Maleficent review

MALEFICENT:

A DARKER TAKE ON THE CLASSIC STORY WITH A POWERHOUSE PERFORMANCE BY ANGELINA JOLIE!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

DISNEY

Angelina Jolie as the dark faerie herself, Maleficent

            Disney’s iconic villainess from the classic story, Sleeping Beauty returns in this new re-imagining of the story. Angelina Jolie (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Salt, Wanted) stars as Maleficent, the dark faerie who put a curse on a young princess when she was only a baby.

            The film begins with Maleficent as a little girl living in an enchanted forest of faeries and other majestic creatures. She befriends a young peasant boy named Stefan (Toby Regbo and Michael Higgins (young Stefan), Sharlto Copley-District 9, The A-Team, Elysium) and the two of them have become close friends for years.

            That is until Stefan gives Maleficent a “True Love’s Kiss”. But was it really true love? Nope.

            Stefan removes Maleficent’s wings and flees back to the kingdom he came from, where he later is crowned king. Out of rage Maleficent crashes his daughter’s first birthday and puts a curse on her and I’m sure we all know what’s coming.

            On her sixteenth birthday, she shall prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and go into a sleep-like death. King Stefan calls in three pixies, Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Pirates! Band of Misfits), Thistlewit (Juno Temple-Atonement, The Other Boleyn Girl), and Flittle (Lesley Manille-Another Year) to take his newborn daughter far away from Maleficent.

            For sixteen years the pixies have been taking care of the king’s daughter, whom we all know as the free-spirited and beautiful Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning-Super 8) in secret from Maleficent. Aurora soon discovers Maleficent and they start bonding and getting to know each other and in time, Maleficent discovers she may have feelings for Aurora and might even call off the curse.

            Overall, for a re-imagining, Maleficent is an enjoyable adventure, the production design is gorgeous, the special effects are pretty impressive, and Angelina Jolie’s performance as Maleficent is amazing, she really hits it out of the park.

            Besides Jolie’s performance, most of the casting is pretty solid, Elle Fanning as Aurora, while it’s no major improvement over the animated Aurora, at least she actually looks like a teenager, the original Aurora from the Walt Disney movie looks older than 16, either 18 or maybe early 20s.

            Honestly, out of all the recent dark fairy tale adaptations, I would have to say I may prefer this movie over films like Alice in Wonderland or Oz: The Great and Powerful. Granted Oz was decent and Alice in Wonderland had an interesting visual style, I praise Maleficent, not just for the effects but the plot was unique, it explained Maleficent’s past and what caused her to become the villainess we know today.  

            If you’re expecting a musical with colorful characters and songs, you are not going to find it here; you’d be better off watching Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. But if you’re looking for an interesting and more adult take on the story, you may find some enjoyment out of Maleficent, though I wouldn’t recommend it to young children, it has scenes that may frighten them.

            So take it for what it is and enjoy a gritty take on a classic story, I miss the dragon with the green fire though.

A Million Ways to Die in the West review

A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST:

FAMILY GUY GOES TO THE OLD WEST!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Seth Macfarlane (middle), Charlize Theron (right), and Liam Neeson (left) gun-slinging some crude jokes in A Million Ways to Die in the West

            Family Guy creator and director of Ted, Seth Macfarlane returns with his second film as a director, this time he takes all his crude jokes and pop cultural references to the old West in A Million Ways to Die in the West. Honestly, while I don’t think it’s as funny as Ted, I still it’s got some laugh out loud jokes and gags, despite some of it being very juvenile, but it’s sort of an expectation whenever Seth Macfarlane is involved.

            Set in Arizona, 1882, Seth plays a cowardly sheep farmer named Albert Stark, who after losing his beloved girlfriend, Louise (Amanda Seyfried-Les Miserables) to a mustached barber named Foy (Neil Patrick Harris-How I Met Your Mother, Harold & Kumar trilogy), challenges him to a duel. But there’s just one tiny problem, Albert has never fired a gun before.

            In comes sexy gun-slinging cowgirl, Anna (Charlize Theron-The Cider House Rules, Hancock, Prometheus) who teaches Albert how to shoot and soon enough he gains the courage and strength to win his girl back and save his town from a ruthless outlaw, Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson-Taken, Non-Stop, Unknown).

            The film also stars Giovanni Ribisi (Avatar, Ted) as Albert’s best friend, Edward who has never seen a woman’s uterus before, the outrageous Sarah Silverman (The Sarah Silverman Program, Wreck-It Ralph) as prostitute and girlfriend of Edward, Ruth, and outrageous cameos by Christopher Lloyd reprising his iconic role as Doc Brown from the Back to the Future trilogy and comedian, Gilbert Godfried as Abraham Lincoln.

            Overall, for a second film by Macfarlane, A Million Ways to Die in the West delivered what I expected, crude and vulgar jokes that I probably shouldn’t laugh at, but couldn’t help it. Like I said, I didn’t think the jokes were as funny as the ones from Ted, but most of them get a good laugh, or an offensive reaction, either one is expected.

            However there is one particular cameo at the very end of the movie that will most likely cause you to fall on the floor laughing, I won’t dare give it away, but it’s a really funny cameo and probably the best one in the entire film.

            I can’t say, I recommend the film to everyone, trust me it’s extremely crude and often offensive humor, much like the humor in Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show, and especially Ted. If you can handle material like this and enjoyed Seth’s previous work, you may like it okay.

            But if you’re easily offended by vulgar content, I’d recommend you stay the F*ck away from this movie and go see The Other Woman instead.

            I personally thought it was funny for the most part, it does get really stupid and gross at times, but it makes up for it with some witty gags and quotes. Not as quotable as Ted, nor is it as hilarious of a Western-Comedy as Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles, but for a film with Seth’s humor thrown into the West, it’s done fine, take it for what it's worth and remember…People die at the fair.

X-Men: Days of Future Past review

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST:

AN ENTERTAINING BLAST FROM THE PAST AND ANOTHER X-CELLENT REASON WHY WE LOVE OUR MUTANTS!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** 1/2 out of 4

20^TH CENTURY FOX AND MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT

(From left to right) Iceman, Charles Xavier, Beast, Wolverine, Mystique, Professor X, and Kitty Pryde in X-Men: Days of Future Past

            Everyone’s favorite team of mutants is back in the latest chapter of the successful X-Men film franchise, based on the popular Marvel Comics series. Thankfully it’s not another prequel or spinoff, it’s an official sequel to 2006’s X-Men 3: The Last Stand and 2011’s X-Men: First Class (It’s basically a sequel to the last sequel and the first prequel), once again directed by Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2: X-Men United, Superman Returns).

            Most of the cast from the previous X-Men movies reprise their iconic roles including Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation) as Charles Xavier, better known as Professor X, Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit) as Professor X’s counterpart, Magneto, Hugh Jackman (Van Helsing, The Prestige, Les Miserables) as everyone’s favorite metal-clawed mutant, Wolverine, James McAvoy (Arthur Christmas, The Last King of Scotland) as young Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave, Prometheus) as young Magneto, Erik Lensherr, Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle) as the Shapeshifting Mystique, Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies, Jack the Giant Slayer) as the big and hairy Beast, and many other familiar faces.

            In an apocalyptic future where mutants are being hunted by giant robots created by the scheming military scientist, Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage-Elf, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Game of Thrones) and Professor X has teamed up with his evil counterpart, Magneto to end the war between humans and mutant forever. Accompanying them are Wolverine, Storm (Halle Berry-Swordfish, Die Another Day, Cloud Atlas), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page-Juno, Inception, The East), and Iceman (Shawn Ashmore).

            Wolverine volunteers to go back in time to inform young Charles Xavier of what will happen if the war continues.

            Charles, Wolverine, and Beast must break Erik Lensherr/young Magneto out of his prison, inform him what is going to happen in the future, and find Erik’s old partner in crime, Mystique, who is hot on Bolivar’s tracks and plans to kill him for creating robots to hunt down mutants, just for being different.

            Overall X-Men: Days of Future Past is one of the best films in the X-Men franchise, up there with X2: X-Men United, though I would have to say X2 is still a little better. It’s nice to see the X-Men mutants together again after the previous prequels and spinoffs like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class, and The Wolverine, we haven’t seen most of these characters since X-Men 3: The Last Stand, so it’s quite refreshing to see them protect humans and mutants once more.

            As far as comic book movies go, the story is definitely more complex than the previous films in the series. It’s not Inception complex, but it certainly isn’t a straightforward action movie.

            Besides being one of the best films in the X-Men series, Days of Future Past might even be one of the best comic book movies of the year, better than The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and up with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. So, if you were disappointed with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 or found it underwhelming, perhaps you’d be better off revisiting the X-Men, it’s complex but it doesn’t have as many plot elements as Spider-Man.

            Honestly this could have been a strong way to end the X-Men series, it felt very self-contained in the end, but we have a few more films in the series coming up, starting with X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016.

            Until then, we have X-Men: Days of Future Past to fill in, it’s better than X-Men 3: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and it might even be better than The Wolverine from last year, so enjoy an “X-cellent” blast from the past with everyone’s favorite mutants.

Godzilla review

GODZILLA:

A WELCOMING RETURN OF THE KING OF THE MONSTERS AND AN ATOMIC BLAST OF GOOD OLD MONSTER BEATING FUN!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Godzilla attacking Japan once again in Godzilla

            GOJIRA! (Or Godzilla) is back and bigger than ever in the second re-imagining of the popular Japanese movie monster from Toho by the US, the first being the 1998 Roland Emmerich movie. No, it’s nothing like the 1998 movie, no Matthew Broderick, no Godzilla laying eggs, no Godzilla being an oversized iguana, and no piles of fish.

            In the directing chair is newcomer, Gareth Edwards (Monsters) and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Nowhere Boy) as the main human protagonist, Ford Brody, a US Navy soldier who lost his mother after a laboratory accident when he was young. For a human character in a monster movie, Aaron does a decent job portraying his character and manages to have some witty remarks and effective emotion at the same time, unlike Broderick’s awkward Niko Tatopoulos performance.

            Fifteen years after the accident, Ford has been living in San Francisco with his wife, Elle (Elizabeth Olsen-Martha Marcy May Marlene) and five year old son.

            When he is called in for an important he mission, he discovers that a nuclear accident occurred in 1954 and an indestructible creature was awakened, what could this unstoppable force be? Why, none other than the King of the Monsters himself, Godzilla.

            In more recent years, the same incident occurred and a new monster was created, known as the MUTO, a winged creature with long hook-like claws and a powerful blast that can wipe out a city’s power supply. Honestly it looks like a hybrid of a Kaiju from Pacific Rim and the monster from Cloverfield.

            The MUTO finds its way to places like Hawaii, Japan, and Las Vegas, and starts causing havoc everywhere. Flying around the city destroying buildings and knocking the power out with its powerful roar.

            Fed up with all the destruction, the US Navy decides to unleash Godzilla to battle the MUTO and save the world from total annihilation.

            Compared to the 1998 Godzilla movie, this new re-imagining of the classic monster surpasses the previous US film in just about every way. The CG effects are much more impressive and Godzilla’s design actually looks like Godzilla and not a giant iguana humping buildings in New York City and eating piles of a lot of fish.

            Besides the special effects, every time Godzilla battles the MUTO is exciting and so awesome, it leaves you at the edge of your seat and cheering. That’s what everyone paid to see, watching monsters beating the hell out of each other, glad it didn’t disappoint and no references to those stupid Godzilla babies.

            Granted the original Japanese films are still impressive for their times and the campiness of the films do have a charm to them, but there are plenty of elements from the original movies thrown in here, so die-hard fans won’t be disappointed.

            It’s nice to see Godzilla on the big screen again in the US, back before this film there were only two Japanese films, Godzilla 1985 and Godzilla 2000 and Roland Emmerich’s 1998 crap-fest released here in the US. Fans will probably love it and newcomers will most likely get into the colossal Godzilla franchise through this movie, hopefully this will lead to a brand new franchise with rebooted versions of some of the other iconic monsters like Mothra, Ghidorah, Destoroyah, or Mechagodzilla.

            So maybe now we can forget about the Emmerich Godzilla, thanks to this Atomic Breath blast of monstrous fun.

Neighbors review

NEIGHBORS:

RECKLESS NEIGHBORS AND LAUGH OUT LOUD GAGS ALL THE WAY THROUGH!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Seth Rogen and Zac Efron are “Bad” Neighbors

            Call the police because there’s going to be loud music, drugs, and lots of sex in the new comedy, Neighbors. Directed by Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek, The Five-Year Engagement) and starring Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, Superbad, This is the End) and Zac Efron (High School Musical trilogy, Hairspray, 17 Again) and filled the brim with crude and vulgar jokes and cruel pranks.

            Seth and Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids, X-Men: First Class, The Place Beyond the Pines) star as Mac and Kelly Radner, a married couple, living peacefully in suburbia and taking care of their baby daughter. That is until their new neighbors come to town and they are forced to live next to a fraternity house of reckless college students, led by Teddy Sanders (Efron).

             Mac and Kelly are fed up with all the partying, noise, and loud music, so they start coming up with all of these plans to make them move out of the neighborhood. But sadly Teddy and his fraternity have firepower too and start pulling cruel pranks on them, most notably stealing their air bags out of the car and putting them in Mac’s office chair; soon a simple neighbor rivalry turns into an outrageous battle between family and frat.

            Overall, I wouldn’t consider Neighbors to be as hilarious as Seth Rogen’s previous comedy, This is the End, but for what the film is, it’s still very funny and offers plenty of laughs that kept me entertained from start to finish. Seth and Rose are very funny, especially when they’re trying to act cool to the new neighbors when they move in, Zac Efron does an outstanding job portraying Teddy, the leader of the fraternity and has plenty of comedic material to work with, I think he might be becoming a favorite actor of mine.

            Besides the main cast, some of the supporting cast members generate some laughs, like Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad, Kick-Ass, Pitch Perfect), Dave Franco (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street, Warm Bodies), and Craig Roberts (Submarine, Jane Eyre) as three of the fraternity members, Scoonie, Pete, and Assjuice, Ike Barnholtz as Mac and Kelly’s hilariously awkward friend, Jimmy and Carla Gallo (Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) as his ex-wife, Paula.

            Like I said before, it’s not as funny as This is the End, but when things get funny, it’s really funny stuff. All the pranks and crude gags get a big laugh and the majority of them hit bulls-eye.

            Pump up some laughs and throw a wild party with this hysterical comedy that will most likely offend your “Neighbors”.