I Have Received The Liebster Award

The Liebster Award is an award that is passed from blogger to blogger as a recognition of quality work. I was nominated by Vern from The Vern's Videovangaurd. To accept this award, there are rules that need to be followed.


1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.

2. Answer the 11 questions the person who has given the award has set for you.

3. Create 11 questions for the people you are giving the award to.

4. Choose 11 people and send them a link to your post.

5. Go to their page and tell them.

6. NO TAG BACKS

11 Things About Me

This is third blog that I have written about movies about since 2008. RIP "On the Queue" and "Foolish Blatherings".

I am the middle child of three boys.

I was originally born with 12 fingers. The extras are gone, but I can still have sensation at the stubs.

I had a literary agent to a period of time in 2006 to get a book of poetry published.

I was in the Navy for an amazing month and half.

Inspired to blog from the Cinebanter podcast.

Co-manage an Oscar discussion group on Yahoogroups.

The first R-rated movie I saw was "Boyz N the Hood" in the theater when I was 11.

I have been on The Lambcast once.

I had over 200 YouTube videos blogging my life from 2006 to 2008. They have been deleted.

I have never been nominated for a LAMMY award.


Answer the 11 Questions

1. What would your dream movie theater have, besides just what is being played? My dream movie theater will have individual seats with dividers to prevent spillage, headphones to drown out crying babies and a safe to confiscate cellphones so peoples' ridonkulous ringtones won't go off.

 2. Name one movie that actually would be good to remake? I can't answer, because I don't like remakes that much.

3. What irritates you the most when blogging? The random negative comments saying, "You suck", "Are you stupid?", etc.

 4. What do like the best when blogging? Getting to interact with people of similar interests.

 5. Do you play drinking games to movies? If so, what do you drink? I don't play drinking games with movies.

 6. What is the best way to help save us when dolphins try to take over the world? Vern, I didn't know what the hell you were talking about. I had to look it up. How are they gonna take over? Make them watch The Cove. That will get them in line.

 7. What movie do you flat-out refuse to watch, no matter how good people say it is? That has never happened.

 8. Name at least 3 movies that you still watch on other formats besides DVD and Blue-Ray. The Shawshank Redemption, The Goodbye Girl, Stand by Me when it comes on basic cable.

 9. Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? No.

 10. What is a good movie that you have a hard time convincing people to watch? Children of Men.

 11. What toppings do you like on pizza? All meat.


Create 11 Questions

1. What is the one movie that you have seen you wished you could erase from your memory?

2. What is a movie that everyone loves that you hate?

3. Have you ever walked out of a movie?

4. What is your biggest pet peeve?

5. What actor or actress you think is underrated?

6. What is your routine when reviewing a movie?

7. What movie you wish have seen in the theater?

8. A movie that you loved as a kid and you didn't like as an adult?

9. If you could live inside of movie, which one would it be?
10. The first movie you remembering seeing?

11. Gun to your head: would you watch Uwe Boll's entire filmography or Michael Bay's?


11 Bloggers that deserve this award


Dan the Man's Movie Reviews


Anomalous Material

French Toast Sunday

Reviews by Tom

Marshall and the Movies

Cut the Crap Movie Reviews

Awesomely Shitty

Bitchin' Film Reviews

Rants of a Diva

Two Dollar Cinema

Korova Theatre Presents

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

Written and directed by Sean Durkin

Stars: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy, Brady Corbet, Julia Garner, Maria Dizzia, Louisa Krause and John Hawkes

I heard nothing but great things about Sean Durkin's full-length feature film debut. He won the directing award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. People were mainly talking about Elizabeth Olsen breakthrough performance. This film was recommended by a fellow film fanatic, Tassoula from the Cinebanter podcast that I listened to where put this as her number one film from last year. I have to say thanks for the recommendation, T.

An emotionally damaged young woman named Martha (Olsen) escapes from a hippie cult commune in the middle of the Catskills. She is scared, dirty, hungry and lonely. The first person that she calls is her big sister, Lucy (Paulson). Lucy brings Martha to her vacation home in Connecticut where she shares with her new husband, Ted (Dancy). Martha has been gone for two years and Lucy wants to know where she has been. Martha wants to tell Lucy about her whereabouts, but she has been brainwashed by the leader of the group, Patrick (Hawkes). Martha has a problem from differentiating from what is real and what is in her mind.

This movie hooked me from the first frame based solely on Elizabeth Olsen's performance. She was transcendent. I could see the pain in her eyes, face and mannerisms. I felt her pain and she struggles to bring back some normalcy in her life. She finds it very difficult to adjust. It's heartbreaking to watch. I cannot stress how good Elizabeth was in this movie. I was surprised that she did not get an Oscar nomination for her role. It is a crime.

I thought that the movie was going to go one way, but it didn't. I love that it was not predicable. I enjoyed the dynamic between Lucy and Martha. Lucy is trying to get into Martha's odd motivations and behavior. Martha's unpredictable behavior causes strain in Lucy and Ted's relationship.

I have to say one final thing to say about John Hawkes. I thought he was very good here, but I thought that he character reminded a lot of his character in Winter's Bone. A grimy, scruffy hillbilly who doesn't respect women that much. I hope that he doesn't get typecast in those roles in the future.

My Rating

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer

Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan

Based on the comic book series, "Batman" created by Bob Kane

Stars: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotillard and Matthew Modine

First of all, I want to sent my thoughts and prayers for the victims of movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

Next thing I want to say that this review will contain some spoilers to the film. You have been warned.

Eight years have passed since the tragic events of The Dark Knight. Harvey Dent is definitely dead and is remembered by making a Gotham holiday out of it. Crime is banished from the city due to the Dent Act that incarcerated all the criminals from the streets. The Batman is gone, but not forgotten. Bruce Wayne (Bale) is a recluse like Howard Hughes except without the jars of urine lining the walls. He meets a slick jewel thief named Selina Kyle (Hathaway) that tries to get his prints for an ominous purpose for Wayne's rival, John Daggett (Ben Mendelsohn) to usurp his wealth.

Peaceful Gotham is rocked by an anarchist with the face mask that sounds like a bad impression of Sean Connery named Bane (Hardy), who tries to restore disorder into the city. He knows the truth about what happens that fateful night at the end of the last movie. Noticing the threat to the city, a hotshot cop named Blake (Gordon-Levitt) goes to Bruce to see if he could summon The Batman ,which he inexplicably knows Bruce's identity. Chaos ensues when Bane is trying to be like Robin Hood and The Batman is the only one that could stop him.

Coming into this movie, I was not expected to dislike the movie as much as I did. I enjoyed Batman Begins and The Dark Knight was a fantastic movie that had problems with it. The downfall of this movie is that the premise is fine, the execution is not great. I thought the story was very convoluted.

I didn't understand the purpose of putting Bane in the movie. The purpose of Scarecrow in the first movie was to instill fear for good to rise from the shadows. The purpose of Joker is to bring chaos into Gotham and that good men could turn evil like with Harvey Dent into Two-Face. I guess, Nolan was trying to make a social statement about people's greediness and if that money is taken away, you are nothing. It did nopt come across to me on screen. It was a bloated movie that has tons of monologues that didn't need to be there.

I think Christopher Nolan is great film director, but I think that he gets to wrapped in talking. I want to see action. Don't tell me that you are going to do something, do it. Show me. There is weird romance that was supposed to be between Bruce and Selina aka Catwoman that I felt was just there. I am familiar that Bruce and Selina have a cat and bat relationship where it was forbidden their attraction to each other. I did not feel that here.

There were a couple of sequences that incomprehensible like the opening scene where you meet Bane, the action towards the bridges or the herd of GCPD. I felt like I was gypped in this movie. There were "twists" coming that I knew were coming a mile away that completely implausible. The last couple of minutes of the movie were a slap in the face of how Nolan set up the universe. I couldn't wait to get out of the theater.

My Rating

The Artist

The Artist (2011)

Written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius

Currently #160 of the Top 250 Films of All Time on IMDb (as of this posting)

Stars: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller and Missi Pyle

I never heard of this film until awards season came into full swing and took over everything. The movie was nomianted for ten Academy Awards and won five including Best Picture, Director and Actor. Everybody has been showering praise to this movie that doesn't deserve it that much.

Taking place during the early days of the Golden Age of movies, silent film star George Valentin (Dujardin) is riding high on his success. He is living the life or so you think. His marriage to his shrew of a wife, Doris (Miller) is crumbling down. The owner of Kinograph Studios, Al Zimmer (Goodman) wants to switch into uncharted waters. He wants to go into talkies. George thinks that people are not ready for talkies, especially him. His life goes into a tailspin when a young ingénue Peppy Miller (Bejo) is going from extra to leading lady i.e. his direct competition.

I have this unwritten rule that you should always watch silent films in the daytime, because there is a possibly of you dozing off. I 'm saying that I hate this film. I like the movie, but I think that the hype machine elevated this film into being greater than it actually is. I have seen actual silent movies that were better than this movie. The movie felt like a typical romantic comedy, but there are no words in it.

I didn't understand how when the actor are talking there were not that many dialogue cards to figure out what the hell was going on. It might the copy that I had, but the title cards were in French and the actors were talking in English. Quite baffling. I think it's because it was a silent film in 2011 that it's the greatest thing ever.

I liked the performances of Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo were nominated for their performance and Dujardin won. I understood the path the character was going, but I did not think it was worthy of an Oscar. I thought the little dog in the movie was quite delightful. I really enjoyed the score of the film which won an Oscar. It deserved it.

I think this one of those movies that is not going to remembered in ten years. It was a movie for the moment kind of film that will never be thought of again.

My Rating

Winter's Bone

Winter's Bone (2010)

Directed by Debra Granik

Written by Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini

Based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell

Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Garret Dillahunt, Lauren Sweetser and Dale Dickey

This movie was very well recieved when it came out back in 2010. I wanted to see this movie, because it recieved some much acclaim.The movie was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor for John Hawkes and Actress for Jennifer Lawrence. This film made her into a star. Personally, I didn't get the point of the film.

Set in Ozarks, it seems like a world left behind. A very bleak existence with Ree Dolly (Lawrence) trying to take care of her brother and sister while her mother is suffering from a mental disorder. The family doesn't enough food to feed themselves everyday so they have to depend on donations to survive. Their ho-hum life gets worse when Sheriff Baskin (Dillahunt) comes by to warn them about their father, Jessup. Jessup is out on bond, but he put the house/farm up to get out. He is missing in action. If he does not show at his trail, they would take the house. Seeing as Ree does not want to end up out of the cold, she ventures out to her relatives to see where her father is at.

The biggest thing that I took out of the movie is that either the men act like complete dicks and the women were evil shrews. The only saving grace with the neighbor, Sonya (Shelley Waggener). I didn't really understand the motivations of the characters. Why did they do what they did? The whole central mystery was intriguing, but then it was left unresolved. I felt like, why was the point of the movie? It looked like things was be as terrible as it was in the beginning of the story. Nothing changed. Why did this story need to be told? I felt like chunks of the story were left hanging.

As much as I thought this people in this town were disgusting, John Hawkes was polarizing as Ree's uncle, Teardrop. He deserved his Oscar nomination for his role. This frail little cokehead has a commanding presence whenever he appears on screen. I thought that Jennifer Lawrence was fine here. I didn't think she deserved her nomination. It didn't feel like her character had an arc. It feels like the movie is very one note, one color, one tone to it.

My Rating

Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Directed by Joe Johnston

Written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely

Based on comic book, "Captain America" by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby

Stars: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Stanley Tucci, Neal MacDonaugh, Derek Luke, Kenneth Choi, JJ Feild, Bruno Ricci, Toby Jones, and Tommy Lee Jones

As I previously stated in my Avengers review, I did not see The First Avenger to prepare myself for the movie. There were some things about the film that I had questions that were answered by watching this film. I know the general lore of Captain America and his journey. I can say for certainty that this movie is better than Thor.

There was some hesitation about letting lead actor Chris Evans take over the role of Steve Rodgers, because he previously played a Marvel superhero as The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four films.

The setting of the film follows almost exactly were the comics left off. Rodgers was a skinny kid that possibly weighed 110 pounds soaking wet when he is repeatedly rejected by the Army in the middle of WWII. His childhood friend, Bucky (Stan) tries to dissuade him from joining the army. A chance encounter from Dr. Abraham Erskine (Tucci) changes his life forever. Erskine recruits him to a top secret operation to create a new breed of super soldiers to fight the Nazis. Most importantly to help stop the tyrannical Red Skull (Weaving) and his HYDRA army from taking over the world.

For me, I wish that Marvel would have concentrated more on these "origin" movies as well as The Avengers. I think that Iron Man 2, Thor and this movie all suffer from having to tell the back story of the characters that are going to make up this superhero team. It seems the quality of film suffers, because it has to be filler to see how this component of the Avengers came from.

There were some aspects of this movie that I didn't like, but that would be spoilers for people who are not familiar with the lore of Captain America. Chris Evans was fine here. He was not bad or good. I thought that the character presented on screen was brave and stupid. When Steve becomes Captain America, he doesn't listen to reason that his actions has consequences. Steve is supposed to be this tragic hero, but comes across as being over-confident to a point where you want something to happen to him. The action scenes were okay. Nothing remarkable here.

I have to stay Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Chester Phillips was great. He was chewing the scene with his one-liners. Weaving was solid as Red Skull. Steve's sidekick, Bucky was very charismatic on screen. The love interest for Steve, Peggy Carter, played by Hayley Atwell was strange. I wondered if she was interested in him before he got taller and buffer. What if he stayed the scrawny toothpick?

I had a couple of issues with the plot. How comes the shield is supposed to be indestructible, but the shield has wear and tear on it? Would you think that a massive faculty like HYDRA would have been trounced by  a lone man in a loud red, white and blue getup? I didn't understand how the hell the Terraset ended up in a lockbox in Norway? If Steve Rogers meets Iron Man's father who built the device that made him, did he acknowledge that in The Avengers? I could be nitpicking. Somebody help me out.

My Rating

Die Hard

Die Hard (1988)

Directed by John McTiernan

Written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza

Based on the novel, "Nothing Lasts Forever" by Roderick Thorp

Currently #105 of the Top 250 Films of All Time on IMDb (as of this posting)

Stars: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Reginald VelJohnson, Bonnie Bedelia, James Shigeta, William Atherton and Paul Gleason

All right people, do not hate me. This is the first time that I saw Die Hard. I know! I know. Bad film geek. I will give myself 100 lashings. I have only seen Live Free or Die Hard, which is an okay but I thought that villain of the film was lame. Anyway, back to the film. Everybody has been praising this film for being fucking awesome. Well, guess what? IT'S FUCKING AWESOME!

It's Christmas time when New York City cop John McClane (Willis) arrives to LA to be with his kids for the holiday. Coming from the airport he is whisked off in a limo to the Nakatomi Plaza building. His wife, Holly (Bedelia) is there having a Christmas party with her boss, Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi (Shigeta) and coworkers. John tries to get back in the good graces with Holly when Hans Gruber (Rickman) and his thugs burst into the building wanting to get into vault.

The thing about this movie is that McClane gets a whole bunch of shit thrown at him at once and manages to survive it all. It's not a spoiler. There have been three films after this. McClane is resourceful character that doesn't go guns blazing to the German terrorists. That's one thing that was refreshing. The bad guys were not Russian, French, Mexican; they were German. Nice touch. There is something about McClane that is an everyman that audiences can get behind and root to victory. McClane delivers his lines that have been etched in the movie lexicon and I was happy.

Alan Rickman's villain character,  Hans Gruber is not the typical terrorist. He is very methodical and never lost his cool. I thought it was hilarious the way the crew was assembled like they came from Sprockets. They were like some came from loafing on the couch all day and some were like they came from Nerds R Us.

The one aspect of this film I did not like was the FBI agents Johnson and Johnson (Robert Davi, Grand L. Bush). I thought they were deplorable human beings that got their comeuppance.

My Rating