run despite a very crowded month.

The third movie of the weekend sees Jake Gyllenhaal back on the screen with Southpaw. Last year, most people were rather upset that Gyllenhaal was snubbed at the Oscars for his performance in Nightcrawler. This year he is back with three performances, all of which look like decent candidates to get him back in the race. Southpaw is the first of these, the other two being Everest and Demolition. Even if Southpaw isn't the role that gets him an Oscar nomination, one thing is for sure and that is that he once again does a great job of transforming himself for the role, just like he did in Nightcrawler. This time around he plays a boxer who is really successful in the ring, but a chain of events occurs that cause his personal life to fall apart around him. Rachel McAdams, Forest Whitaker, and Naomie Harris are co-stars of Gyllenhaal and the movie is directed by Antoine Fuqua, director of Training Day and The Equalizer.

July 31st - Aug 2nd-

The final weekend of July actually sees the last two days of the weekend in August, but if you've been following this blog you'll know that I always include weekends like this in the month where the weekend begins, even if that's for only one day, so we get five weekends to talk about this month and four next month. In this final weekend, July is set to go out with a bang as we see the release of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. This is the fifth installment of the popular Mission: Impossible franchise, which means this is third fifth installment of the month following Terminator Genisys and Vacation, which gets released two days before Rogue Nation. I'll talk about Vacation in a second. Unlike the Terminator franchise, Rogue Nation actually has a whole lot of promise because the Mission: Impossible franchise is trending in a very positive way as the most recent installment, Ghost Protocol, is seen by many as the best in the franchise. It also earned a very healthy $209 million here domestically as well as a $694 million worldwide total back in December of 2011. Initially Rogue Nation was also set to come out in December, but Paramount wisely decided to move it up to July to avoid Star Wars: The Force Awakens. That probably made the studios for the current July releases a little nervous with the added competition, but outside Warner Bros'  Pan, they all decided to stay put and deal with it. It'll be interesting to see how it all turns out because Ant-Man, Pixels, and Rogue Nation will all be fighting for the same type of audience.

Now to what is, as I just mentioned, the second fifth installment of the month in Vacation. I refer to Vacation as the second and Rogue Nation as the third because Vacation comes out on Wednesday the 29th, two days before Rogue Nation. I just talked about Rogue Nation first because that should be the bigger hit of the weekend, but Vacation does have a lot going for it. The Vacation franchise started back in 1983 with National Lampoon's Vacation, which was written by John Hughes and based on his short story Vacation of '58 which was published in National Lampoon magazine in 1979. The movie follows Clark and Ellen Griswold as they take their two children, Rusty and Audrey, on a vacation to California's Walley World. This is a road trip from Illinois to California that ends up having a lot of obstacles on the way. The movie was directed by Harold Ramis and starred Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo as Clark and Ellen. The movie was a big success and spawned two sequels in the 80's and one in the late 90's. While the first one was a lot raunchier and thus got the R-rating, the three sequels were given a lighter, more family-friendly rating of either PG-13 or PG. This fifth installment, titled simple as Vacation, follows Clark and Ellen's son Rusty as he decides to take his own family on a vacation to Walley World before it closes for good. Ed Helms will be playing the lead role of Rusty while Leslie Mann takes the role of his sister Audrey. Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo will be reprising their roles as parents, and now grandparents, Clark and Ellen. The movie also has a whole handful of other big names in it, led by Chris Hemsworth, and is the directorial debut of directing duo John Francis Daley and Johnathan M. Goldstein. The movie also goes back to its R-rated roots of the original, which was the most successful of the bunch when adjusted for inflation.

Pixar Movies: Best to Worst

This past weekend I went to see Pixar's latest film Inside Out. Not too long after I saw it, I was scrolling through my subscriptions on YouTube and I noticed that one of the channels I follow, What the Flick, had done a video where they ranked all of Pixar's movies from best to worst. Being that I love making lists, I decided to take on that challenge myself. Holy cow this ended up being a tough challenge. There are so many great Pixar movies that have been made. In fact, there has only been one of their 15 movies that I haven't liked and most of the 14 that I have liked I've absolutely loved. Thus putting this all together almost felt like ranking my family members. It felt wrong. But since they're only movies and not family members, I've done it anyways. So just remember as you go through this that this is my list. The movies at the top of the list are movies that I personally enjoyed most. To break the tie, I often looked at which movies were most memorable to me or made the most impact on my life. You'll probably disagree with this list. In fact, that's so likely that I'm almost ready to guarantee that everyone who reads this will disagree with at least one movie's placement if not more or even most. But that's okay. The great thing about an opinion is that everyone has one and in this case, no one is wrong. So after you read through my list, you should share your opinion with me. Make your own list and post it in the comments. Let's have a lot of fun with this! Now with all that said, it's time to dive in. As I always do, I'll start at the bottom and move up.

15- Cars 2

I told you that there's only one Pixar movie that I don't like. Based on recent online conversations, I'm sure there were at least a few of you that were thinking that a different movie that would end up in this spot. But no. I said that this was a hard list to create, and I stand by that, but putting Cars 2 here was actually the easiest part of creating this list. This movie was awful. The story made no sense. There were no touching moments or inspirational messages. Pixar just made a whole freaking butt-load of money on toys after the first Cars and so they made a sequel as a pure cash grab to make more money on toys. That's why all kinds of different cars, trucks, planes, and other vehicles showed up in this movie. Toys from Cars 2 were already lining the walls at the stores before this movie was even released. Pathetic. Had the movie actually been good, then fine. But it wasn't. It was a mess. The only thing this movie teaches you is that even the best people screw up on occasion.

14- Monsters University

In my opinion, the thing that Pixar does best is create fun, original movies and for the longest time, that's all they really did. In fact, they're a studio that everyone praised for their constant originality. Everyone else in Hollywood was sequel-happy, but Pixar kept doing originals. Until Toy Story 3. That movie was so good that Pixar sadly gave into the sequel-happy business that we live in today. Right after Toy Story 3, we got the disaster that was Cars 2 and not too long after that we got a prequel to Monsters, Inc., which was ALMOST another disaster. Luckily this movie had a really good ending that saved it from being a disaster and turned it into a movie that I can claim I enjoy, but that ending doesn't quite make up for the fact that the first two-thirds of this movie was really dull and pointless. Not to mention it had a few continuity errors with Monsters, Inc. In the end, it wasn't bad, but the world still didn't need Monsters University.

13- Cars

You're not going to believe this when I say it as Cars didn't higher than 13 on this list, but I actually spend most of my time defending Cars. No, I didn't like Cars 2 at all and I cringed when I heard the announcement of a Cars 3 (c'mon Pixar!), but I thought this first movie was fine. Owen Wilson makes a great Lightning McQueen who has a lot of good, honest character development that teaches the good message that you often need to stop and smell the roses and appreciate the small things around you. It also has some great side characters, including the hilarious Larry the Cable Guy as the voice of Mater and a fun race sequence at the end. It's a good solid movie by Pixar. It just doesn't live up to the rest of the movies on this list is all, which is a theme that you will notice going forward. A lot of Pixar movies made a huge impact on my life. Cars wasn't really one of them. It's a good movie. But that's it.

12- WALL-E

I love WALL-E. I really do. He's an absolutely freaking adorable robot that is fun to watch, especially when he meets EVE. Their interaction throughout the movie was great, as was all the small little details around the wasteland that is Earth in this movie. I also liked the idea of limited dialogue. But when I say I love WALL-E, you'll notice that I didn't italicize anything because I'm referring to the character of WALL-E and not the movie called WALL-E. I don't love the movie WALL-E. I don't hate it, but there's a lot of issues that I have with the movie that prevent me from putting it any higher on this list. And yes, you guessed it, all of those issues have everything to do with the political preachiness of the movie. Yes, I understand the opposing point of view. Many claim that there is no political aspect to this movie. But movies are a form of art and as such can be interpreted many different ways without being wrong. When I watch WALL-E, I feel like I'm watching an environmentalist preach to me about how fat, lazy, and too reliant us humans are on technology and how if we don't change, the world is going to go to crap. Yes, this distracts me from enjoying the movie. If you don't see that at all or it doesn't bother you, then I'm happy for you. I really am.

11- A Bug's Life

Now here's a Pixar movie that I think is very under-rated. This was Pixar's second outing after Toy Story and I personally think it was a very successful outing. It came out at like the same time as Dreamworks' Antz, which was odd. I don't know why we were on a bug fetish that year, but I personally thought both were decent movies, with A Bug's Life being the better of the two. The big problem with A Bug's Life is that it really hasn't stood the test of time like other early Pixar movies such as Toy Story; Monsters, Inc.; or Finding Nemo. I don't mean to say that it has become worse with time. It's still a good movie. It's just one that I feel is more forgettable. I wasn't ever in love with this movie. I've never seen it as a must own Pixar movie. There's a lot of Pixar movies that we did own and watch repeatedly growing up, but I don't think this one of them. Now that's been 17 years since Pixar released this movie, it's one that you will often forget about when you're trying to name all of their movies.

10- Brave

Out of all the movies that I've put on this list, Brave was the hardest one to place. As far as the release date, it was sandwiched between Cars 2 and Monsters University and was part of the underwhelming trio of Pixar movies following the epicness of Toy Story 3. What makes it hard to place, though, is the fact that this is arguably the most different Pixar movie. It's the one Pixar movie that doesn't feel like a Pixar movie at all. It feels like a Disney princess movie. Ironically, this came out the same year as Wreck-It Ralph, which was a Disney movie that felt like a Pixar movie. Yes it's true that Brave doesn't stand up to the rest of the Pixar movies. You can say it's one of their most predictable outings and thus not as creative or bold as their other movies. But maybe it doesn't deserve to be compared to Pixar's other movies. Maybe it deserves to be compared to other Disney princess movies, in which case this holds up pretty well. All of those can be called predictable if you think about it. Brave is a fun, goofy movie with very likable characters, especially our strong female role of Merida, who would probably be my favorite Disney princess if we were to put her in that category. The animation in this movie is also beyond beautiful and it has an amazing score. So maybe I've been too harsh on it. That's why it's ended up a lot higher on this list than I thought it would.

9- Ratatouille

We're now in single digits on this list, which coincidentally is also the point where we go from movies that I like to movies that I love. I called A Bug's Life under-rated and I almost want to call Ratatouille under-rated because I've talked to plenty of people who haven't actually seen it. It's also one of Pixar's lower grossing films with the lowest opening weekend for a Pixar film in the 2000's. I guess people just weren't quite as interested in a movie about a rat? Which is a definite shame if that's the case. I know a lot of people who would put this in their top three. I obviously haven't put it that high as it's not quite as memorably as the eight movies above it, but this is a great movie that teaches a fantastic lesson about success. If you want to do something, don't let others tell you that you can't do it even if the goal seems implausible. If a rat can be a chef, then whatever your goal is can be achieved. Also this movie does a good job of making you hungry, so kudos there.

8- Toy Story 2

It's unfair to call Toy Story 2 the worst movie in the trilogy. That makes it sound like it's a bad movie. It's not. Instead I like to call it the third best. It may not have quite the emotion of the third or the extreme-high nostalgia of the original, but this brings back all my favorite characters from the first and introduces several more that are simply excellent and takes audience on an excellent adventure. And to think that this was originally planned as a direct-to-video sequel. Good decision to throw this into theaters. In fact that was a $485 million decision, as that's how much it made worldwide. Many still think that this is the best of the Toy Story movies as well as Pixar's greatest movie. In which case I hope you don't hurt me for not claiming the same because I love all three Toy Story movies.

7- Up

This one hurts. Man, this one hurts. I know a lot of people will say that this is Pixar's best, which means if you have completely agreed with me up to this point, this is where I will probably lose you. Just know that when I came up with my first draft of this list, I had this at number two. I wanted to put it really high, but the more and more I stared at the list, the more I realized that there were just too many Pixar movies that I like better to have this that high, which is why this list has been tough to make. Up is one of Pixar's best and most emotional stories and definitely has one of the best love stories I've seen in an animated movie. It also has a lot of great characters, animal and human, as well as a ton of laugh-out-loud humor. I have no complaints about this movie. There's just six movies that I enjoyed more, which says more about the awesomeness that is Pixar than anything else.

6- Inside Out

And here we are with the most recent Pixar movie, which just scored the highest opening weekend ever for a original Pixar movie and second best behind Toy Story 3. I'm not going to spend a ton of time on this one as I just recently wrote a long review on this movie and thus I will direct you there for more details, but let me quickly say here I think this is Pixar's smartest movie and one that adults will probably enjoy more than the kids simply because they'll understand all of the references that the movie makes about the psychology of a human. It's too early to call it an animated classic as it's been in theaters for less than a week, but I definitely think this has the power to become one.

5- Finding Nemo

Did you know that when you adjust for ticket price inflation that Finding Nemo is actually Pixar's biggest hit in the domestic box office? Did you also know that the movie also celebrated it's 12th birthday last month? Crazy, right? Finding Nemo is definitely one of Pixar's most memorable movies, which is why it has stood the test of time so well. I initially had this one a bit lower, but as I stared at the list I realized that had to change because in my opinion this is one of Pixar's best. Out of all the Pixar movies, this one is almost easily the most quotable. I'd also argue that this movie has Pixar's best casting choice with Ellen DeGeneres as Dory. I was initially worried when word came out that they were doing a sequel to this movie, but when I saw Ellen's official announcement of Finding Dory and how excited she was to be doing this project, I became excited. Overall, Finding Nemo has everything you want in a Pixar movie. It has heart, it has emotion, it has adventure, it has excitement, it has humor, it has great characters, it has an amazing story, it has a great message. A definite grand slam for Pixar.

4- Monsters, Inc.

Every once in a while I run into people who don't like Monsters, Inc. and that honestly baffles me. Outside the original Toy Story, this is the Pixar film that I watched the most growing up as a teenager with my two younger brothers as this came out 14 years ago when I was 12 years old. These characters, specifically Mike and Sully, are just as much classics as the Toy Story characters. John Goodman and Billy Crystal have had long, successful careers, but when I think of both of them, this movie is what comes to my mind first as the two of them are the perfect voice actors for these two characters. As far as this movie goes, I also think it's probably Pixar's most clever idea as they take this long-standing idea of having monsters in your closet and spin it so that the monsters are just doing it as a job to power their world and are in fact terrified of kids. Just like what I said with Findning Nemo, this is an all-around perfect movie for Pixar with a little bit of everything you want from a Pixar movie. In fact, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo are pretty equal in my eyes. So much so that I can't really even explain why I give the slight edge to Monsters, Inc.

3- The Incredibles

We're on the home stretch with this list and this top five has been really difficult to put together because of how close all of these movies are in terms of greatness. Being honest, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo may better all around Pixar movies than The Incredibles, but I made the decision to put The Incredibles ahead of both of them because there is one area where The Incredibles has a huge advantage. That's the fact that in my opinion The Incredibles is by far the most entertaining Pixar movie. It's also the only superhero movie they've done and I have a special place in my heart for superhero movies. Speaking of which, forget about this list for a second. A couple of years back I created a list of my personal favorite superhero movies and this movie was on there. There's been a whole slew of new superhero movies that have come out since I did that list that would require a revision of that list, but I'm pretty sure that The Incredibles would still make it. It's THAT good. It's a wildly entertaining ride from beginning to end, so of course it belongs high on this list. I'm so glad they finally announced they are doing a sequel because this is the one movie that everyone has been begging Pixar to do a sequel for.

2- Toy Story

If you've actually read this whole blog instead of just looking at the titles, first off congratulations. Go reward yourself. But second, you probably saw this coming because I have referenced Toy Story several times now. I love Toy Story. It came out when I was only six years old and I watched the movie more times than I can probably count and have enjoyed it every time. I love these characters. I owned a Buzz growing up. My brother had a Woody. One of us had a Mr. Potato Head. It was also such a great idea because all of us have imagined our own toys coming to life when we aren't watching and thus this is very relatable to every kid. The animation in this is also incredible. This came out in 1995, which was 20 years ago and yet it still holds up today. Before Toy Story came out, the only animated movies that really came out were by Disney. Now because of Toy Story, we have an almost countless number of animation studios that have created a whole bunch of great movies. Toy Story was revolutionary. So not only is Toy Story an excellent movie on it's own right, but I have Toy Story to thank for pretty much every animated movie that has come in the last 20 years. Of course I had to put it this high. In fact, the only Pixar movie to top the original Toy Story for me is, of course...

1- Toy Story 3

Yup. And if you've talked to me in person you should know that this was no surprise. I've said many times that this was a hard list to make. The easiest movie to place was Cars 2 as the worst. The second easiest was Toy Story 3. In fact, these are the only two movies that have stayed in the same spot among my many revisions. What makes Toy Story 3 so good is the high level of nostalgia that it brought with it. Like I said, I grew up with Toy Story. I watched it so many times growing up and absolutely loved all of the characters. It's crazy to think that there was a 15 year difference between Toy Story and Toy Story 3, but when the third chapter was finally done, they picked the perfect subject matter as it was about Andy going off to college for the first time and having to say goodbye to all of his toys. Not only was this nostalgic and sad because I loved the characters in Toy Story, but it was a very personal one for me because it reminded me of my childhood, specifically all my toys and stuffed animals that I had growing up and how much fun I had with them. All of those memories just flooded in and I couldn't hold it in. I'm not a crier when it comes to movies. Not that I have anything against crying, I just don't cry during movies, but this is one of those movies that almost got me. Twice. Such a perfect movie. It was also the perfect ending to the perfect trilogy. Then Pixar announced Toy Story 4. Uhhhhhhhhhhhh......... in Pixar we trust? Maybe?

Inside Out Review

It's been 20 years now since Pixar revolutionized the animation world with Toy Story. Maybe it's just me, but that seems crazy. Toy Story will be celebrating its 20th birthday this November. I can't remember if I actually saw it in theaters, but I do remember it being in theaters and it's definitely a movie we bought shortly after it came out. On VHS. That's sounds so old-fashioned now. Anywho, I watched that movie many, many times growing up. Following Toy Story, and continuing for 15 years, Pixar blessed my life with movie after movie that was just fantastic. Every time I'd see a new Pixar movie I would go in expecting greatness and I would walk out being perfectly satisfied because that's exactly what I got. Never did I think I would watch a Pixar movie and be disappointed. But then it happened. After they released my personal favorite in 2010, that of Toy Story 3, this Pixar movie called Cars 2 became a thing. Man. What a disaster! Brave and Monsters University weren't bad, but they also weren't up to Pixar's standards and last year we didn't even get a Pixar movie. Pretty soon I've realized it's been five years since we've gotten a great Pixar movie and I was wondering when they'd be back. I was hoping Inside Out was going to be the glorious return of Pixar. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm happy to announce to you that it is. Pixar is back!

Ever since I first heard of the idea for Inside Out, I was intrigued. Before there was a trailer or a title or even a scheduled release date, I heard that Pixar had this idea that they were working on where they would go inside the mind of an 11-year old girl. I didn't even really know exactly what that meant or what they were going to do with it, but it sounded like they had a great idea there. When I finally saw the trailer for this movie, the intrigue turned into pure excitement as I saw a glimpse of how this idea has been put into reality. Now seeing this whole thing in it's full glory was quite a treat. I don't want to say too much about the plot of this movie because the advertising has actually done a good job of keeping most of the movie a secret, which can be annoyingly rare these days as some movies feel the need to spoil the whole movie in the trailers in order to get people's attention (yes I'm looking at you Jurassic World). But in describing this movie, I will give you the very basics. The movie is about an 11-year-old girl named Riley whose life was going great until her parents move. Yeah, that is always tough on a kid. In order to really explore what she's going through, we see most of the movie through the perspective of these characters inside her head that represent emotions that control what Riley does. We have Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust.

Being that most animated movies made these days are directed mainly towards kids, I often am able to judge them a bit differently. There may be certain plot devices that aren't great or cliches that are used, but if I know it's something that the kids will love, then I can forgive it and give the movie a pass. However, I always say that despite being geared towards kids, the best animated movies are ones that appeal to both kids AND adults. If they successfully do this, they get a lot more kudos in my book than a movie that makes the kids laugh but bore the adults. This does happen quite a bit in my opinion, but very rarely do you see an animated movie that appeals more towards adults than kids. Pixar themselves have done this several times. While a young kid might have fun with the events and characters in Toy Story 3, they don't know what it's like to grow up and be forced to part ways with all the toys you used to love. Thus I feel Toy Story 3 would mean a lot more to adults like me who went through all of this. Similar things can be said about other Pixar movies like Up and Ratatouille. As you could've guessed by now, Inside Out does this as well. I feel adults will appreciate this more than kids.

Sure, kids are going to have fun with this movie. They'll laugh at all the characters doing silly things and they'll have fun with the adventures that they go on. But there's a lot of things in this movie that adults will appreciate a lot more. No, I don't mean adult-themed jokes and gags that some animated movies subtly throw in there that go right over the heads of kids that they figure out years later when they watch the movie again. The whole subject matter of this movie is very deep and psychological. I don't want to get into specifics, but in general terms the human mind is a very complex place. I'm no psychologist by any means, but psychological movies are movies that I really enjoy and I feel that this movie does a dang good job of accurately portraying what the human mind is like, especially one that is as complex as an 11-year-old girl who is put through quite the traumatic experience. It's got a be a pretty wild ride up there. But that's not all. The way in which this movie does it is so unique and original that it's one that I will never forget. In fact, when my own mind is going through an emotional roller-coaster, this is the exact movie I will be thinking of. I'll be picturing all the different emotion characters inside the control room of my mind and what they are going through to control this person that is me. It's definitely a crazy place up there.

Are there flaws to be had with this movie? Eh, not really to be honest. Sure, you could nitpick to the extreme and say this wasn't as emotionally powerful as Toy Story 3 or Up. The adventures in the movie may not have been as exciting as The Incredibles. But would it be fair to expect every Pixar movie to be the new best Pixar movie? No, it wouldn't. But definitely don't take these statements the wrong way. This is an emotional movie. Those characters inside my head were doing double duty while watching this one. I was laughing threw a lot of it. I went down memory lane many times. I got all the warm fuzzy feel-goods. And yes, there were a few scenes where I almost cried. It wasn't quite on the Toy Story 3 level, but if you cry during movies, make sure to bring a few tissues to this movie. No this isn't Pixar's all-time best, but it's easily the best since Toy Story 3 and in looking at all of Pixar movies as a whole, this is up there with the best of Pixar's movies. Just recently I saw a YouTube video that ranked all of Pixar's movies from best to worst. Being that I love making lists, I challenged myself to do the same and it's going to be a dang hard challenge, but when you see this, you'll notice that Inside Out will be high up there.

In the end, I do think Inside Out is one of the most interesting animated movies I have seen lately and certainly one of Pixar's best, which is high praise considering how many great movies they have made. In giving a grade, I do think it's important to remember that a number is just a number. I do like giving a number at the end of a review because it gives people an overall idea of what I thought of that movie, but much more important than a number is what I actually say about the movie and I hope you're focusing more on that than the number I give. No, there's no specific instance that triggered these thoughts, despite what you may think, but it's just something that I've been thinking of recently and I decided I'd share. I was going back and forth in my mind as to what grade I wanted to give this movie and thought to myself, does it really matter that much? My view of the movie might change over time anyways and when I create my end of year lists, I always ignore the numbers I gave to the movies. That said, I still am going to give this movie a grade and that grade is a 9/10. It's a great movie and if you are a fan of Pixar, this is a must see.

Jurassic World Review

It's been a long time since we as an audience were given the pleasure of returning to the Jurassic Park universe, which has been a universe that I have personally been a huge fan of. Mostly anyways. I don't know how old I was when I first watched the Jurassic Park movies and read the books. I know I would've been four years old when the first movie came out and eight years old when Lost World came out. I know I didn't see them when they were brand new, but I did see them when I was very young and I really loved both of them. Jurassic Park is of course a classic and most people would agree with me on that. However, there's a lot of people that really hate The Lost World and I really don't understand. Sure, story-wise it's not as strong, but in terms of dinosaur action it is extremely entertaining. In fact, there was a point in my life where I liked The Lost World more than the first because of how entertaining it was. Don't hurt me too much for saying that because that's before I actually appreciated story when it came to movies, which is where the first excels. I also read and loved both books by Michael Crichton, which is a very different experience since the movies don't really follow the books. Especially not the second one. The only thing they really have in common is the title. Jurassic Park III? Yeah, we don't speak of that one. It's an atrocious mess in so many ways.

With that background in mind, it's time to dive into this Jurassic World movie. A fourth movie in this franchise has been in the works for quite some time and I'm really glad that it took them so long to make it because a Jurassic Park IV shortly after Jurassic Park III would've been a movie that no one would've cared about. I have a feeling that it would've gone the way of Steven Spielberg's Jaws franchise. Ever seen the fourth Jaws movie? Yeah, you don't want to. Instead it's now been 14 years and we are calling it Jurassic World, giving the feel that it is more of a reboot than a sequel. In case you are wondering, no it's not a reboot. The previous three movies are still relevant in this, especially the first which is referenced and given tribute to several times. But it is a new cast, new characters, new story, etc. So it feels like a reboot. And it works. I think it successfully brings the franchise back to it's former glory.

Is this a perfect movie, though? Absolutely not. Despite it being a worthy sequel, there are plenty of issues with this movie. The first in my opinion is the story. It's not really a justified story that makes a lot of sense. Sure, you could argue that bringing dinosaurs back to life is not really a realistic possibility. But if, in theory, we were to find a way to bring dinosaurs back to life, I feel the first movie accurately tells the story of how that would go. Even though the story in the second movie isn't as strong as the first, the reasoning for them to come back to the island is very plausible. Once again, I ignore the third one. But in terms of story, this is a lot more far-fetched than the first two. There's a lot of stupid people doing a lot of stupid things that no one would realistically do, especially considering what happened in the first two movies. We learn in the first movie that creating a park with live dinosaurs is not a good idea. Bad things will happen. People will become lunch. But we do it anyways. Why? Because we needed a movie. But that's not the end of it. The world apparently forgets what happened in the first two movies and storm out to this park anyways. And for some reason they get bored of the park. So to counteract this, the park managers decide to create hybrid dinosaurs to keep interest, the most recent of which is the holy-fetch-asaurus. I won't tell you much about this new huge carnivore, but the more you learn about it, the more you begin to wonder why in the heck would they create a dinosaur like this. Oh yes, because we needed a movie.

The other major thing that I need to point out is that the pacing of the movie is off. The best monster movies do spend a lot of time building anticipation and don't show the monster until later in the movie. This is something that Jurassic Park does perfectly. If you go re-watch the movie, you may be surprised to learn how far into the movie you get before you first see the t-rex. But despite this, you aren't bored. Jurassic World tried to follow this formula and I appreciate that attempt, but I was bored. Whenever dinosaurs weren't chasing and eating people, I was bored. I shouldn't have been begging the movie to get to the dinosaur action. I should've enjoyed the whole build-up. But I didn't. It also didn't help that for the most part, this movie is super predictable. I will say it was cool to see Dr. Hammond's original goal with this park finally realized, but you know exactly what's going to happen. Part of that is the trailers give away the whole story. The other part is that it's just super obvious. You have a dinosaur park created. Something bad is going to happen. You know that. And when the trailers told you that they made a holy-fetch-asaurus, well you know exactly the bad thing is going to happen. The fact that the trailers take it even further makes in even more frustrating.

Now that I've gotten all of that out of my system, it's time to give you some positives because I do stand my ground in saying that this is a worthy sequel. Is the story realistic? No. Is the pacing on? No. Is it unpredictable? No. Is it entertaining? HECK YES! Does it have good characters? Also a yes. Let's talk about this characters first. Not all of them are great. The movie spent a lot of time on these two kids whose parents send them to the park by themselves. Why not go with them? I don't know.  It sounds like a fun family weekend. Oh but their aunt is one of the main workers at the park. Ok fine. I'm not going to say I didn't like the kids. They were decent. But I also won't admit that they were necessary to this story, because they weren't. Speaking of their aunt, Bryce Dallas Howard starts out as one of the really dumb characters who makes a lot of really dumb decisions just so that we can have our movie, so I thought I would hate her the whole time. But I didn't. The second half of this movie she becomes a very likable character. But there is one person in this movie who single-handedly takes this movie on his back and makes it worthwhile. That's Chris Pratt. In the midst of all these dumb people making dumb decisions, he's the smart one who knows what's going on. He knows that creating the holy-fetch-asaurus was a bad idea. He's also been opposed to the hybrid dinosaur thing in general. Since he's not in charge, he has no control over these decisions, but when he's called on to help, he knows exactly what to do. And he does a dang good job at it. He's a well-written character who pulls off a dang good acting performance. His breakout performance as Star Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy wasn't a fluke. This guy is for real.

Next up is in the entertainment value that this movie provides. I saw this movie in 3D IMAX because two years ago they re-released the original Jurassic Park in 3D and that was one of the best theatrical experiences of my life. I usually don't fork over a ton of money for one movie, but because of my experience with this re-release, I had planned for a long time to see Jurassic World in this format. Being honest, the 3D in the original Jurassic Park was a lot better than Jurassic World, but seeing Jurassic World in 3D IMAX was certainly a great experience. The visual effects in the movie were fantastic. The cinematography was beyond beautiful. The music by Michael Giacchino was great as was the inclusion of John Williams' classic theme. All this made for a great IMAX experience that I would definitely recommend. Even though I did have issues with the story and the pacing, the dinosaur sequences were amazing. The holy-fetch-asaurus (yes I did get this nickname from Jeremy Jahns, by the way, albeit an edited version of his nickname for the Indominus rex) was terrifyingly beautiful. When compared to other monster movies, which is essentially what this movie is, this is one of the better monsters out there. When he got close and was chasing people around and eating them. Wow! These were moments that were equivalent in glory to the first two and that's some pretty high praise. There's been a lot of talk and controversy about the raptors in this movie. My thoughts? Haha! I'm not going to tell you. But I do have a lot of them if you want to talk to me in private. Also, the last 30 minutes of this movie was fantastic. No spoilers, of course, because it did do a few things I was not expecting, but man was it an epic ending.

Overall, I did have my fair share of problems with Jurassic World. I didn't think the story was that great. I thought the pacing was a bit off. I was disappointed with the predictability of 90 percent of the movie, part of the which is the marketing team's fault for giving away too much in the trailers and TV spots. But this is a super entertaining movie with great performances from Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard that makes this a worthy sequel. Do I like this as much as Jurassic Park? Of course not. Do I like this as much as The Lost World? I'd also say no to that. But that's because if I were to give grades to these two movies, Jurassic Park would get a 10/10 and The Lost World would get a 9/10. It goes without saying that Jurassic World is better than Jurassic Park III, which I would give like a 4/10 at best. Still, though, this is a worthy sequel and a good summer blockbuster. It's not a great movie, but it's a good movie and I'd be down for a sequel with these same characters if they decide to go that route. My overall grade for Jurassic World is an 8/10.