Movie Thoughts

Blended Review

Posted on by John Hayeck

So out of all of Adam Sandler’s movies, this is one of the less horrible ones. Though saying that is kind of like looking at your fridge of all expired food and saying, “well that one didn’t taste AS bad as the others… It wasn’t good though.”.

So the premise of this movie is a bit ridiculous. It’s about Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore starring in their third romantic comedy together as a widow and a divorcee respectively who end up falling for each other on an African safari. I had seen the trailer for this movie a while back and thought, oh great another piece of Adam Sandler’s garbage is about to be tossed directly into Auditorium 4 at my local theater… While the movie is really horrible, you gotta give it a couple points for effort.

And the effort is really what counts here! I’ve seen Billy Madison and part of Happy Gilmore, and I was not the biggest fan of either. In my opinion, the closest Adam Sandler has come to a good movie is Click and Bedtime Stories in that order. But at this stage of the game, we’ve passed those two and, well… Jack and Jill happened! And Grown Ups 2 happened! And That’s My Boy happened! It’s at the point where Adam Sandler sends out a group message to all of his friends and says, I could use another paycheck, and I had this great idea 4 drinks in last night. Let’s get the camera! At this point, after all of those atrocities, you can at least tell with this movie that Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore are putting in the effort. Even the awful kid actors are trying hard. And I have to cut the movie some slack for that.

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Edge of Tomorrow Review

Posted on by John Hayeck

I was at the showing of this movie with a friend of mine who watches movies on his computer for free. This friend is always saying how he’s seen the newest movies either before they’re released, or the day they come out or something weird like that. Most of us don’t believe he actually does, but hey, we let him keep it. Anyway, he was telling the group of us going to see it, “oh this movie is a complete waste of time, huge dump of a movie, etc.”. And I’ll admit it, I too had my doubts going in, because the trailer made it look like a cheesy version of Pacific Rim crossed with Groundhog Day. However, I will admit that this movie is actually quite cool.

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The Fault in Our Stars Review

Posted on by John Hayeck

So it seems like every year we get a new over-hyped piece of entertainment. In 2011 it was Twilight, 2012 was The Hunger Games, 2013 was Breaking Bad and 2014 is The Fault in Our Stars.

Before I review the movie, some background. I wasn’t one of the die hard fans walking into this. I read the book, and thought it was decent. It wasn’t the Bible Sequel by any means, which is what most teenage girls will describe it to you as, but it’s a solid novel. However, I was kind of hoping the hype was false and the movie wouldn’t do well so I could prove that hype isn’t always good hype. I did say to two or three of my friends reading this: if for some reason it’s good, I will admit I was wrong. Here I am: guys, I was SOOOOOOOO wrong.  Guys, this movie is fantastic!

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The Dark Knight Review

Posted on by John Hayeck

Not only is The Dark Knight the greatest superhero movie ever made, but also one of the greatest crime-thrillers; and not to mention my 2nd favorite movie of all time.

So after Batman Begins changed the game for superhero movies to follow, The Dark Knight was somehow able to do even better. At the end of Batman Begins, you see Jim Gordon give Batman a Joker card and give a brief description of the havoc this new criminal is wreaking, which sets up for this movie. The first move I have to admire is waiting to put the Joker in the second movie. It can be so easy for an origin story to do the main villain first (1990 Batman and 2002 Spider-Man) that Christopher Nolan actually thought it through to wait. Because in this movie, it actually makes sense: the Mob is still tearing Gotham apart, and the universe feels like it’s expanding as more aspects are explored (such as Gotham’s D.A., who we’ll get to later).

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Now You See Me Review

Posted on by John Hayeck

Now You See Me is one of those movies that can described in just one word: cool.

This 2013 film has some of the most clever writing and witty dialogue I’ve seen in a movie in a long time, maybe ever. And that writing is really what makes this movie worth while. So many films nowadays have less-than-superior writing and that overall less-than-superiority brings those films down as a whole. Now You See Me, though, reminds us that some movies still have great writing, in the sense: nothing is irrelevant. You see this more in TV shows, but it can still happen in movies, where there’s a plotline that goes NO WHERE. Dexter Season 8 is an example where the entire thing is one useless plothole after another. Now You See Me really shows that there is no extra frosting on the cake: everything is important and it’s just the right amount.

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