mchughreviews

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Focus

Focus http://wp.me/s4JObI-focus

It’s really bad when the title of your movie is the exact problem with it. “Focus” lacks focus. Yes, that’s been said by almost every critic in America, I’m sure, but it’s not a joke. The film isn’t necessarily bad, it’s simply a jumbled mess of ideas and twists with no real focus except to attempt to keep the audience on edge.

The film follows a suave-as-always Will Smith playing Nicky,  a con…

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Cinderella

The twenty-three year old dude in me really feels strange admitting it, but at the same time, I’m not guilty. This is a DAMN good movie, and a wonderful example of what a remake can be when done correctly. There’s just enough change to keep the story interesting, fresh, and unique to itself, but not so much that fans of the classic animated classic will feel left out or upset. And it changes…

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The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

So…was there really no media guy who looked at this title and thought that it might be, well, not a great title? No? Aright then…

The first “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” wasn’t anything challenging, but it was sweet and funny enough to carry itself well enough. When I first saw it, I felt that it held itself too stiffly for much of the comedy to carry through, but the nature of the comedy sadly…

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Unfinished Business

I made the comment in my “Chappie” video review that this movie was going to be bad, but at least I knew what I was walking into. Well, it certainly isn’t good. But maybe it wasn’t quite as terrible as I thought. It’s more just a confused mess.

There’s signs of competency in this movie. That doesn’t make it competent, but it’s like watching your favorite sports team star surrounded by a  group of…

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First Thoughts – “Chappie”

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Chappie

Chappie http://wp.me/s4JObI-chappie

I don’t like Neil Blomkamp. There. I said it.

Chappie is a total misfire. The film, based off of a short film he made previously (just like his PREVIOUS movies…), starts off as a pretty obvious Blomkamp production with pointless allusions to being a fake documentary, before falling to pieces and becoming the hackneyed and overfilled story that all Blomkamp movies seem to become. “District 9″ had…

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McFarland, USA

The Kevin Costner effect is an unfortunate one. It must be hard. Sure, I get that your movie needs a star and he’s the most available one. But once you cast him, you’re dooming yourself to…well…Costner. I can’t get over how bland the man is in every role he plays. You could tell him to play Freddie Mercury and he’d make the role underplayed and quiet. He’s just such a terrible actor. And the sad…

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The Lazarus Effect

As soon as the words “From The Producers of the Purge” flashed across the screen in trailers for this, I knew exactly what I was setting myself up for. This was going to be a cool idea that raises cool questions that refuses to address any of those questions for fear of alienating its audience searching for some form, any form, of depth. It’s a counterintuitive argument for me, as I’m typically…

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The Duff

After watching this movie, I have come to the unfortunate realization that I am ABSOLUTELY a DUFF. Seriously, all of my friends are way more attractive than me. I’m not saying I’m ugly or anything, but come on, I’m so clearly the one of them that’s the approachable one or the one that gets the questions about the people I’m with. I just have absurdly attractive friends. DAMN YOU ALL, ATTRACTIVE…

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Oscars – First Impressions With the Oscars over, here are my initial thoughts on the awards! I've only written about the categories that I have seen at least three movies from, so sadly documentaries and foreign films are not listed here.

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Countdown to the Oscars: Best Films of 2015 Tonight, a group of Academy snobs look at the films they nominated for their own awards and learn who they voted for in the end.

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Countdown to the Oscars: Worst Films of 2015 I'm sorry, Colin Farrell, I really am! Look at that picture of him, even HE'S crying thinking of the worst of the worst movies of the last year.

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Countdown to the Oscars: Worst Films of 2015 I'm sorry, Colin Farrell, I really am! Look at that picture of him, even HE'S crying thinking of the worst of the worst movies of the last year.

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Hot Tube Time Machine 2

Hot Tube Time Machine 2

The first Hot Tub Time Machine was a nice surprise, a film that managed to actually be stupid but forgivably fun. The sequel is anything but fun. Instead of embracing the stupidity with grace, it seems to think that stupidity is acceptable on any degree, squandering its potential in a wave of uncomfortably unfunny jokes and a poor sense of timing and effort.

The film picks off where the last…

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Seventh Son

There’s only so many fantasy stories to tell before they start sounding repetitive. But that doesn’t mean they should lack effort to at least try to be original. Seventh Son doesn’t try to have an identity. Instead, it borrows bland plot lines and stories from the millions of past fantasy adventures and dulls them to a point of shameful belittling that’s actually quite impressive, I must admit.

I…

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Kingsman: The Secret Service

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Goddamnit, why couldn’t I have seen THIS on Valentines Day?!

It’s not often that I see a movie that bottoms out with a terrible 0.5/5 and then see a movie that I give a highest rank to in the same week, and for that reason I was trying desperately to justify giving this movie a lower score. But I can’t. Kingman is a fun, action packed, silly, wonderfully funny and surprisingly refreshing dive…

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Countdown to the Oscars: Best Surprises of 2014 Is there anything better then a great movie? Actually, yeah, to me there is - a surprise!