Exciting News!

While after seeing Fast Five, I thought for sure my next review would be for Marvel's Thor. But I might be wrong. I've luckily landed into a screening pass for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Expect a review by the end of the week (or not. Getting into those things can be hell). But It'll be good to get a review in a good two weeks before the actual release.

TS Review 3: Fast Five

TYLER STEVENS REVIEW

FAST FIVE

DIRECTED BY: JUSTIN LIN

WRITTEN BY: CHRIS MORGAN

STARRING: VIN DIESEL, PAUL WALKER, DWAYNE JOHNSON

 I hadn’t seen any of the Fast & Furious movies before this. I guess I just never really cared. That being said, I never really cared about seeing Fast Five either. It all just seemed too much out of a generally simple concept. Some guy in 2001 probably said, “I want to make a movie with hot girls.” Next guy said, “Hey! I want to make a movie with awesome cars.” And for some reason they agreed those two things went together to make an awesome movie. Guess what? They were right. Fast Five continues the story of Brian O’Conner and Dom Torreto as they assemble a team to bring down the biggest drug lord in Rio in order to get $100 million. But things get tricky when they find a new FBI buff, Hobbs, on their tail and the drug shoot-outs get nasty. The cast in this movie is for the most part okay. Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, and Ludacris all pull off likable characters. But Dwayne Johnson really bombs it. He fails every line reading he has. It doesn’t matter that much in a movie about car chases and explosions but he should definitely stick to that so his line readings can’t be heard through the explosions. The script is mediocre at best. I noticed a few inconsistencies in characters saying this and that and they rely so much on subtitles but you’ll live. I mean, it’s good to read sometimes, right? Anyways, few lines elicit non-wanted chuckles and some lines elicit purposeful chuckles but the film doesn’t rely on it’s script. The action takes front seat. And it is just amazing. From the opening heist in which Vin Diesel literally drives off a cliff to the big heist where they drag a huge vault across the streets of Rio, wrecking them, Fast Five features top-notch, edge-of-your seat action sequences worth the price of admission alone. The film is clever and sleek, while at points over-the top, but you never lose the fun in Fast Five. I’ve never seen any others in the franchise so I can’t compare but with a cliffhanger post-credits scene and a overall fun time had by me, I’d be willing to see Fast Six sometime soon. Summer, even though it’s April 29, really did start out with an awesome bang.

FINAL GRADE: B+

FINAL SAY: While it doesn’t boast a revolutionary script, Fast Five is an excellent, edge-of-your-seat heist film that will leave you ready for more. 

Looking On To Summer: The Summer Movie Preview

EXPECTATIONS FOR SUMMER FILMS

MAY

THOR:  A hit or miss. Trailers make it look a little bit too corny but it could also be fun. 

PRIEST: A critical bomb. Too much like Legion to be of any interest to me. 

PIRATES 4: With At World's End being a terrible film, On Stranger Tides has a lot of ground to make up. Hopefully it can get there. 

THE HANGOVER: PART II: How do you follow up the best comedy of the 2000s? It looks like director Todd Phillips will be doing that by using the same story. Again. To hell with it though, it still looks frickin' awesome

KUNG FU PANDA 2: Unnecessary sequel to a good film. 

THE TREE OF LIFE: You wanna tell me what the hell this is about.
JUNE

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS: Looks better than The Last Stand and actually looks like an intriguing origin story (the best kind of superhero story). 

SUPER 8: Is it too early to name the best film of the summer? Yes, but Super 8 has a huge lead right now with Spielberg and JJ Abrams attached to this "ET meets epic action" film.

GREEN LANTERN:  Looked terrible. Emphasis on the looked. WonderCon footage proved me so wrong.

CARS 2: Even more unnecessary sequel to a mediocre film.
JULY

TRANSFORMERS 3: Looks better than 2. This actually could be awesome. Fingers crossed. 

HARRY POTTER PART 2: Huge fan of the series. Saw Part 1 at midnight. Plan to see this epic at midnight as well. 

CAPTAIN AMERICA: Best superhero film of the year? Possibly. With a great looking trailer, Captain America has high expectations from me. 

COWBOYS & ALIENS: Change the title. Seriously. This looks ridiculous. 

THE SMURFS: You know what? I'm going to pretend this movie isn't getting made. 
AUGUST

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES: It's the rise of the planet of the return of the revenge of the apes. Yes, Fox will probably change the title to that now. Too early to tell for good or bad though. Need a trailer. 

CONAN THE BARBARIAN: Wait, this isn't the Conan O'Brian gets his revenge on NBC movie?!?!?!? Never mind, this is garbage!

SPY KIDS 4: HAHAHAHAHA This is a joke. 

FINAL DESTINATION 5: Should be the final.

And then comes September and we're back to school...

TS Review 2: Soul Surfer

TYLER STEVENS REVIEW

SOUL SURFER

DIRECTED BY: SEAN MCNAMARA

WRITTEN BY: SEAN MCNAMARA, DEBORAH SCHWARTZ, DOUGLAS SHWARTZ, MICHAEL BERK

STARRING: ANNASOPHIA ROBB, DENNIS QUAID, HELEN HUNT

Tons of inspirational sports films have lunged into production after the success of the 2009 film, The Blind Side. But let me say this: Soul Surfer, surprisingly, is tough competition. Soul Surfer follows the true story of Bethany Hamilton (AnnaSophia Robb), a thirteen-year-old girl in 2003 living in Hawaii. Her life is centered around surfing, her passion. But on one fateful afternoon, her life is put on the line and ever surfing again becomes a long-shot when Bethany gets her arm bitten off by a shark. Soul Surfer is surprisingly non-cheese, thanks to a fairly decent script. The performances are fine across the board except for the stand-out performance from AnnaSophia Robb. She delivers true emotion and devotion to the role and comes out on top. The film has trouble keeping your attention for the first twenty minutes due to the fact that you’re anticipating the fateful shark attack. But it pays off as the shark attack is a beautifully shot, intense scene that makes you want to look away, but unfortunately you can’t. From then on out, the audience around me was having trouble not crying for the rest of the movie (except for the jackass using the laser pointer). Why? The film is heartbreakingly sad because it feels so real the entire time. Not once does it feel too inspirational. The film’s penultimate scene, though, is not one when Bethany is surfing or getting her arm bitten off. It’s the scene where Bethany travels to a tsunami-destroyed Thailand and gains some perspective and faith for life and surfing. AnnaSophia Robb carries the film that has true heart and the chemistry between Bethany, her family, and her friends is pitch-perfect. Albeit predictable, Soul Surfer is an wonderfully inspirational film with a captivating amount of heart.

FINAL GRADE: B+

FINAL SAY: Although predictable, Soul Surfer is a heartbreaking yet heartwarming, inspirational film with a great performance by AnnaSophia Robb. 

TS Review 1: Arthur

TYLER STEVENS REVIEW

ARTHUR

DIRECTED BY: JASON WINER

WRITTEN BY: PETER BAYNHAM

STARRING: RUSSELL BRAND, HELEN MIRREN, JENNIFER GARNER

I have a question: Do you like Russell Brand? If no, this movie is definitely not one for you to see. If you think he’s funny like I do, you actually might have fun. Arthur follows the story of…you guessed it, a man named Arthur who is a rich, drunken man who acts like a child. He is looked after his nanny, Hobson, and hangs out with his chauffer. But when Arthur is forced into an arranged marriage with his inheritance on the line, Arthur has to choose between love and money because of another girl he just met. This is a sweet, at times really funny comedy that has you pleased throughout. Russell Brand delivers his most restrained performance and he is actually quite good as the childish drunk Arthur and he mainly stays to his normal style of comedy, but it definitely works for him. Helen Mirren is the highlight of the cast in her role of Arthur’s nanny. She is often quite witty and funny and at some points is funnier than Brand himself. Jennifer Garner, though, is where the problems come. She feels so out of place in the role she is in. As usually she’d be the romantic lead, she takes on the role of the un-romantic lead which just results in a very bland performance with no real character. Another problem comes when you find Russell Brand and the real female romantic lead, played by Greta Gerwig, don’t have great chemistry. Although very witty, funny with some unexpected jokes here and there, Arthur suffers from a slow second half compared to it’s fast paced, funny every minute first half. The problem is that when Arthur’s character grows up and acts less childish, the comedic sense in the character is gone and what’s left is a rich, upset billionaire moping around. Russell Brand is left with a huge responsibility though, because there is not one scene in the film he isn’t in and he carries the film great. The film is very funny throughout the entire runtime and it certainly isn’t as bad and every critic says. Arthur is pure fun and Russell Brand is great but there is the unavoidable feeling the film could’ve been funnier in the second half.

FINAL GRADE: B-

FINAL SAY: While slow in it’s second half, Arthur is a funny, witty comedy with great performances from Russell Brand and Helen Mirren.