jstewart007

[jstewart007]

Worst Movies of 2018

Honorable Mentions

Mile 22

Tomb Raider

The Nun

Rampage

Insidious: The Last Key

The Hurricane Heist

Ocean’s Eight

 10

The Predator

“For me The Predator is the most disappointing movie of 2018, I absolutely love the original Predator for its suspense and action. Unfortunately for this installment, Shane Black decided to abandon the whole suspense aspect and swapped it for straight up comedy and barely passable CGI.”

9

Truth or Dare

“Truth or Dare falls into the category of unintentionally funny films. The audience is treated to characters, who clearly don’t really care for each other and we witness them die in a laughably PG-13 fashion”

8

The First Purge

“I personally have mixed feeling about the Purge franchise, but this installment is by far the dumbest of them all. We get introduced to unlikable characters, really dumb dialogue, and a lack of logic displayed into this film.”

 7

Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom

“It seems to me that Hollywood is trying so hard to recapture the magic that Jurassic Park, but the problem is that with each installment the plot gets dumber and dumber. This is the case with Fallen Kingdom as audiences suffer through the dumbest decision making in the entire franchise.”

6

Death Wish

“All Eli Roth had to do was make a movie about a man avenging his Wife’s death. How did he make so boring? Other than some entertaining gun fights, the movie has nothing entertaining to offer for its characters.”

5

Action Point

“For fans of Jackass, I would recommend skipping this movie. It wasn’t funny, the story line had nothing interesting to offer, and overall it was just a gross movie to watch.”

4

The Strangers: Prey at Night

“In Slasher films, we usually have stupid victims or stupid killers. The Strangers: Prey at Night has both. When watching this movie, I was basically yelling at the screen telling how dumb they are for losing the cellphone, weapon, and car so easily and so quickly. It also doesn’t the film tries to pay an homage to John Carpenter and ending up making worse.”

3

Slender Man

“Slender Man had an opportunity to be good, if it was only scary. Instead the writers made the characters dull and uncaring and the film overall was just straight up boring.”

2

A Wrinkle in Time

“This is one the hardest films I have ever sat through. The acting was very wooden, the characters were annoying, the plot has no logic or reasoning behind, and I was just bored the whole way through.”

1

Fifty Shades Freed

“My top pick is not directed at just this installment, but at the entire trilogy as a whole. The Fifty Shades Trilogy, will not just go down as one of the worst movies of all time, but as the worst trilogy of all time.”

[jstewart007]

Best Movies of 2018

Honorable mentions

Black panther

Halloween

Mid90s

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Incredibles 2

Sorry to bother you

Ready Player One

 10

Upgrade

“Upgrade manages to be a solid sci-fi film that manages to blend both comedic and horror element in this ever so amazing film”

9

BlackkKlansman

“Blackkklansman goes straight into a political message about racism and how it affect our country, but what wows me the most is how Spike Lee manage blend humor with the horrors our society”

8

Isle of dogs

“This works both as a kid’s film and as an adult film. A kid can look at this film and see a boy looking for his best friend, while an adult can look at this film and see a message about using propaganda for government corruption.”

7

A Quiet Place

“A Quiet Place give a unique twist to the horror genre as we as an audience are feeling condoned to limited senses. Also the film asks the question, what would you do to save the ones you love.”

6

Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse

“This is without a doubt the most creative Spiderman movie I have ever seen. The film provides a comic book feel and a likeable lead character to root for.

 5

A star is born

“An emotional roller coaster from start to finish, A Star is Born deliver excellent music and performances, especially from Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga  

4

Searching

“Usually with user-interface movies, they don’t turn out very well, but Searching is the one exception as I was hooked from beginning to end at edge of my seat in pure suspense.”

3

Avengers: Infinity War

“The Marvel Cinematic Universe has really stepped up their game with this installment. It delivers all the excitement and all emotion that comes with it. For this is the film fans were truly waiting for.

2

Mission Impossible: Fallout

“This the sixth entry in the Mission Impossible and it is only getting better. Usually with age things get slower, but not with Tom Cruise for he just gets more bad-ass.”

1

Hereditary

“The reason why Hereditary is number one is simply because that is nothing, I have seen this year that comes close to the originality that this film holds. It is well acted, well directed, and above all else, my favorite movie of 2018.”

[jstewart007]

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the sequel to the very divisive Jurassic World. This one is directed by J.A. Bayona, the director of film like The Impossible, The Orphanage, and A Monster Calls. It’s also written by Collin Trevorrow, the writer of Jurassic World. Jurassic World was very divisive when it came and I myself did not enjoy Jurassic World. I felt like it was too predictable, the effects weren’t very good, and it just didn’t stand out like its predecessors. When I heard a sequel was coming out, I was hoping that the writers would learn from their mistakes but, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is so much worse.

           The marketing behind this movie revealed too much of the plot to this movie and can’t help but, feel sorry the people who saw those trailers. When it comes to marketing a movie, you want to reveal as little as possible. The marketers behind the film should have just showed the scenes with the volcanic island and that is it. They shouldn’t have revealed what happened after that. I will admit that the scenes with the volcano island were very entertaining and was well directed to say the least. Sadly, I can’t say anything after the volcanic island is worth watching.

           Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt reprises their role and my biggest complaint about the first Jurassic World, was that I did not feel they had much chemistry to each other. In Fallen Kingdom, I do feel like they improve their relationship ever so slightly, but it still feels awkward in certain scenes. The only relationship bought was the relationship between Chris Pratt and the Velociraptor named Blue. I really felt a connection between them and is easily a highlight of the movie.

           As far as logic goes in Fallen Kingdom, they might as well have just taken that bit of logic and thrown it into the garbage. I cannot understand for the life of me why anyone would want to save a species that can easily destroy the human race. I can understand if they move the dinosaurs to another island and keep them away from the humans, but the story never goes that way and it just gets dumber as the story goes in. Collin Trevorrow basically writes in a bunch of stupid characters that think it was a good idea to sell the dinosaurs to the highest bidder. I don’t know if he wanted to go full on stupid with the characters or just make a dumb film in general. Either way, it still makes a terrible plot.

           The worst part about this movie is the ending. It is one of the worst endings I have seen all year. The only reason I can come up with for the ending was to make another movie and rack up more money at the box office.

           Overall, Jurassic World: Fallen is badly written with some good visual in it. The logic displayed is unbelievably stupid and just don’t like this movie. There are entertaining scenes on the volcano island, but anything after that is mind-numbingly annoying.

Final Verdict:

D+

[jstewart007]

Hereditary: Review

From the directorial debut of Ari Aster, we get Hereditary, a film about a family that recently lost a member and learning to cope with it. As they try to adjust, things in their household experiences strange events surrounding their house. Events that may tear the family apart as they know it.

           First thing I like to say about this film is that absolutely terrified me to my very core. The film starts out slow to build up tension and as it progresses into its final act, the creepy imagery and frightening events had a way of getting under my skin. The film does not have to rely on jump scares to scare others.  Granted, I understand that fear itself is subjective towards an individual, some don’t get scared toward imagery such as this. For me, this scared me not because of how disturbing it looks. This movie startled me because despite the supernatural events that occur in the movie, this could actually happen. The thought of that alone scares me most of all.

           The performances in this movie are A list celebrity status worthy, especially the performance by the mother played Toni Collette. Her character goes many different emotions throughout the film and I can honestly that this is one of the best performances of 2018. Another shout-out I like to give is to Milly Shapiro who play the young daughter, Charlie. This is her first acting role in a feature film and I like to see more from her in the future. Even Alex Wolff does a fantastic job and I also want to see him in more roles as he is starting to grow as an actor.

           One thing I really liked about the film is the how the director was able to combine arthouse filmmaking with horror. In the movie, the mother has hobby of making dioramas and uses that hobby by making them based on events that happened in her life. The director uses the dioramas as a visual aid and placing the family in it. This may throw some people off as it may be too artsy for some, but for me I felt it gave a chance for the director to display his talent as a director.

           Overall, Hereditary was absolutely terrifying to watch and had a way of getting under my skin, the performances were out of this world spectacular, and above all else it was just an amazing horror movie from start to finish. As far as complaints are concerned, I did feel that the first half of the film was a little too long. I heard rumors that it was originally 3 hours long and if so, then I’m glade they cut it down. Other than that, I feel that Hereditary is worth watching and every horror fan should go out and watch it.

Final Verdict:

A

[jstewart007]

Solo: A Star Wars Story Review

Solo: A Star Wars Story is a stand-alone story about young Han Solo and is directed by Ron Howard. No one truly ask for a Solo movie but, we got one anyways. When going into this movie, I lowered my expectations as I assumed that this movie was going to suck but, I was shocked to find out that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

           Let’s first talk about what I liked about the film, I really like Donald Glover’s portrayal of Lando Calrissian. I really felt like Glover captured the personality of Lando very well. A cocky smuggler who is really in it for the money. Now let’s get to the elephant in the room and talk about Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo. I will admit that I didn’t hate him in this movie as I felt he made this character his own but, for most of the time he never stood out and made me think that’s Han Solo. There were moments when was piloting the Millennium Falcon or that moment when he shot first was moments when I thought of him as Solo.

           The story line to this movie is all over the place. It got really boring in the beginning and answer a bunch of question we did not need answers to. For example, did we really need to know how he got his last or that he can speak the language of the Wookies. As the story progressed, it treated the audience with plot twists after plot twists and for every single plot twist, I just rolled my eyes except for one, which I didn’t see coming and thought it was very well-done twist but, other than that the movie was just predictable. We all know that Han is going to survive this film as we see him in other installments.

           The story does involve Han in a romantic relationship, which I could not buy for a second. Emilia Clarke is an actress I always expect to do well and this one is no exception but, there was just not enough screen time for Qi’ra and Han to make me believe that they truly had a connection. Also, the other side characters in the film never struck as memorable. If anything, they are more disposable. This really disappoints me as I wanted Woody Harrelson’s character to really stand out and he does in some instances as Han’s mentor but, most of the time I found him forgettable.

           Overall, Solo: A Star Wars Story is a movie that no one wanted to begin with and just did not feel like it should have been made. The story line is all over the place, the side characters were forgettable, and I never bought the relationship with Han and Qi’ra but, the film did have some memorable scenes with the Millennium Falcon and memorable action scenes that made the scene stand out to me.

 Final Verdict:

C

[jstewart007]

A Quiet Place: Review

“A Quiet Place” is directed and stars John Krasinski, also stars Emily Blunt. The film is about a family trying to survive in world where creatures hunt by sound and every noise is the difference between life and death. The best way a can describe this film is like the movie “Tremor”, except ten times better in every way.

           What really interested me the most about this film is the fact that John Krasinski directed this film. The only thing most know him for is work in comedy, such as his role in “The Office”. I seem to notice more of a trend in Hollywood of comedic celebrities working on their own horror films. Last year, we got Jordon Peele and his thought provoking film, “Get Out”, and now this year we have John Krasinski and his film, “A Quiet Place”.

           Now how is it as a film? I can honestly say that I adore this movie. The film delivers a certain type of suspense that I look for in horror. That fact that the majority of the film has a silent tone to it, delivers much more suspense needed for the film to work in the horror genre.

           The character development surprisingly worked. You do get to know the characters very well, despite its short length. You get to know that their daughter is deaf and her father is tries to build her an earpiece. This strand of character development shows how they learned sign language and the struggles they face as a family. The mother played by Emily Blunt, struggle with the world she lives as she just lost her son and now is pregnant with another child. I must say Emily Blunt really nails her role and makes the audience feel for her when she in danger or in pain.

           Overall, I feel like this film very suspenseful and is worth viewing in theatres. As far as complaints about the film, I say that there are certain jump scares in the film that I felt weren’t necessary. Another problem I had was the ending. It is not a bad ending, I just felt it could have been done better what I was given. Despite these faults, I feel like it is worth checking out and I can honestly say that it is my favorite movie so far this year.    

 Final Verdict:

A-

[jstewart007]

Worst Movies of 2017

Honorable mentions

Alien: Covenant

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Baywatch

The Dark Tower

#10: Underworld: Blood Wars

           “The fifth installment in the Underworld franchise and it’s a franchise that has overstayed it’s welcome. This movie is both embarrassing and laughably bad with terrible effect and cringe worthy dialogue. Unfortunately, there will be another one and I don’t think anyone is looking forward to it.”

#9: Rings

         “Unlike its predecessor, Rings fails to bring in any scares or suspense. Also makes the stupid decision to turn the video tape into a cult, which causes the scares to be a minimum and to top it all off, that awful ending.”

#8: Death Note

           “As a fan of the anime, I understand that with an adaptation there are going to be some differences, but when you take the smartest character in anime history and turn him into this moron. Then we are going to have a problem.

#7: Chips

        “2017 brought us two tv-movie adaptation, Baywatch and Chips. Chips by far is the worst of the two as this film brings in two character that have no chemistry what so ever. Plus, the laughs are very minimum to say the least.”

#6: Unforgettable

           “Ironically, I forget until recently I even saw this movie and now that I remember this movie, I can say that it is the biggest cash grab of 2017. This film basically repeats the same formula we have seen over and over again about a jealous ex.”

#5: The Bye Bye Man

        “A lot of films this year has brought us film that are so bad they’re funny, The Bye Bye Man top those films by a long shot. This film gives us a monster with a background that doesn’t make any sense, moments where we say what is going on, and some unintentionally funny death scenes.”

#4: Transformers: The Last Knight

           “When I first saw Age of Extinction, I though nothing can top it as this is the worst of the entire franchise. That all change when I saw The Last Knight. With consistent changes in cinematography, an abysmal story line, and ton and tons of awkward humor.”

#3: Fifty Shades Darker

        “A creepy guy like Christian Grey should not be able to turn anyone off as he is a sadist who loves to torture women. As the film progresses, the film gets even more awkward and uncomfortable to sit through with boring dialogue and non-erotic sex scenes.”

#2: Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

        “All I can say is that I am glad this franchise is over. Unfortunately, even though this is the last one, it is the worst one of the franchise. The film completely ignores everything that went on in the previous installment and also has some of the worst actions scenes I have ever seen put to film, mainly because you can’t see anything going on.”

#1: The Emoji Movie

           “Unlike the other film on this list, I could not find any enjoyment watching The Emoji Movie. This is one of those film that deserves to be block away from society for years to come as I had to suffer through unfunny humor, shameful marketing, and message that teaches children how to be stupid.”

[jstewart007]

Best movies of 2017

Honorable Mentions

Logan Lucky

Wonder Woman

Thor Ragnarok

The Big Sick

The Lego Batman Movie

The Shape of Water

#15: Star Wars: The last Jedi

“A divisive film among fans, The Last Jedi has some of its worst moments but, it also has some of its most cinematic moment which earns its spot on this list.”

#14: Dunkirk

“Dunkirk is a prime example of how a war movie should be film because every shot in this film is cinematic gold. The reason why its so low is due to its lack of characterization but, I still think it is worth your time if you ever have a chance to see it.”

#13: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

“A dark comedy that portrays itself as a murder mystery at first glance but, when delving deep into story, you realize that it highlights an important message about the fine line between the relationship of cops and its citizens and how we should work together”  

#12: Mother!

“Possibly the most divisive film of 2017, Mother! takes you into an entirely new perspective on humanity and its nature of evil.”

#11: John Wick: Chapter 2

“Keanu Reeves is back yet again in another installment of John Wick; this installment really ups the ante with well-choreographed fight scenes and a well put together story.”

#10: Get Out

“Jordan Peele really shines in 2017 with his directorial. Get Out not only works as horror film but, also works well as a satirical look at racism and racial relationship.”

#9: It

“It was one of those film that was in desperate need of a remake and It delivers with additional elements of friendship and elements of scares to accompany the audience.”

#8: Baby Driver

“Edgar Wright delivers yet again with a fun and fast paced film with killer track.”

#7: War for the Planet of the Apes

“The third installment to the new trilogy not only finishes the trilogy in a satisfying manner but, also leaves room for more installments to come.”

#6: Spiderman: Homecoming

“Possibly the best Spiderman movie I have seen since Spiderman 2. Spiderman: Homecoming delivers as a Spiderman movie with its humor and story of an underdog trying to prove himself.”

#5: Logan

“An excellent sendoff for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Logan was the Wolverine movie I have been wanting to see. The film not only give the audience blood and gore but, also shows the emotional side of our characters and makes the viewer feel for them.”

#4: Split

“Split is the best M. Night Shyamalan I have seen in quite a long but, what really make the movie for me is the performance by James McAvoy. In my opinion, it is the performance of the 2017 and absolutely is Oscar worthy. Even though it probably won’t happen.”  

#3: Lady Bird

“The sense of realism I had with Lady Bird and the performance by Saoirse Ronan made the movie for me, Plus, the sense of humor and how we can all relate to our main character in some way.”

#2: The Disaster Artist

“The Disaster Artist is by far the funniest movie of 2017. A film about the worst movie ever made has a lot heart with its themes of friendship and its inspiration to achieve our dreams, even though they don’t turn out as they seem.”

#1: Blade Runner 2049

“When Blade Runner 2049 came out I was very nervous about how they would approach a film that is considered a flawed masterpiece. When I finally saw the film, I can see this one might be better than the original as it is a flawless masterpiece.”

[jstewart007]

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” is once again written and directed by James Gunn and stars are favorite intergalactic misfits in another adventure. In this one, Starlord played by Chris Pratt finally meets his father Ego played by Kurt Russel. Now when it comes to Marvel sequels, they can either surpass the original like “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” or become a forgettable mess like “Iron Man 2”. This is unfortunately the “Iron Man 2” of Marvel Sequels.

           The reason why I felt so disappointed with this film is because the first half of this film felt very rushed to me. Matter of fact if you have seen the trailer, you pretty much seen the first half of this film. It wasn’t until the second half started, I started to get more into the story, but even then, there was still problems. Another problem I had with the film is that it tried very hard with its humor. Unlike the original, the sequel had jokes that landed and jokes that felt flat. For example, the character Drax played by Dave Bautista, James Gunn tried really hard to make him funny, but he just came off more annoying than anything. Baby Groot voiced by Vin Diesel is very cute and can sometimes be really funny but, James Gunn relied way too much on his cuteness and can easily get annoying, so I can honestly say that I prefer Groot as an adult as opposed to a baby. Easily the character with the best humor is Rocket voiced by Bradley cooper, almost every scene with him in really stood out to me and made me laugh really hard. This made me wish that there more humor like that throughout the entire film.

           Another problem I had was the story line, when I saw the trailer I thought the main antagonist was going to be the gold people but, they serve absolutely no purpose to the storyline whatsoever. The first time I saw them I thought they were pathetic and also very whiny. After the first encounter with gold people I was hoping to never see them again in the story but, they come in later at the worst moment possible and it felt awkward to see at this moment. Now the actual antagonist was really forgettable. I’m not going to say who it is but, if found Ronin from original to be forgettable, then you are going this villain forgettable.

           Now let’s talk about how the characters connected with each other. Throughout the entire film, there was one connection that had a lasting impression on me and every other character connection just felt bland to me. The one that made a real impression on me was a surprising one between Rocket and Yondu played by Michael Rooker. Those two had the best character connection because it showed that they had more in common they both realized. They are both outlaws and Yondu shows more of an understanding towards Rocket better than anyone, therefore this connection really worked for me. Other connection, like Starlord and Ego felt very rushed and felt very bland and I just couldn’t by it their relationship. Which really disappointed me because I am a big fan of Kurt Russel and I hated to see his character to turn out that way. Another relationship was between Gamora played by Zoe Saldana and Nebula played by Karen Gillan. I know that they are supposed to be sisters and also rivals because of their competitive nature but, I didn’t feel like the writer put enough emphasis into the relationship to make anyone buy into it.

           Overall, I thought this movie was very disappointing and could have been done a lot better. The first half felt rocky and some of the humor was a hit or miss for me. Although, there is some things about this movie such as Rocket’s humor and his relationship with Yondu. It is still very disappointing and I hoped that the James Gunn learns from his mistakes and does a better job when the volume 3 comes out.

Final verdict

C

[jstewart007]

Logan Review

Logan” is directed by James Mangold (“Walk the Line”, “The Wolverine”) and stars Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart. The film takes place in the year 2029, mutants have become near extinct and the only ones’ left is Logan (Hugh Jackman) and Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and they are forced to live in shadows. Logan later comes across a little girl with abilities similar to his and it’s up to him to protect her from forces perusing her.

           First thing I liked about this film is that unlike most superhero films, “Logan” shows a more human side to the genre. Both Logan and Charles are suffering through their old age. Logan is broken down and beaten, his healing ability to heal is not healing as fast as it once was and he is faced with the idea that his life may end soon and instead of facing emotionally, he faces it in the bottom of a bottle. Hugh Jackman plays his role very well as he shows us this dark tone of Logan and how hurt he truly is. Charles is unfortunately suffering through dementia and seizures, if not treated his abilities can go off with extreme seismic activity.

As far as the storyline goes, it’s very well done. Every scene is well put and needed for character development. With every sense of humor and sadness really forms the characters in the movie. The story truly shows the dark side of the superhero genre and James Mangold challenges that idea of a simple superhero story. Although the story itself is well put together, I don’t really know where it follows in the X-Men timeline and I think that is going to be the biggest complaint from viewers.

            Now let’s get to the action sequences, there is nothing I can say about it except wow.  This movie is by far one of the most violent superhero film I have ever seen. Whenever a fight sequence goes down, the audience is reminded that this film is rated R. The sequences features blood and lots of it. Every fight scene include hacking and slashing along with dismemberment and I just love it.

           Overall the film is a well put together in its own story, even though I can’t figure out where it lies in the timeline. Well done fight sequences with R rated fashion. Feature excellent performance from both Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart and if this truly is their last time taking on this role, then they have given audiences a proper send off.  

 Final Verdict

A

[jstewart007]

Get Out Review

“Get Out” is film directed by Jordon Peele, the same mind that gave us the hilarious sketch comedy, “Key and Peele. Now brings us a horror film with a satirical look at relationships between race. The film is about a black man named Chris played by Daniel Kaluuya going to visit his white girlfriend’s parents. They don’t know that he is black, but she assures him that they wouldn’t care. While there he notices, some strange things going on in their neighborhood, like the family and neighbors asking them question related to his race, the black people in the neighborhood acting white, and that the mother put him under a hypnotic spell to prevent from smoking. The best way to describe this film is like “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” with a horror twist.

           First thing I can say that I admire about this film is that this film is very gutsy and reason why I say that is because that scariest thing to talk about in my opinion is race. The topic of race is a sensitive topic in society and most prefer to never say anything about it, but with the use of the topic, it also makes the film relative to society. When talking about interracial relationships, most fail to talk about how different the social aspect of white and black people, Jordon Peele talked about how nervous he gets when he is the only black person in the social group because most the time he has no idea how to approach a conversation.

           Another thing I admired was its use of psychological horror. The problem I usually have with most horror film is that forget what true horror is and relies on jump scares. Jump scares is where something pops out of nowhere and at the same time a loud noise is made to startle the audience. This technique is what a refer to as a cheap scare and find it an ineffective way to terrify the audience.  This film has no jump scares and instead relies on its background and storytelling to terrify the audience.  

           As far as humor in this film goes in this film it relies on Chris’s best friend Rodney played by LILRey Howery for a satirical relief. In every scene with him in it provides a very funny look at what should be a serious situation. My only complaint with that even though some of the other characters had a bit of a spotlight of satirical relief include Bradley Whitford’s (Billy Madison, Cabin in the Woods) character. I felt like they could have added a little more humor to other character of the film instead of relying on one person.

           Overall I think that the film did a very good job with its horror theme. Also, did a good job relating to our society. As far as complaint, I say that they could have added a little bit more humor with the film and I thought that the way they portray white people was a little bit offensive. It made me think that all white people act like that and I know that is not true, but I look past that because I can understand what the film was trying to do. In conclusion, I think this is well crafted horror film and I highly recommend it.

Final verdict:

B+

 Reviewed by Jacob Stewart