Divergent Review

Back in the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, there was this huge craze over this book called The Hunger Games and its upcoming film adaption in March of 2012. I don't read much. I enjoy reading when I find a book that sucks me it, but I'm very much a slow reader, so I won't just jump into any book series because it's too much of a time investment for me. For some a book is like watching a movie. To me its like watching a season of a TV series. I enjoy TV shows, but there are a lot of them that I want to watch that I just never do because of the time factor. So thus when The Hunger Games book craze happened, I didn't jump on that bandwagon initially. I waited for the movie. Then you know the rest is history. It sucked me in immediately and I loved that movie so much that I walked out knowing that I had to read the books. Now fast forward two years. Recently there has been this craze over the book Divergent and its upcoming film adaption in March of 2014. Same process for me. I decided that I would wait for the movie and if the movie did the same thing as The Hunger Games movie did, I would gladly pick up the books and read them. What's the result now that I've seen the movie? Unfortunately it's not the same. Divergent was a swing and a miss for me.

I hate to be the one that says this because it often bothers me when others do, but I'm going to say it. We've seen all of this before. We've had a gazillion young adult book to movie adaptions now, and I've enjoyed many of them. I've even enjoyed some like The Host that many thought were stupid. But if you're going to try to be the next big thing, you've got to set yourself apart somehow. Divergent doesn't. The whole story is a complete mashup of like everything we've seen before. Allow me to explain. The setting is post-apocalyptic. There's a government set up that claims it's there to keep the peace. Of course you know that means a rebellion is coming up, led by a protagonist girl. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We are set up into 13 districts... uhhh I mean 5 fractions. As the young kids come of age they are sorted into these fractions by a sorting hat... uhhh I mean a test that reads their mind. The fractions include Griffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Ravenclaw.... uhhh I mean Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Erudite and Dauntless. You're sorted by personality. Let's fast forward a bit. We have our main female protagonist that beast the system (Harry Potter convinced the sorting hat to put him in Griffindor when it wanted to put him in Slytherin... that's the reference here). Katniss Everdeen then volunteers as tribute... uhhh I mean Tris volunteers to jump first. Then we get a training sequence. Then we get a bit of a curveball where the newly sorted kids have to battle it out against each other to see who survives. Thrown in there, everyone in the Dauntless group that we follow gets tattoos (that reminded me of the Mortal Instruments movie that no one but me saw and enjoyed). Then of course we get Jacob taking off his shirt... uhhh I mean Four taking off his shirt (ok, admittedly that one is a bit of a stretch, but it still reminded me of Twilight a bit), instigating a somewhat awkward romance that just had to happen because all these movies need a teen love story.

I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself with all the comparisons. It was like a domino effect for me. Once I started seeing one similarity, they all started coming to me at once. The whole movie seemed like it took The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Mortal Instruments, and Twilight and threw them all into a blender to create this new movie that is now a decent hit. Sure, there are some unique parts to this, but not enough of them to make this movie stand out as something unique. But hey, there's been times where I've enjoyed something despite it being completely unoriginal. The Inheritance Cycle is the perfect example. Christopher Paolini in writing the books completely ripped of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings in so many ways. But I still enjoyed it. And who knows, maybe I'll enjoy the book Divergent if I pick it up. But the other big problem with the movie is it had a lot of pacing issues, especially in the first half of the movie. It took a long time for it to grab my interest and make me care, while it was very choppy. It also felt really long. You get to a point in the movie where you feel like the ending is coming soon, but they still seem to be setting it up and that ending just doesn't come until what seems like two hours later. I know it was only 2 1/2 hours long, but it felt like 3 or 3 1/2 hours.

Now that I've completely driven this movie into the ground with my review and upset all the Divergent fans, it's time to be a little positive. What did I like about this movie? First and foremost was Ellie Goulding. I knew that she had a bunch of songs in the movie, but I forgot that when I went to see it and then suddenly BAM! Hanging On I believe was the first song to play, at that was followed by, in no specific order, Dead in the Water, My Blood, and the new song Beating Heart that was written for the movie. More good things about Divergent. It was visually very impressive. And the acting was good. Being perfectly honest, I wasn't a huge fan of Shailene Woodley, but she was ok. I did enjoy her counterpart Theo James, though. Performances by Jai Courtney, Ansel Elgort, Zoe Kravitz and Miles Teller were also good. And saving the best for last, the best performance in the movie was the one and only Kate Winslet. Finally, while I wasn't a big fan of the beginning or middle of this movie as you can clearly tell, the final act of the movie actually impressed me quite a bit. I'm not going to give anything away, but the final act was the one part of the movie that felt unique and original, at least to some degree. It was also quite intense and emotionally driven. It saved the movie from being a complete disaster.

In the end, I can't give Divergent a very good grade, but I'm also not going to fail it completely. I know I have a lot of friends that love the book, and I hope that they will come out and tell me that after seeing this movie that the book is much better. Because no, the movie didn't suck me in like The Hunger Games did. I don't feel a huge desire to pick of the books and see what happens next. In terms of young adult book to movie adaptions, Divergent comes no where near the top tier of movies with the likes of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. It's also not as bad as something like Twilight. I'd put it just under the second tier of movies that would include The Mortal Instruments, I Am Number Four, and The Host. Those movies weren't blow-my-mind great, but they were enjoyable. My grade for Divergent is a 6.5/10.

Need For Speed Review

I've never been much of a gamer in my life, but if you did see me on a gaming console there's a good chance that I was playing a sports game or a racing game. Specifically, my favorite gaming franchise was almost easily Need For Speed. When the Need For Speed movie was announced, admittedly I was really nervous. Why are they turning my favorite game into a movie? Video game movies never work! After coming to terms with the idea, I decided that if they were going to make this movie, there were four things that the movie needed to have if they were going to do the game justice: super fancy cars, awesome high speed races, intense police hot pursuits, and over-the-top crashes. Those were my terms. When the trailers came out, I went from nervous to excited because it appeared that they were going to do it right. Did they? You bet they did! So let's jump in!

First off, I need to talk about the stars of this movie. And no, I'm not talking about Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, and Michael Keaton, although they were nice supplements. I'm talking about the cars. If you are going to make a Need For Speed movie, having the right cars is essential. If you don't, it doesn't matter how good the rest of your movie is, it won't work. I'm happy to report that this movie did it right. We start out with the basics. We get our main gang doing some Fast and Furious style street racing with a '68 Chevy Camaro, '66 Pontiac GTO, and a '69 Grand Torino. Not to dis on those cars, but they aren't Need For Speed cars, so I was hoping that they wouldn't keep them long. And they didn't. After one race, Dominic Cooper walks into Aaron Paul's shop and asks him to finish building his Shelby Mustang so he can sell it for $2 or $3 million. And boom! We have our main star. Is it logical for Paul's team to build the Shelby Mustang? No. But who cares? The car is a beauty. Paul's team is supposed to get a quarter of the money when Cooper sells it, but of course Cooper tries to get out of that, so then we get our first main race with Cooper introducing three more beauties that he allegedly imported illegally. Those are the Koenigsegg Ageras. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the race between the three cars. That was the first instance where I knew that the movie was going to awesome. But I wasn't completely satisfied. I wanted more! It took a while, but I got them. Cooper screws over Paul, Paul spends time in Jail, Paul gets out, Paul travels across the country in the Shelby to enter in a race and get revenge on Cooper, and after all that, we finally get our final race and that's where I was in heaven. My personal Need For Speed staples were introduced in that race, the Lamborghini and the McClaren, specifically the movie has the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento and the McClaren P1. And we also got favored with a GTA Spano and a Bugatti Veyron amongst other cars. All this made for a great cast of super fancy, awesome, beautiful cars that made the movie work.

But of course, my second requirement also had to be met. Need For Speed is a racing game so along with having those cars in the movie, you have to have awesome high speed racing. Being perfectly honest, I kinda wished they spent more time with these races, but they did have them. Much of the movie is spent setting up the story line and travelling across the country to set up the final race. But when we did get our racing, it was done fantastically. We started off by getting teased with the old car racing, which was fun, but then shortly after we got our first big race, the race with the Koenigsegg Ageres and that's where it got real. I especially loved it when Aaron Paul was pushed off the correct lane and had to swerve between oncoming traffic in the wrong lane. Him doing so as the cars were swerving and honking to avoid him brought back good memories. After that, it took us a while to get into another race, but when we did it completely took me back to my childhood where I would sit on the XBox or computer and play need for speed. That final race was pure, solid entertainment and easily the best scene in the movie. I just wish it lasted a bit longer. Perhaps less travelling across the country and more race?

Next is the police. Sure, when you play Need For Speed you can turn the police off, but when you have them in, it makes it so much fun. Not only are you racing other cars, but you are being chased by police. You have to dodge their road blocks, spike strips, helicopters, and other obstacles they put in your way. So of course the movie had to include this if it was going to succeed. Once again, I am happy to report that it did. Aaron Paul's whole trip across the country is spent dodging the police. You hear several times along the way, voices of the police radio saying they are looking out for the silver Shelby Mustang. Also, when are final race begins, the police catch onto that race rather quickly and all the racers are trying to avoid the cops while they try to race others. There's a few times where they slam into the police and that was super awesome because I enjoyed doing that all the time on my game.

Finally, we needed the over-the-top aspect of Need For Speed. I can't express to you how much fun I had growing with trying to make the coolest crash possible. You slam into another car or into a mountain and watch yourself go flying in the air. It's funny, one of the complaints I heard about the movie was that the logics and physics of the movie were unrealistic. BUT OF COURSE THEY ARE!! If you need logic and physics, you can take those logics and physics and go to class. Stay away from this movie because half of the fun of Need For Speed is that it doesn't follow the laws of physics during the crashes and other stunts. There's one scene while Paul is travelling across the country where is loses the police by jumping over a whole lane of traffic. Another scene is where they get carried by a helicopter by a simple chain. Is that following the laws of physics? Heck no! Is it completely and totally awesome? Heck yes! And that's all that matters. The movie also has lots of over-the-top crashes. Some of them actually made me hold my breath because we cared about people in the car, so I couldn't say it made me happy watching characters get hurt badly, but then at the final race, most of the cars crashed in an over-the-top way and they were all fine, so then I was able to be happy.

Overall, I hope you now understand why I loved this movie. You'll notice I spent almost no time on the plot and the actors. The plot has been heavily criticized as being too predictable and too stupid. Honestly, I thought it was fine. The acting was also great, especially by Aaron Paul. But alas, if you are walking into this movie to experience a deep, moving plot, amazing dialogue, and perfectly written characters that culminate in a super unpredictable story, then you are going in for the wrong reasons. This movie is here to entertain and as I have pointed in depth with this review, it does entertain in all the ways a Need For Speed movie is supposed to. It hit all my expectations, which were all brought together in that final race, and because of that it was the second time in two months where a movie took me back to my childhood. No the movie isn't perfect, but because it satisfied all my needs and took me back to my childhood, I am giving Need For Speed a very strong 9/10.

Movie Preview: March 2014

This past February had one of the biggest February releases ever in The LEGO Movie, which only trailed The Passion of the Christ at the US box office. Unfortunately, none of the other releases caught on too well. Thus this past February got nowhere near February 2012's record, despite being ahead of last year's total. March of late has become a big movie month almost to the level of the Summer months. Although this month doesn't have a Hunger Games type of movie to help it beat March 2012's record, it does have the firepower to make this feel like a Summer month again. And with April debuting titles like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Transcendence, Draft Day, and Rio 2, we can almost say that Summer has begun! So let's dive into March and check out the fire power this month includes.

March 7th-9th-

Conquering the box office in the first week of March was 300: Rise of an Empire with $45 million. It's been seven years since the first 300 dominated with a $70.8 million opening weekend (a March record back then) and a $210 million total. With $245 million overseas as well, some may have wondered what took them so long to make a sequel if it hadn't been for the fact that 300 didn't really lend itself to a sequel. It's because of this that Rise of an Empire decided to do more of a "sidequel." An opening of nearly half as much as the original shows that novelty that made 300 a huge deal back in 2007 has worn off a bit. However, overseas they are still buying into it as early numbers suggest that Rise of an Empire will surpass it's predecessor, so it's an overall win for the 300 franchise.

Opening up in second place on the weekend was the latest Dreamworks dud in Mr. Peabody & Sherman. While $32.2 million is ahead of Turbo and Rise of the Guardians, it still ranks 18th place in terms of Dreamworks animation openings. Like 300, it also appears that Mr. Peabody & Sherman  will save some face overseas, so Dreamworks may be safe. With decent reviews and little competition, it should manage to be a good option for families in March. With its opening, it also managed to kill off The LEGO Movie as LEGO suffered its biggest drop yet. No hard feelings, though, as LEGO has already passed the $200 million mark. All this means that Blue Sky is feeling pretty optimistic at the moment as the course will be clear for Rio 2 to monopolize the animation marketplace in April.

The final opening of the weekend was a historical one as The Grand Budapest Hotel scored more than $800,000 in only four theaters. It's per theater average was $202,000, which is second all time by a movie not released by Disney. Add in the Disney movies and it ranks 9th. The Grand Budapest Hotel is the next Wes Anderson movie; Wes Anderson being most well known for Moonrise Kingdom and The Royal Tenenbaums. Anderson brings Bill Murray with him as always, but also has Ralph Fiennes, Willem Dafoe, Jude Law, Edward Norton, and Saoirse Ronan amongst others.

March 14th-16th-

Looking to race towards the top spot in the second weekend of March is video game adaption Need For Speed. Having been my favorite video game franchise growing up, I can say that in addition to being a high-powered racing game, the Need For Speed games were known for their fancy cars, intense police chases, and over-the-top wrecks. The big questions is how the game will translate on the big screen. Most video game movies fail when they are adapted to the big screen. Need For Speed will be out to prove that video game movies can be successful. But will it succeed? So far from pre-screenings, reaction has been that the movie is a huge crowd-pleaser, so their chances are pretty good. Usually those movies are critic-proof.

Lining up with Need For Speed is the gazillionth movie by director Tyler Perry, who has consistently put out one to two movies a year since 2006. This month's version is Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club. It's obvious that these movies have a pretty consistent fanbase as most of them have wound up in the $30 to $50 million range for their final total after opening between $15 and $25 million. It's safe to bet a similar turnout for this one. It will be interesting to see what Tyler Perry does next after this because as of now, he doesn't have any more movies on the docket. But perhaps that will change soon.

That's all for wide releases this weekend, but we do have two significant movies coming out in limited release. The first of those is Bad Words. Bad Words is a comedy starring Jason Bateman and has a very unique premise. Bateman's character finds a loophole in the 8th grade spelling bee rules where he is able to participate as an adult. The movie is getting positive buzz on early screenings and thus could be a big hit later in the month when it expands nationwide.

The second limited release of note is the film version of Veronica Mars. The story of Veronica Mars is a very unique one. The TV series began in 2004 and lasted three seasons before it was cancelled. Upon cancellation, creator Rob Thomas had a desire to make a movie to provide closure to the fans. The film idea was presented to Warner Bros. and was shot down. At this time, a film seemed bleak, but Thomas didn't give up on this. Last March, he and star Kristen Bell began a Kickstarter project for the movie that broke all kinds of records for Kickstarter earning a total of just under $6 million. Now that Kickstarter project has become a major motion picture, which is fairly revolutionary. Expansion of the movie will be determined by how well the movie does in its limited release.

March 21st-23rd-

Ever since the Harry Potter and Twilight phenomenons, Hollywood has been desperate to find more young adult novels to turn into hugely successful movie franchises. In 2012, Hollywood successfully struck gold with The Hunger Games as both movies so far in that series have earned more than any of the Harry Potter or Twilight movies here in the US. Unfortunately, other attempts recently have failed miserably. Beautiful Creatures, The Host, Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, and The Vampire Academy have a combined lifetime total that is less than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 made in its first day. Opening on this third weekend of March is a movie in Divergent that will try to buck this recent trend. Makers of the movie are so confident that Divergent will be a huge success that they have already scheduled both sequels for subsequent Marches and have hired a new director for the second film. This was a pretty gutsy move considering the recent failures, but it turns out that risk will be hugely rewarded as pre-sales for the movie are through the roof according to Fandango. Divergent stars Shailene Woodley as the lead role. Woodley is best known for her work in The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She was to be the new Mary Jane Watson in the upcoming movie The Amazing Spider-Man 2 before the character was cut from the movie.

Providing some counter-programming to Divergent will be Muppets Most Wanted. The Muppets have been around for what seems like forever. However, they had disappeared for a while before they got a resurgence three years in 2011's The Muppets. While The Muppets used new voice actors to voice the beloved characters, you wouldn't notice much of a difference as voice acting was spot on. The plot line for that movie was a comeback plot line, which turned out to be what happened in real life as The Muppets became the highest grossing Muppets movie ever; second highest when adjusted for ticket price inflation. With a Kermit-imposter story line, Muppets Most Wanted should be able to build on that success. The main human actors in this movie are completely different as Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais, and Ty Burrell replace Amy Adams, Jason Segel, and Chris Cooper. And of course there should be a whole host of surprise cameos to keep the audience entertained.

March 28th-30th-

Hollywood is on a huge religious kick this year that started off with Son of God last month and continues this week with Noah. Even though Son of God didn't please critics and general audiences, it hit a strong chord with religious audiences, which was exactly its goal to begin with. While religious audiences will also be intrigued by Noah, the goal for Noah is rather opposite of Son of God. It's not out to please religious audiences by accurately telling the biblical story of Noah. In fact, pre-screenings have upset religious audiences with how far-fetched and goofy the story is compared to the actual events recorded in the Bible. However, the goal for Noah is to take the character and create a fun action/drama movie that will appeal to general audiences. This is a huge risk considering the timing of the movie. Since it seems to already be putting off religious audiences, if it doesn't strike a chord with general audiences it is in major trouble because it is opening in the shadow of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. So far, it has put together a good marketing effort that highlights stars Russell Crowe and Emma Watson.

Ending this off on a whimper is the movie Sabotage. Back in the 80's and 90's, Arnold Schwarzenegger was possibly the biggest action star in the business, known best for his intense R-rated action movies. However, in the 2000's he took time off to be the Governator of California. After serving successfully as a politician, Arnold has left that life, at least for now, and has tried to make a comeback on the Hollywood action scene. He headlined two R-rated action movies last year, The Last Stand and Escape Plan. Both fell pretty hard on their faces. This month's Sabotage is Arnold's latest attempt at a Hollywood comeback to the R-rated action scene. But as was the case last year, it seems that Hollywood doesn't care much for Arnold anymore and my guess is that Sabotage will suffer the fate of The Last Stand and Escape Plan.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman Review

I will openly admit that I am a sucker for animated movies. I remember one time I was tending my nephew and to keep him focused, I put on an animated movie that I hadn't seen. After a while, he lost attention on the movie, but I myself was glued. It was supposed to be the other way around. I guess they just bring out the child in me. Point being, when Mr. Peabody & Sherman came out this weekend, I was fairly excited to go see it. It didn't seem like the best Dreamworks movie, but it seemed like a lot of fun. Turns out that expectation of it was dead on. While not on par with the likes of Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, or The Croods, Mr. Peabody & Sherman was loads of fun and certain a huge step above recent duds Turbo and Rise of the Guardians.

The premise of Mr. Peabody & Sherman I thought was rather genius. Mr. Peabody is a dog. But not just any dog. He's a dog that is more human than dog. He walks upright, he talks, he wears glasses, and he's a super genius. He's an expert chef, plays every instrument you can think of, is an inventor and trend starter, and knows math and science better than anyone. And of course he is also a history buff because one of his inventions is the WABAC (pronounced Way-Back). The WABAC is a time machine. Above everything, though, Mr. Peabody is a father. Not a father of a dog, but of a human. That human in this movie is 7-year-old Sherman, who Mr. Peabody found abandoned at birth and took in. Mr. Peabody has taken Sherman on many adventures through time, causing Sherman to be a history buff as well. This comes as a minor problem when on the first day of school, Sherman gets in a fight with classmate Penny after upsetting her by knowing too much. Mr. Peabody is threatened to lose the custody of Sherman, so he invites Penny and her parents over for dinner to fix this. Of course Penny, Sherman, and Mr. Peabody eventually get caught in an adventure through time via the WABAC. As most time travel movies go, things go way wrong.

What really makes this movie work is the three lead characters are quite fantastic. Our two 7-year-old stars Sherman and Penny are absolutely adorable and Mr. Peabody is really fun. In voicing those characters, they dove a bit into Modern Family by casting Ty Burrell and Ariel Winter as Mr. Peabody and Penny respectively. Max Charles, who plays the young Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man is the voice of Sherman. All three do great with voice acting. But them alone don't make this excellent. It's them added to the huge host of side characters that they run into throughout their journey through time. A selection of these voice actors are Stephen Colbert, Leslie Mann, Stanley Tucci, Tom McGrath, Mel Brooks, and Patrick Warburton. The creme of that crop is of course the great Patrick Warburton, aka Kronk from The Emperor's New Groove. 

Like I mentioned, Mr. Peabody & Sherman won't rank in the top tier of Dreamworks' animated films, but it's right there below in the second tier. In trying to think of a comparable title, the movie I came up with was Over the Hedge. When asked what the best Dreamworks movies are, not many will say Over the Hedge, but most will agree that it is a super fun Dreamworks movie that is better than plenty that they have put out. That's the case here. Mr. Peabody & Sherman is a ton of fun for both kids and family. It attempted to do what The Croods did last year by having a touching parent/child story and while it wasn't as powerful as The Croods, it was still good. The only real complaint I had was that it kinda implemented a 7-year-old love story between Sherman and Penny, and that didn't feel right. However, it's definitely worth your money. I give the movie an 8/10. 

Son of God Review

This review might be a slightly different view than normal. First off, being that this is a movie about Christ and most people know his story, I will be talking freely about the end of this movie. If that bothers you, then I invite you to stop right here. Most importantly, though, this will review will be a bit different because I consider myself an active Christian and thus my expectations for spiritually-based movies are a bit different than normal worldly movies, especially when it comes to Christ's life. With Son of God  I was very pleased with how it turned out and I would give the strong recommendation that all Christians, regardless of denomination, go give this movie a shot.

If you didn't already know, last year the History Channel came out with a 10-hour mini-series called The Bible. And yes, you guessed it. It's on the Bible. The movie Son of God comes directly from that mini-series. At first I thought that the mini-series was so successful that they decided to quickly throw together a movie about Christ from that. And while it is true that Son of God comes from that footage, I actually learned recently that they had decided to go forward with the Son of God before the release of The Bible and that it took a year's worth of editing for them to get the movie that they were comfortable. So that actually makes this a little more meaningful in my opinion. This didn't cost a lot of money, but a lot of effort was put into it to get it right.

I'll admit that right off the bat I was a bit worried. While The Passion of the Christ is focused solely on the last week of Christ's life, Son of God is focused on his whole life. And it's a bit messy leading up to that last week. Granted, they didn't want to do what The Greatest Story Ever Told did back in the 60's and make a four-hour movie of the life of Christ, but the beginning seemed a bit clunky and unfocused. Sure, the scenes that they did decide to include were great, but then we just bounced around almost randomly from scene to scene without much flow. What made it worse is that there were parts of Christ's early years and ministry that they should've focused on, but didn't. They only last part of the Nativity, with Mary and Joseph in the stable. They completely skipped 12-year-old Jesus in the temple. And John the Baptist was an afterthought. They only showed him baptizing Jesus in a flashback when they got news that he had been killed. These aspects of Christ's life I think are staples that need more focus if you are planning on doing all of Christ's life in a movie.

I did like the very beginning, though. They started off at the end with the apostle John late in his life and used him as the narrator. The movie opened up quoting John 1:1, showed him introducing the savior, then did a quick montage of the Old Testament, which was cleverly taken from their Bible mini-series. That overview is something that not a lot of movies about Christ do because that takes a lot of extra shooting to do that. Son of God had the advantage of that whole mini-series that was done where they can throw together footage from to do that. Kudos.

After a slightly rocky beginning, the movie really picked up when it got to the last week of Christ's life. Whereas the first part was choppy and unfocused, from the moment he rode in on the donkey, the movie flowed well and was super powerful. Sure there were a few minor things that bothered me like Herod being taken out and ropes around his wrists instead of nails, but for the most part I was super impressed. Not only was it super accurate with the perfect tone, but there were a few things that they focused on that not many other interpretations of Christ's life do. First off, it focused a lot on the political aspect of the crucifixion, both on the Jewish side of things and the Roman side of things. In many interpretations, you just see Christ being crucified without really knowing why it happened on a political standpoint. You know he had to on a spiritual standpoint, but oftentimes we don't think about the political reasons behind it.

Second, it focused quite a bit on the viewpoint of the apostles, specifically Peter and Judas. Peter was one of the most faithful people in the New Testament, but he had his own struggles in the beginning. Judas is usually seen as the villain and is given a darker tone and personality. This shows him more as a conflicted, confused man who honestly regretted what he did, which is probably more accurate. Also in terms of characters that it dove into besides Christ, the movie dove into Pilot's struggles a lot, specifically the drama between him and his wife. If you read the New Testament, Pilot's wife was against Jesus being crucified. I don't think I've ever seen a movie about Christ that dove into that, but this one did quite a bit and I loved it.

Finally, the last thing I will mention on this subject is that it focused a lot on the resurrection. Most movies about Christ will end shortly after the crucifixion and only briefly touch on Christ rising. This movie went all the way to the end of the gospels, touching even on things like the apostolic charge to go minister the gospel to the world. I loved that because that's the most important part. Christ didn't just die for us. He rose for us and still lives. And because of that, we can also live again. The movie did a great job with ending at that positive, hopeful note instead of ending with the sadness of the actual crucifixion. This wasn't a story about a man who got killed. This was a story about someone who lived a perfect life and sacrificed himself so that we can all live again.

Overall, the most important part for me in watching a movie about the life of Christ isn't all the technical aspect of the movies such as acting and visuals, but is rather the spiritual aspect behind the movie. No, Son of God wasn't perfect, but overall the tone and spirit of the movie was excellent. It was a very spiritually powerful interpretation of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ that will make it so there is no dry eye in the theater. I highly recommend this for all Christians especially. If you believe in Christ, then this movie is an absolute must see. If you don't have the money or time to go to the theater and see it, at the very least I would recommend you find it on DVD and spend an evening with it. You won't regret it. Any flaws that the movie had I will overlook because of the strong spirit I felt and thus I give Son of God a 9/10.

P.S.- Many kudos to CeeLo Green for his rendition of "Mary Did You Know" at the end credits. Listen here:

Non-Stop Review

He has played Zeus. He has played Aslan. He has played Ra's Al Ghul. He has played Oskar Schindler. He has played Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn. He has played Jean Valjean. He's traveled across the world to save his kidnapped daughter. He's battled a pack of wolves in the middle of nowhere. He is of course the great Liam Neeson and now he's at it again as an air marshal flying over the Atlantic, trying to stop some mysterious passenger who is threatening to kill someone every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred over to a certain account. This is of course Non-Stop.

Right off the bat, the two movies that I thought of as I was watching this movie were Source Code and World War Z. The first of those, Source Code, is about a bomb placed on a train with Jake Gyllenhall's character trying to figure out which passenger is the culprit. Gyllenhall is in a time warp in this as he experiences failure many times over in his mission to find the culprit. That last aspect is the big difference here. Neeson is in no time warp, but he is trying to figure out who is trying to kill everyone. You may be wondering why I brought World War Z into the discussion. No this is not an end-of-the-world movie and no there are no zombies. But World War Z was a really tense movie and so is Non-Stop. So imagine if you take Source Code and give it the intensity of World War Z. That is what Non-Stop is in my opinion.

If you watch the trailers, you'll think that this is another Liam Neeson action movie. And while I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to that notion, this really is not a huge action-packed movie. Sure, there are some action sequences in the movie, but that's not the main focus. This is a whodunit movie. We start out at the airport before we board and one by one the movie introduces more characters. Each new person introduced is a new suspect in your mind. Some become friend to Neeson and some become foe, but you as an viewer trust no one. Not even Liam Neeson. Personally I am quite the sucker for these whodunit movies. I enjoy a well-put-together mystery movie and this one in my opinion succeeds. Do we have to suspend believabilty for a couple hours? Sure. Realistically a situation like this wouldn't ever happen. But that's not the point. The movie isn't trying to be realistic, it's trying to entertain and in that aspect it does its job. The acting is brilliant. The characters are great. The tensity is high as you have no idea what is going to happen next as each second moves forward. Regardless of how the movie was going to end, I was thoroughly entertained as the movie went along.

I'm not going to spoil the ending as then your experience wouldn't be the same, but I will say that many times the success of a whodunit movie depends on how well the end is put together. This one has sparked a bit of controversy as some claim the movie has a political agenda and others think it is just stupid, but personally I liked the ending. It may not have been as unpredictable as some whodunit movies, but sometimes I appreciate that. It certainly fit and in my opinion had no political agenda, but that's all I'll say. If you have seen the movie and want to talk more about this ending, find me privately. Overall, if you are looking for a deep, inspiring, realistic movie, Non-Stop is not for you. But if you are looking for a harmless and entertaining whodunit movie, then I would highly recommend you give this one a shot. It's definitely one of the better movies to come out this year so far. I give it an 8.5/10. 

The 86th Academy Awards: My Picks/Predictions

Each year I've done this a little differently. The last two years, I wrote a blog post after the Oscars were all said and done. This year I'm doing it before. The big reason for that is that this year is the first year I've set out to watch all the Oscar-nominated movies. Yes, there are a few of them that I skipped for various reasons, but for the most part I have seen enough of them to have an opinion about every category. So that is what I will give you at first. My pick as to who I would choose to give the award to if it was up to me. Then I will tell you who I think will actually win. Some categories I may just give one or the other if I don't have a strong opinion or if I have no idea who's favored to win. Also, a few of the smaller categories I may jump over, but I'll touch on all the major categories. Let's get started!

Best Picture

The nominees: American Hustle; Captain Phillips; Dallas Buyers Club; Gravity; Her; Nebraska; Philomena; 12 Years a Slave; The Wolf of Wall Street

My Pick: Gravity

Likely Winner: 12 Years a Slave

It's a very weird award season for me. My favorite album of the year, Random Access Memories, won best album at the Grammy's And now at the Oscars, my two favorite movies of the year are the two that are in contention for best picture. I will repeat, this rarely happens for me. But this year it has, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts. Yes, if you know me well enough, you'll know that Gravity is my favorite film of the year, so it's a no-brainer that I would pick it to win. As far as the actual race goes, the two are close, but historically the Oscar has gone to the historical movie, so I think 12 Years a Slave will win. American Hustle is a close third, but it would be a huge shock if it won.

Best Actor

The nominees: Christian Bale (American Hustle); Bruce Dern (Nebraska); Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street); Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave); Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

My Pick: Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)

Likely Winner: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

This category saddens me a bit. The performance that Chiwetel gave in 12 Years a Slave was one of the more memorable acting performances that I have witnessed. He's my personal pick, but McConaughey is going to walk away with it. He's been winning everything so far. Now I will say that I did like McConaughey's performance. The issue that Dallas Buyers Club brings up is a serious one. I just didn't think it was an award-winning performance. Personally, my runner up pick would be Bruce Dern.

Best Actress

The nominees: Amy Adams (American Hustle); Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine); Sandra Bullock (Gravity); Judi Dench (Philomena); Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)

My Pick: Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)

Likely Winner: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

This is the most loaded category in my opinion. All five of these actresses did a phenomenal job. Personally, I wasn't a fan of the movie Blue Jasmine, but I have to admit that Cate Blanchett did an amazing job and deserves the award that she is going to get. She was actually going to be my personal pick as well, but then I saw August: Osage County. And holy Meryl Streep! She is one of the greatest actresses of our day and I will say that her performance in August: Osage County is one of the best she has ever given. I don't exaggerate that ether.

Best Supporting Actor

The nominees: Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips); Bradley Cooper (American Hustle); Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street); Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave); Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

My Pick: Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)

Likely Winner: Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Just like Matthew McConaughey is going to win best actor, Jared Leto is going to follow him up with a best supporting actor win. Both are pretty much a done deal. I did mention that I didn't think McConaughey's performance was award-deserving. However, I will flip the tables on that for Leto. His performance was award-deserving, so I can't really argue with this. I just also think Michael Fassbender's performance was also award-deserving and perhaps slightly more so.

Best Supporting Actress

The nominees: Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine); Julia Roberts (August: Osage County); Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave); Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle); June Squibb (Nebraska)

My Pick: Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)

Likely Winner: Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)

This is the category I am most emotionally invested in. Why? Because the match-up here is Jennifer Lawrence vs Lupita. I LOVE Jennifer Lawrence. But if I'm being perfectly honest, she didn't deserve the nomination here. She was good in American Hustle, but not Oscar-nomination good. I'll be crossing my fingers on this, but luckily signs are pointing towards Lupita getting the win. And by goodness does she deserve it. Her, Michael Fassbender, and Chiwetel Ejiofor all gave memorable performances. If all three of them get snubbed, I'll be very mad. I hope Lupita represents.

Best Director

The nominees: Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity); Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave); David O. Russell (American Hustle); Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street); Alexander Payne (Nebraska)

My Pick: Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

Likely Winner: Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

It's easy to judge best movie or best actor/actress because because you are judging what you see. It's harder to judge directing because that's mostly behind the scenes work. But at the same time, if you watch enough of the same director, you will know his or her style and you can appreciate the work that they have done. Moral of the story is that I really am slightly more clueless in this category, but since I loved Gravity, I will give lots of credit to Cuaron. Usually this award goes to the winner of the best picture as well, but so far in the other awards it has gone opposite with 12 Years a Slave winning best picture with Cuaron getting best director. No reason to think this will be different.

Best Original Screenplay

The nominees: American Hustle; Blue Jasmine; Her; Nebraska; Dallas Buyers Club

My Pick: Her

Likely Winner: Her

The actual name for this award is a bit longer, but essentially it implies best writing. When looking at the nominees, I can't just pick my favorite movie of the five, I have to pick which one had the best writing. It was a tough choice, but I settled with Her because it is a beautifully written love story between a man and his futuristic artificially intelligent operating system. It barely edges Nebraska in the writing department in my opinion. The Academy won't be debating between those two, but it looks like they will be awarding Her as well.

Best Adapted Screenplay

The nominees: Before Midnight; Captain Phillips; 12 Years a Slave; The Wolf of Wall Street; Philomena

My Pick: Before Midnight

Likely Winner: 12 Years a Slave

12 Years a Slave is looking like it is getting the award for best writing for a screenplay based on material already published, and I certainly will be happy at that win, but I personally selected Before Midnight because that movie impressed me by how much I loved it when it was only people talking for two hours. That requires excellent writing to pull that off, so I will give it some love.

Best Animated Feature

The nominees: The Croods; Despicable Me 2; Ernest & Celestine; Frozen; The Wind Rises

My Pick: The Croods

Likely Winner: Frozen

This pick might surprise some people. I've talked up Frozen a ton. I LOVED Frozen! So why am I not picking Frozen? You may have forgotten due to The Croods having come out nearly a year ago from today, but I talked up The Croods even more. In fact, I have gone to the point of calling it one of the best movies that Dreamworks has ever made. Unfortunately, enough people disagreed with me on that to make it so The Croods has no shot. Miyazaki's supposed swan song in The Wind Rises has been talked up a lot, but making a movie about the man who designed the Japanese WWII fighter planes is controversial enough to make it so Disney should easily grab their first win in this category.

Best Foreign Language Film

The nominees: The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium); The Missing Picture (Cambodia); The Hunt (Denmark); The Great Beauty (Italy); Omar (Palestine)

My Pick: n/a

Likely Winner: The Great Beauty (Italy)

If you want a category that includes a bunch of excellent movies that you've probably never heard of, this is your category. Just make sure you are watching it with subtitles, because these aren't in English. I actually do think it would be cool to check these movies out, I just haven't done it yet, so I won't give a personal opinion. But Italy's The Great Beauty is the favorite here.

Best Cinematography

The nominees: Gravity; Inside Llewyn Davis; Nebraska; Prisoners; The Grandmaster

My Pick: Gravity

Likely Winner: Gravity

This category is usually fun to follow, but this year there's not going to be much of a race. It's fairly simple. Gravity is going to win every award that has to do with sound or visuals, which includes this one. Quite honestly, I think it deserves it.

Best Editing

The nominees: 12 Years a Slave; American Hustle; Gravity; Captain Phillips; Dallas Buyers Club

My Pick: n/a

Likely Winner: Gravity

I never watch a movie and come away thinking about the editing in the movie, so I'm not going to personally judge this one. But Gravity is looking like the winner here as well.

Best Production Design

The nominees: 12 Years a Slave; American Hustle; Gravity; The Great Gatsby; Her

My Pick: The Great Gatsby

Likely Winner: The Great Gatsby

I loved The Great Gatsby and I'm rather sad that there are a lot of people that didn't. However, I'm glad it snuck out a few Oscar nominations and I'm even more glad that it looks like the favorite to win in this. In terms of production design, The Great Gatsby was set in the 20's and they did a rather good job with that, so I'll pick it as my favorite here.

Best Costume Design

The nominees: American Hustle; The Great Gatsby; 12 Years a Slave; The Grandmaster; The Invisible Woman

My Pick: American Hustle

Likely Winner: American Hustle

In another nomination for The Great Gatsby, I would be happy if it grabbed its second win, but I'll be a little surprised if American Hustle loses this category, despite Gatsby actually winning the award in the BAFTA's. And I hate to also pick against it in my personal choice, but I can't deny the costume excellency of American Hustle. Personally I thought the movie itself was a little overrated, but the costumes were great. I mean, Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper barely looked like themselves while Jeremy Renner and Jennifer Lawrence looked rather hip. I was impressed.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling 

The nominees: Dallas Buyers Club; Jacka-- Presents: Bad Grandpa; The Lone Ranger

My Pick: Jacka-- Presents: Bad Grandpa

Likely Winner: Jacka-- Presents: Bad Grandpa

Insert all jokes about Bad Grandpa being nominated for an Oscar here. I've heard hundreds of them. However, if you look at the actual award that Bad Grandpa got nominated for, you will realize it makes perfect sense. The grandpa in this movie is actually 43-year-old Johnny Knoxville with a bunch of makeup on, making him look like a grandpa. You better believe it deserves the makeup Oscar.

Best Original Score

The nominees: John Williams (The Book Thief); Steven Price (Gravity); Arcade Fire (Her); Thomas Newman (Saving Mr. Banks); Alexandre Desplat (Philomena)

My Pick: Steven Price (Gravity)

Likely Winner: Steven Price (Gravity)

There are a lot of great scores here and as I went back and listened to all these, I was reminded about how much the music in Gravity made the experience what it was. It's such a good score! I'm happy to learn that the Academy is going to agree with me on this and give it the win. In second place, I would pick Arcade Fire's score for Her. That's also worth listening to if you haven't already.

Best Original Song

The nominees: "Happy" by Pharrell Williams (Despicable Me 2); "Let It Go" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez (Frozen); "Ordinary Love" by U2 (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom); "The Moon Song" by Karen O (Her)

My Pick: "Happy" by Pharrell Williams (Despicable Me 2)

Likely Winner: "Let It Go" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez (Frozen)

Now here's a controversial pick on my part. And I want to start by praising "Let It Go." It is such a good song that I will always think of as one of the better Disney songs. However, if you've been around me recently, you will know that I am absolutely addicted to the song "Happy." It just makes me so happy every time I listen to it. "The Moon Song" and "Ordinary Love" are good songs as well, but I just love "Happy." However, I am totally expecting "Let It Go" to win this one. U2's "Ordinary Love" did win the Golden Globe, but I don't think it will surprise again.

Best Sound Mixing

The nominees: Gravity; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug; Captain Phillips; Inside Llewyn Davis; Lone Survivor

My Pick: Gravity

Likely Winner: Gravity

Best sound mixing? Who cares? Well, normally I don't when it comes to this award, but the sound in Gravity was amazing. Especially the realistic space scenes where there was no sound and things were just exploding silently. I think I would call that great sound mixing. And yeah, this award is no contest. Gravity will win.

Best Sound Editing

The nominees: All is Lost; Captain Phillips; Gravity; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug; Lone Survivor

My Pick: Gravity

Likely Winner: Gravity

You can essentially refer to my paragraph in sound mixing for this. Normally, I would ignore sound editing, but when you think of sound editing, you think of Gravity. It will win.

Best Visual Effects

The nominees: Gravity; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug; Iron Man 3; The Lone Ranger; Star Trek Into Darkness

My Pick: Gravity

Likely Winner: Gravity

This is usually the one category in the Oscars where the Academy will honor the big blockbusters. Thus you see The Hobbit, Iron Man 3, Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Lone Ranger. And yes, The Lone Ranger did just get nominated for an Oscar. And before you go on hating at this, realize that regardless of your opinion of the movie, the visuals were great. But none of that matters. All of these are just courtesy nominations. And no use getting mad over the snub of Pacific Rim. It wasn't going to win. And neither is anything else except for Gravity. And like I've been saying, it's deserved.

Best Documentary, Feature

The nominees: The Act of Killing; Cutie and the Boxer; Dirty Wars; The Square; 20 Feet from Stardum

My Pick: n/a

Likely Winner: The Act of Killing

I'll have to admit, I usually don't watch a ton of documentaries, which is why I don't have a personal pick. But if do decide to watch one in the next little bit, this is the pool I will dip from. Word on the street is that The Act of Killing is going to win.

Best Documentary, Short Subject

The nominees: Cavedigger; Facing Fear; Karama Has No Walls; The Lady in Number 6; Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall

My Pick: n/a

Likely Winner: n/a

I have no idea who is going to win this and I haven't seen any of them, so I'll jump this category.

Best Animated Short

The nominees: Feral; Get a Horse!; Mr. Hublot; Possessions; Room on the Broom

My Pick: Get a Horse!

Likely Winner: n/a

Out of all these options, Get a Horse! is the only one I have seen and that's because it was at the beginning of Frozen. And it was so fantastic!!! Classic Disney Mickey Mouse short that had the early 1900's style animation. Usually the Oscars enjoy praising historical pieces, so I imagine this will win, but who knows. Also, I enjoy animated shorts, so even though I haven't seen all of these, I may actually decide to go watch them all before the Oscars.

Best Live Action Short

The nominees: That Wasn't Me; Just Before Losing Everything; Helium; Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?; The Voorman Problem

My Pick: n/a

Likely Winner: n/a

I haven't seen any of these and I have no idea who is going to win, so I have no comment on this, but just like with the previous category, I may actually go watch these before the Oscars just to entertain myself.