Quick Movie Review

Air (2015, USA) | Rating: 3/5
Whether he captured your heart in Boondock Saints or The Walking Dead, Norman Reedus has significantly rose to fame and quickly became a hot item for fans. Obviously, I'm one of those fans that swoon over the crossbow wielder and won't shy away from admitting that one reason I watched this movie was because of him. Djimon Hounsou is also an amazing actor and Robert Kirkman being linked to this project also were contributing factors to watching this movie. I guess he really has a thing for the apocalypse or whatever, but there's no zombies, or should I say walkers, in this one. This movie is more psychologic with a sprinkle of suspense and action. Majority of the movie focuses on Reedus and Hounsou working in an underground lab and trying to keep up appearance until it's time to free the humans they are watching after. It is a little slow and the quality of the movie is equivalent to a Syfy network show. Not movie, but show...but one of those shows that is kinda sorta good, but you know isn't going to make it for a second or third season. Fortunately, my expectations were kinda low on this one, but I still wanted to see it for Mr. Reedus and my curiosity drove forward Kirkman's name. It's not a terrible movie, but I don't see too many people going crazy over it either.



Deadpool (2016, USA) | Rating: 5/5
By now, you already know how amazingly entertaining this movie is and that it was much needed to break up things in the superhero movie theater flood. You've probably already read BlipMasta5's review of it too and if you haven't, you should! Like most comic book movies brought to theaters, I know as much about these characters as the average person who doesn't read comics, more or less. I'm familiar with Deadpool through friends and watching playthroughs of the game, so I knew a little something going into the movie. At least, I knew enough to explain certain things to my mom, who was excited to see it as well. The most important thing I want to say is that I'm beyond happy that Ryan Reynolds was able to get this movie project approved with the MPAA rating it deserves. I think if they dumbed it down to a PG-13, it just wouldn't be as effective, but I wouldn't want other superheroes to cash in on this R rating train either. It's already bad enough with the "dark and gritty" motif that DC Universe is trying to implement with everything. The humor was perfect, the action was entertaining, the acting was spot on, and the story was a wild and exciting ride. More importantly, we had an actual threatening villain that delivered, something I feel that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is lacking. Ajax was threatening and heartless, but was just as fleshed and interesting as our anti-hero Deadpool. I'm cautiously looking forward to the upcoming sequel and pray that they don't over do the humor, crudeness, or anything that made this successful.



Stonewall (2015, USA) | Rating: 2.5/5
This was a random pickup from work that sounded interesting. Aside from horror movies, I do like to watch things that deal with the LGBTQ+ community. Thanks to shows like RuPaul's Drag Race and other mediums here and there that I come across, I know a little something about the Stonewall riots. This movie is a movie with real life historical events and some people, but I think there's fictional people involved in this story of gay riots and freedom. This isn't a documentary or anything, since it takes a small town guy and brings him to a city of diversity that his town wouldn't ever dream of. There's a few cliches laced with the ugly facts such as the small town aspect, misunderstandings, poor living conditions, and over the top police harassment. I'm sure these things happened before the historic Stonewall riot and pride parades, but they could've been presented in a slightly more interesting way. The movie was an eye opener on the history of gay, lesbian, and trans people, but the focus on this small town guy was a tiny bit confusing and perhaps a bit boring too. It's not a terrible movie, but I'm sure there are better films and documentaries out there that explore and educate about Stonewall and the fight for gay rights.



Zombie Fight Club (2014, Taiwan) | Rating: 1/5
Zombies are without a doubt very popular, especially with the rise of The Walking Dead series and Fight Club was a stupendious movie with thought provoking content and mesmerizing cinematics. So, combining these two elements should be an instant win-win, right? Well, not exactly. This Taiwanese flick held a glimmer of promise for me, but once I popped it in that glimmer quickly dulled out. Don't let the trailer fool you! About 45 minutes to an hour of this movie deals with these random people that you barely get to know trying to navigate through this apartment building, while a crooked group of cops try to collect some drugs, money, or whatever. I never could figure out what they were trying to do, but they weren't very successful. Some of it is amusing, but sadly the amusement is in brief spurts. Then, the movie tries to add another movie to the zombie infection with this pseudo-fight club that barely has an explanation. It just appears! We barely know these characters, how they got to this point in the movie, or how it even correlates with what happened in the apartment building. Pretty much, B movie level material. Wait, no, it's definitely below that because it doesn't make sense, I can't laugh at how cheap it is, and it's just downright bad. Honestly, I think if they turned up the sex a little more, replace the badly CGI blood with some of that Halloween blood, and either go with the apartment or fight club story, it probably would've been a decent porno.



Visions (2015, USA) | Rating: 2/5
I'm sure this is another one of those straight to DVD movies and honestly, I think I would've passed this one up on my own. So, why did I bother watching it? A co-worker recommended it to me and for the most part, we have similar tastes as far as horror movies go. We both enjoy watching the laughably terrible ones as well as cleansing our eyes, ears, and minds with refreshingly good material. This was one she enjoyed and thought I would enjoy as well. The premise didn't really sound all that interesting and watching it, I was skeptical. It wasn't bad or anything, but most of the time, I was wondering where the story was going and when I'd be really hooked in with these characters. Unfortunately, I felt very passive towards this movie, especially the characters. While the story tried to paint our main character with sympathy and defend her with her visions, the execution was, for lack of a better word, flimsy. The story presented some good or at least interesting ideas, it just didn't keep consistently involved with the story. I'm sure someone else aside from my co-worker will find this enjoyable and worthy of recommendation, but for me, it was a fairly forgettable and borderline decent film. I didn't hate it, but I definitely wasn't thrilled.


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