“The Edge of Seventeen” is directed by Kelly Fremon Craig, who wrote Post Grad which was released back in 2009 and this is her first time directing a movie. This film stars Hailee Steinfeld (Pitch Perfect 2, True Grit), Woody Harrelson (Cheers, No Country for Old Men), Blake Jenner (Glee, Supergirl), Haley Lu Richardson, Kyra Sedgwick, and Hayden Szeto. This film is about a teenage girl named Nadine and it is established in the beginning of the movie that her life is already bad, but what she didn’t realize is that it is gonna go from bad to worse, and it doesn’t end there. Why? The main chunk of this movie is dedicated to her having to deal with her asshole brother, who starts going out with her best friend, and she feels that she is mentally going into a black hole throughout the entire movie and there is no way out except for when she has lunch in the classroom with Woody Harrelson.

Here is something I feel the need to get out of the way, if you have seen some of my older reviews from this year you may have noticed that the movies I saw with women playing the starring roles were mostly negative in my opinion. These movies included titles like: “The 5th Wave” (2/10), “The Divergent Series: Alligiant” (I didn’t review it, but I gave it a 2/10), “Mother’s Day” (Also didn’t review, but I gave it a 1/10), “The Girl on the Train” (2/10), “Sharknado 4: The Fourth Awakens” (1/10, but you’d probably expect that out of a movie like this), and the “Ghostbusters” remake (1/10). Based on these statistics, you’d probably think I’m a sexist pig, especially with the last one. Let me just assure you I’m not. If you have read my reviews for these movies you may notice that I dislike them for reasons that don’t link to sexism in any way. So how do I feel about this movie? I feel this movie might be the one of the better movies I saw all year! If you want to know my official verdict for the film, scroll down a bit, but I had to get this out because I felt it was necessary so you know the real me.

This movie stars Hailee Steinfeld who plays Nadine. Let me just say right now, this is one of the best performances I’ve seen all year. Will this get nominated for an Oscar? I highly doubt it considering Hailee is only a teenager and teens aren’t the first category you scour for Oscar nominees, but if this performance does get nominated, that’d be pretty cool. She really brings a lot of emotion into her character, especially during one scene at her mother’s office which was pretty funny and when talking one-on-one with Woody Harrelson. Her character is also a stereotype per se of some folks I see in my high school and on social media. I will not give out any names but I thought I’d point that out. Also when I say stereotype, I don’t mean that in a bad way, I mean that in a way that can get certain people just like her to relate to the character without getting offended.

Nadine’s best friend in this film is played by Haley Lu Richardson and her name is Krista. At the beginning of the movie it was very nice to see these two as friends and see how the relationship developed. Not too much later in the movie Krista dated Nadine’s older brother and I was able to understand how all of the characters felt about the situation. I didn’t agree with how all the characters felt, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t understand them.

Speaking of Nadine’s older brother, let’s talk about Nadine’s older brother. At the beginning of the movie it was shown that this character was basically a winner compared to Nadine and it the movie doesn’t stop sticking to that route to further develop the story. To establish this, the movie showed his character never really complained or cared about any of the tragedies that Nadine experienced throughout the film. He even says to Nadine that life sucks sometimes, which is probably gonna stick with me for a little bit. Maybe not as much as Dennis Leary’s “Life’s Gonna Suck When You Grow Up” song, but still, it’s locked in my head and it probably will stay in my head for an extended period of time.

One of the characters that was shown most throughout the trailer I saw for this movie was Mr. Bruner played by Woody Harrelson. I thought the scenes where he talked with Nadine one-on-one were some of the best parts of the movie, which surprised me because in the trailer it looked like one of the parts of the movie that was going to end up feeling stale. However I will say that the “avoid run on sentences joke” he gives did actually end up feeling stale. Maybe it’s just because I saw the trailer multiple times and that was one of the big things I remember from the trailer. These conversation scenes felt like I was actually there, and one of the lines Mr. Bruner says to Nadine during a “therapy session” is “Maybe nobody likes you.” That just made me go, “Wow.” I thought it was a great line and now if some therapist told me that I would be able to handle it. I’d recommend that they’d do it in a quiet voice so I don’t have too much stress in my head but I digress.

I also like the woman who plays the mother in this movie (Kyra Sedgwick). One of the things I noticed about her is that she hates driving Nadine to school because it affects her work schedule. After watching this movie, I am kinda wondering about that with my mother. My mother drives me to school and I don’t take the bus, and for personal reasons I prefer to avoid taking the bus to and from school. I have sensitive ears and that can interfere with the ride and make me feel anxious or angry.

One of the best things about this movie is the fact that it is rated R. Why? Because that makes the movie seem more realistic. Remember Freaks and Geeks? That TV show about a bunch of different high schoolers all in one show? I have not seen every episode of that show, but I have seen a couple. If you just take the vibe of that show, have it focus around one character for most of the time, and make it more mature, than you get this movie. I love how this movie goes for things you usually wouldn’t expect to see teenagers do in some movies. There’s a scene where the main character and her best friend get drunk, there’s a lot more swearing than you’d expect in a movie that spends a lot of time in a high school setting, there’s a lot of sexual humor used by teenagers in this movie. Some of this humor used by teens which I greatly recall include use of the words “handjob” and “tits.” And let me say for the record, Hailee Steinfeld, the movie’s lead actress is currently 19, and she’ll turn 20 on December 11th, so that kind of adds a bit to the movie as well in terms of realism. This movie is called “The Edge of Seventeen” and in a world where we have two live-action movie interpretations of Peter Parker played by adults (Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield), it’s nice to see someone play a teenager played by someone relatively close to the character’s actual age.

“The Edge of Seventeen” is one of the better films I’ve seen all year, and certainly deserves all the praise it is getting by critics and average moviegoers alike. While I am writing this, this film has a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it certainly deserves that. By the way, I mentioned once before that this movie is directed by someone who is a first time director, AKA Kelly Fernon Craig, and for a movie that is a directorial debut, this is fantastic. I’m going to give “The Edge of Seventeen” an 8/10. Well guys, the year is almost over, we have just a bit more than a month to go, and I’d like to announce to you right now at the end of year I’m going to be doing a top best and worst movie of year list. I haven’t decided whether I’m doing a top 5 or a top 10, but we’ll find out as time marches on. Also for all of you reading this on the day which this is published, which is November 27th, 2016, I am willing to bet that you are either a movie buff or even if you don’t like movies, you may have some place in your heart for Star Wars, which leads me to this: TICKETS FOR THE NEW STAR WARS MOVIE GO ON SALE TOMORROW! If you want to see this movie in theaters, I recommend that you all get your tickets as soon as possible, especially if you want to see it as early as possible or want to avoid spoilers (Although it is a prequel so I doubt it is as big of an issue as The Force Awakens). Also I want to let everyone know that I plan to see “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” on premiere day, which is Thursday, December 15th, that way I can get an early review up for you guys, and this is just fine for me, because I hate when people ruin movies for me, and I feel since it is a Star Wars movie, it is going to be a bigger deal in my mind. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this review and stay tuned for more reviews! Scene Before is your click, to the flicks!

“Doctor Strange” is the latest movie put out by Marvel Studios, which has had an incredible track record for their movie ratings so far in my book. This movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Imitation Game), Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer), Benedict Wong (The Martian, Prometheus), and Rachel McAdams (Mean Girls, The Vow).
The main premise of the movie revolves around Dr. Steven Strange who gets in a car accident one day causing him to lose all the tissue in his hands. This makes him go bizzerk and make his girlfriend feel uncomfortable. Eventually he is taught mystic arts by The Ancient One, played by Tilda Swinton, all while hoping and waiting for his hands to heal.

Let’s get one thing straight and out of the gate, this movie from a visual standpoint, is spectacular. Alongside “Warcraft,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and the remake of “The Jungle Book”, this movie contains some of the best effects I have seen all year. Seeing all of the spells on screen was pretty neat looking, there was a lot of Inception-esque effects throughout the movie that was pure eye candy, and the portals made something out of fantasy look realistic if that even makes any logical sense. Combine that with one of the most epic IMAX 3D experiences I’ve ever seen then you’ve got a visual spectacle! Also just a reminder, I would tell you to go out right now just to watch this in IMAX 3D, but when I put this review up, there won’t be much time left to go see it in that format due to “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” coming out this Friday, so if you want to see it, check for tickets right away, and if they are still available, good for you!

As I mentioned before, Benedict Cumberbatch plays Dr. Steven Strange and you can believe that Strange is an actual neuroseurgeon in this movie. It’s not like you’re watching one of those movie jobs where the character gives no coherent explanation on what they are supposed to do. The movie does a very good job on showing specific details visually.

Rachel McAdams plays Christine Palmer, Strange’s girlfriend. Her relationship with Strange was buyable and I have to say McAdams did a fine job with her role. Later on in the movie when I see her is probably the best part with her in the movie because McAdams does a good job of making her character look afraid when the time is right. Not to mention Strange’s dialogue throughout the scene I’m talking about is pretty funny too.

Tilda Swanton plays the The Ancient One. First of all, I’d like to say the opening scene with her fighting was visually stunning and that itself was worth the IMAX 3D ticket price. Second, her role as Strange’s guide throughout his training was believable and was interesting to see progress during the movie.

The next character I’m going to talk about is a highlight of the movie to me. Specifically, Wong, which ironically is played by Benedict Wong. He is very stoic throughout the movie and I thought it worked for his character in the beginning and I thought it was one of the best parts of the movie. There’s this one scene where Strange and Wong are getting to know each other and it is clear that Wong lacks emotion. Possibly one of the only ways this would have been funnier is if Doctor Strange actually happened to be Deadpool. There is also one point where Strange wonders if Wong has a sense of humor whatsoever, which also was a highlight for me.

Speaking of humor, the amount of humor in this movie was something I did not expect while walking into it. Sure, Marvel movies have been funny in the past, and I remember tons of scenes and lines of dialogue that have been gutbusters to me. Although based on the trailers of this movie I was expecting the movie to go down a much more serious route than some of their past films. Just about all of the humor worked and I remember it well throughout the first and final act. By the way, I won’t go into detail, but I feel the need to spit this out. Once Strange says: “I’ve come to bargain,” s*it gets real fast. It’s hilarious yet serious at the same time and it works.

I would also like to remind everyone that if they want to know about what is going to come up next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they must stay for the credits, and when I say that I mean stay for the WHOLE THING. Don’t leave halfway through because there is one credit scene a few minutes in, then there is another one at the very end. I will admit I actually almost forgot when seeing this movie, I guess this is what Comic-Con does to you… Oh yeah, by the way I went to Rhode Island Comic-Con over the weekend and I saw this while I was there. As of now I have no intentions of blogging about it but we’ll see what the future holds.

In the end “Doctor Strange” had a great story with spectacular visuals and I wouldn’t mind seeing it again. It doesn’t matter if I wait for the Blu-Ray or if I just go see it in the theater again because overall I enjoyed the movie and it was definitely worth the IMAX 3D ticket price. Also for the record, let me just say right now I’m not being paid to say that, I’m an IMAX fan in general and I think this represents a good example of what Hollywood IMAX 3D movies should look like. I’m going to give “Doctor Strange” an 8/10. I mentioned before that I went to Rhode Island Comic Con recently and if I were to blog about it, you’d see a post about it up on here soon, however I don’t have any intentions to do that but if I do change my mind a post will be on here not too long from now. If not, I’d like to thank Billy Dee Williams, Brianna Hildebrand, Johnny Brennan, FYE, whatever the name of that store was that gave me that LEGO Batman poster, and Gal Gadot for everything you’ve done for me at this convention and giving me a great experience. Thanks for reading all of this and stay tuned for more reviews. Scene Before is your click, to the flicks!

“The Girl on the Train” is the movie adaptation based on Paula Hawkins’s bestselling novel of the same name. This movie is directed by Tate Taylor who also directed “The Help”, and stars Emily Blunt as a woman who commutes on a train every day and when she is on the train she looks out the window and sees whatever it is that people are up to. In my world that’s called stalking. Throughout the movie’s exposition, this girl explains that there is one house with a specific couple that she is pretty curious about. At a certain point she eventually notices something wrong in the backyard of that house then lets the authorities know about it. This progresses through a good chunk of the movie, at least that’s what I remember, because part of me doesn’t even want to remember this garbage.

Just for the record, I never read the novel which this movie is based on, so you won’t be seeing any comparisons back and forth between the book and movie to show which one was better or what changes could have been added to the movie that may have enhanced or degraded the experience. I have a feeling I should have read the book considering how bored I got watching this movie.

The best part of the movie to me was Emily Blunt, the movie’s star. I have to say her performance as Rachel in this film was really good. Out of everyone in this movie I feel Emily showed much more emotion than anybody else, and I wonder if she will get any nominations for some of the upcoming award shows. Despite what I think of Blunt’s performance, it doesn’t mean I liked her character. Also, you know something? That’s probably the biggest problem I had with this movie. None of the characters caught my attention, and while all the actors seem to do the best they can in this movie, the flick doesn’t have the wow factor.

I will also give the movie credit for one thing, the concept appeared as if it was very interesting and unique. I don’t ride trains often, I mean, I love trains, I might even consider myself a railfan, I just don’t ride them much. Although I imagine a lot of people on trains are looking out the window and seeing what could be going on in the outside world. I doubt many people are as curious as Emily Blunt’s character, but I still imagine a chunk of people are curious to see what’s outside the window. I live near Boston, and I sometimes ride the MBTA Orange Line into Boston for one reason or another and I sometimes look out the window whenever I do, I don’t usually see as many homes as Rachel does in this movie, nor do I even see much scenery to rave about at all, but nevertheless looking out the window is a fun thing for me so that kind of made the overall concept more interesting.

I will say however, I was not a fan of the movie’s storytelling methods. This is a movie that makes you think a lot about what’s going on, now I’m not stupid, so I am capable of liking this. However it all just so slow that it almost feels like you’re going to school and you are sitting at your desk, wanting to fall asleep, all the while someone like Bill Lumbergh from “Office Space” is giving the dullest lecture imaginable. Speaking of unlikable storytelling, this movie had lots of flashbacks. I may have just had a headache from the dullness that is known as “The Girl on the Train”, but I can’t help but say that all of the movie’s cutaways and flashbacks didn’t grab me at all. You give a lot of crap for “Suicide Squad” having too many flashbacks? I think this movie had more, and based on my lack of attention I didn’t care about any of them.

How are the other actors in this movie? I’d say they were decent overall, I’m not the biggest fan of their characters, but the actors were fine. Haley Bennett did a nice job as Megan, Rebecca Ferguson as Anna wasn’t too shabby at all, I even think actors like Luke Evans and Justin Theroux did an adequate job as their characters. Based on what I’m saying, I do think the actors were probably one of the things that held the movie from being a complete disaster, but it’s not enough to make a good movie, or even an OK one.

In the end I was disappointed with “The Girl on the Train” and I say disappointed because from seeing the ads on TV for this film, I thought it looked like an engaging thriller. Was it a thriller? Well, sure, but not an engaging thriller. The movie’s overall concept, Emily Blunt’s performance, along with some others save the train from going off the rails, other than that, I have no other positives to say about this movie. I’m going to give “The Girl on the Train” a 2/10. After this snoozefest I hope the next movie I see will be better, and next weekend, I’m going to see “Sully”, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks, which is based on the Miracle on the Hudson. Stay tuned for that review, along with other reviews coming soon. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

“Keeping Up with the Joneses” is directed by Greg Mottola and it is a comedy starring Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover), Isla Fisher (Now You See Me), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), and Gal Gadot (Batman v Superman). This movie is about a couple (Zach Galifianakis and Isla Fisher) who currently has their kids at summer camp for a couple of weeks, throughout that time, another couple known as the Joneses (Jon Hamm and Gal Gadot) move into their neighborhood. Not too long after they move in, the main couple consider the Joneses to be abnormal to the point where they investigate their lives and snoop around their home which leads them to finding out these folks are government spies and then Galifianakis and Fisher get involved in an international espionage plot with the Joneses.

Zach Galifianakis plays the main dude in this movie who goes by the name Jeff Gaffney. My mother loved this role, I personally liked it, I wouldn’t say I loved it. I thought the female roles in this movie were funnier whereas the male roles in this movie were somewhat forgettable. Although one thing I won’t forget is the company which he works. Not to digress or anything, but Jeff works for this company I don’t remember what its name is, but the thing that kinda bugs me about it is the logo. This is kind of a nitpick, but I can’t help but point out how much of a carbon copy the logo is of the IGN (International Gaming Network) logo. In case you haven’t seen the logo it’s right here below.

If you haven’t seen the movie and plan to see it at some point, keep your eyes peeled for it if you feel like paying some extra attention.

Isla Fisher plays Jeff’s wife Karen, she is essentially the mom that cares a lot about her kids and throughout the movie it shows even though the kids are not even in it, as mentioned before the kids are at summer camp. Sure, Jeff cares about the kids too, but I almost feel like the mom cares more (definitely not the first time I’ve seen that in a movie). It shows during a car chase midway through the film while she’s on the phone with her kids, you can hear Karen’s voice as if she’s super worried if she’ll make it through the scenario whereas I’m hearing Jeff’s voice and he definitely cares, but if there’s one thing I’ll remember most from the words coming out Jeff’s mouth it has to do with eating a cookie, which was kinda one of the main purposes of the call, but it didn’t sound like he cared about his kids (or his future if he had one) more than how his kids eat a cookie. I greatly remember him yelling “Split the cookie! Split the cookie!” Is this a problem? No, it just sets these two personalities apart.

Jon Hamm plays Tim Jones. He is one of the new neighbors and as I mentioned before, the male roles in this movie are unmemorable. I wouldn’t say they were bad, they were just unmemorable. This is another example. I barely remember any of this guy’s lines, but I thought his interactions with Jeff was a highlight of the movie, and the scene with him and Jeff in that bar was pretty funny.

Gal Gadot is also in this movie, she had my favorite role in this movie and wooooaaaah… Yeah, she’s hot, and might even be my celebrity crush right now, but I’m a professional (or at least I’d like to think so) so I digress. She plays Natalie Jones and she was the funniest character in the entire movie, not to mention she was pretty bada$$. Seeing her in that chase scene I mentioned not too long ago was quite a sight to me and made me feel like I was watching an all-out action flick instead of an action-comedy. Speaking of which, I want to see an action film (No, the new Wonder Woman movie is different than what I’m thinking about) starring Gal Gadot. Get on it Hollywood, if you can’t, I’ll write it for you and I can probably send it to a studio later in life depending on where the road takes me.

 

The most important part of a comedy is the humor, so was the movie funny? Yes indeed. Some characters were funnier than others but the movie had a lot of good sexual humor, slapstick humor, and Gal Gadot, there’s this one scene shown in the trailer where she’s trying on lingerie and she’s leaving a voicemail to her husband, she mentions to Isla Fisher that it is a “thing” she does with her husband. It’s kinda funny, but Gal references it later towards the end of the movie, what happens after it is gold. I won’t ruin it for you, I’ll let you see it for yourself, but it’s freaking hilarious. However I will say that the movie doesn’t deliver much comedy that feels new or fresh, which really bogs down the movie’s score for me.

In the end “Keeping up with the Joneses” is a rather decent film. It’s not groundbreaking in any sort of way, but it does deliver some laughs. I can only imagine myself watching this movie again if I find it on TV, perhaps a channel like TBS or maybe HBO, but if you were to see this in theaters I would say you will probably end up laughing at some point in the movie. I’m going to give “Keeping up with the Joneses” a 6/10. I’m not sure which movie I’m going to see next, but I’m either going to see “Sully” or “The Girl on the Train”, we’ll just have to see what happens in the near future. Also be sure to check out my earlier reviews I’ve done recently, for example I did “The Accountant” starring Ben Affleck as Batman–I mean as a high function autistic dude that kicks some a$$. Check it out, the link to it will be posted down below, and stay tuned for more reviews. Scene Before is your click, to the flicks.

“THE ACCOUNTANT” REVIEW: https://scenebefore.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/the-accountant-ausome/

“The Accountant” is directed by Gavin O’Conner (Miracle) and stars Ben Affleck (Batman v Superman), Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect), JK Simmons (Whiplash), and John Bernthal (Grudge Match). The movie is about a guy with high function autism who makes a living as an accountant (in case the title wasn’t obvious), while using a CPA office in a rather unknown town as a cover. He takes on a robotics company as a client, and JK Simmons is keeping an eye out towards Ben Affleck’s character. As Affleck gets closer to a discrepancy having to do with a lot of money, the body count increases.

Now I’m gonna get personal with you just for a moment. I, like Christian Wolff played by Ben Affleck himself, have high function autism. This means I have trouble socializing, I am sensitive to certain things like loud noises (even though I go to the movie theater whenever I can), although some people are sensitive to flashing lights. When I was a kid, I had sometimes lacked eye contact with people I talked to. Does this make me stupid? Not at all, I’m actually pretty freaking smart, not to show off or anything. This movie’s portrayal of autism, for the most part, is accurate. There is one big thing that is going through my mind and it’s more of a nitpick if anything and I’ll come back to it later.

Ben Affleck in this movie plays the autistic protagonist Christian Wolff. I really enjoyed seeing this character, and the way they used flashbacks on this character from when he was a kid was a smart move and it made the movie better in some ways. I may be somewhat biased, but I want to see Affleck nominated for some awards for this performance because when it comes to portraying a guy with autism, he does it well without overacting or overemphasizing in any sort of way. His chemistry with characters like Dana Cummings was also pleasing to see to me.

On that subject, Dana Cummings was played by Anna Kendrick and I think she nailed her performance in this film. I would even go as far to say she should be nominated for best supporting actress in the Oscars. Just like Affleck I saw no sign whatsoever of overacting, and she seemed to maintain the same emotions throughout the film.

 

JK Simmons is also in this movie as Ray King, a Treasury agent. When I first saw the original trailer for the film I was excited to see JK Simmons was in it. In case you weren’t aware, JK Simmons is one of my all time favorite actors. He was phenomenal in “Whiplash”, I loved him as J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy, and whenever I hear him yell, it’s gold. Did he do that in this movie? No, based on how his character was written that would have been out of place and would have interfered with the movie’s overall structure. JK Simmons’ character overall wasn’t my favorite character in the movie. Does that mean his character sucks? No. I just think other characters stood out compared to him. One of the problems I have with JK’s character is that there is a long segment of background information and it seems to drag on quite a bit. It could be worse, but that’s one con I have with the movie.

Speaking of problems, I have a couple more. Christian Wolff, the hero meant to be portrayed in such light, is also kind of villainous, I won’t go into detail to avoid some spoilery things so I’ll let you see for yourself. Next, I felt like throughout the movie I had to watch it more than once. NOTE: I didn’t say I want to, I said I had to. What do I mean? I mean that there are some tidbits that may have been important to the story that may have flown over my head. Sure, sometimes in a movie you don’t get everything the first time around, but I figured I’d point it out. For the record, I wasn’t falling asleep, I had a soda with me so that was decreasing my chances of doing so. Although I was watching this movie in a reclining seat so maybe that had something to do with this. The last problem I will mention is that nitpick I steered away from earlier, and also before I get into this, I could be wrong here. In the movie there were several scenes where Ben Affleck was firing all sorts of weapons. I can’t remember if they stated how sensitive his ears were, but if they were sensitive, the movie probably should have verified that Affleck had earplugs in his ears, otherwise he’d probably startle after firing his own weapon. There were actually points where “I” startled when several shots were firing. Granted I do have sensitive ears, and it is a movie theater where things sound louder than they do at home, but I can’t help but point this out. There were some points where he had headphones on but other times there was nothing on his ears. He was carrying smaller weapons so maybe if he is sensitive it doesn’t go that far.

The Accountant overall is a great movie. It has a stellar portrayal of autism, a lot of the backstories made this movie excellent, Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick have both given stunning performances, but it doesn’t mean the movie lacks problems. Despite said problems, I really enjoyed this movie, which leads me to saying for now I’m gonna give The Accountant an 8/10. I’m still skeptical on whether or not I’m gonna keep this rating, but for now I’d say the positives in the movie outweighed the negatives. I may also be biased on my rating since I have autism so therefore I can relate to the main character of this movie but even if I didn’t have autism there’s lots to enjoy about the movie. Next weekend I am planning to see “Keeping Up With the Joneses” so stay tuned for that review, along with other reviews I’ll have up on here at some point. Scene Before is your click, to the flicks!

Before we get into this review, I just want to say something. This movie is basically a debate that was very controversial not so long ago. It’s almost like it’s an appetizer for the 2016 US Presidential Election. Anyway, onto the review.

“Denial” is a film directed by Mick Jackson, and stars Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson, and Timothy Spall. The film is based on true events revolving around acclaimed historian and writer Deborah E. Lipstadt. She’s talking at an event having to do with the holocaust when she finds a holocaust denier in the audience. The two begin arguing, and suddenly David Irving, the holocaust denier sues Deborah for libel, therefore setting the stage for the film’s upcoming events, including determining the answer to this question: “Did the holocaust really happen?”

I would like to say right now that I do believe the holocaust happened, you can say what you want about it, but this is my thought. However I am going to leave my thoughts on it out of the review keeping them as a separate topic. Just thought I’d get that out there.

Deborah E. Lipstadt is played by Rachel Weisz and I have to say she did a fine job in the movie. Now, it’s October, and all of the movies going for awards are starting to come out, with that in mind, I do think Rachel did well, but I don’t think it was enough to win awards, but we’ll have to see what the rest of the year brings. If there aren’t too many great actress performances for the rest of year, Weisz in my mind will probably have a chance to at least get a lot of nominations.

Tom Wilkinson is also in this movie and I barely remember his character. Although for what I do remember it was interesting to see what he did during the movie. The final product does a good job at displaying chemistry between him and Weisz’s character. However the movie does already lose points for me not remembering his character much.

You also have Timothy Spall as David Irving. I was really intrigued with his character throughout the movie and seeing him in the courtroom against Deborah was overall one of the most interesting parts of the film. It was much like the beginning of the movie, which did an excellent job at displaying the rivalry between the Deborah and David. There’s only one thing I don’t like about his character, and that has to do with how the character is treated. At the end of the movie, he tries to say to his opponents that they fought well in court, but they don’t say anything back. I get David is villainized in the flick, but it just doesn’t feel right. If that actually happened in real life I wouldn’t know, but if it didn’t, this wouldn’t be something I would have thought of. It took this movie from having a ending that was going to be solid, then it went a bit downhill.

If I had any other flaws for the movie, it would be the pacing. I felt like there was a lot of time spent in the court room, and too little time investigating evidence outside the court. Granted the movie is basically a court case movie, but I would have liked it better if they fleshed out a bit more on scenes outside the court. If the events of the actual story affect what I said then forget about it, but if there was anything missing, I would have liked to see it outside the court.

In the end, I wanted to like the movie, but I also wanted to leave. Did I think this movie was an absolute abomination against humanity? Nope. Although it had the pacing of “Hail, Caesar!” another movie I saw this year. Based the content of both films and pacing, if I choose one movie to watch again between this and “Hail, Caesar!” I’d choose “Hail, Caesar!”. With that in mind, I’m giving “Denial” a 5/10. This movie had potential, but I left feeling unsatisfied. If this movie were maybe a little shorter and some of the court scenes were trimmed more, I may have ended up giving this movie a higher rating. Also on the note of things I consider broken, I don’t like the final ending shot. I don’t know it’s just not something I would prefer having in this movie. Stay tuned for more upcoming reviews and check out my latest reviews! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

“Deepwater Horizon” is the new movie based on true events having to do with the worst oil rig explosion in US history. This movie was directed by Peter Berg, who also directed “The Lone Survivor”, “Hancock”, and “Patriots Day”, the upcoming film based on the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing which will be in a theater near you on December 21.

This movie stars Mark Wahlberg as ironically, Mark Williams. I say ironically because I never see anyone play a character, especially a main character, with the same name as them. I have not seen The Lone Survivor, heard good things though, but one thing I noticed is that Mark Wahlberg is in both this movie and that movie as well. After looking on his IMDb, I noticed Wahlberg was involved in not only involved with the acting, but he also was involved in producing both films. It said that for The Lone Survivor, he was a producer, and he executive produced this film. I have no idea how well his performance was in The Lone Survivor, but he aces his performance in Deepwater Horizon. There’s one moment towards the end of the movie where I’m like, “Wow! That’s Oscar material!” I’m not surprised considering he was an executive producer, so maybe that added a little bit to having an idea of how he could execute his performance, but it’s still awesome.

Mark’s wife, it’s funny, I don’t know whether I should say Mark’s wife, Mark Wahlberg’s wife, or Mark Williams’s wife, nevertheless his wife is played by Kate Hudson. That brings me to my next topic. There was another movie that came this year that also featured a disaster based on true events, it’s called “The Finest Hours.” In that movie there was a subplot where Chris Pine, the star of the movie has a love interest, and Mark Wahlberg in this movie is also in love with a woman, and comparing the two, this one is something that can add something to the movie whereas with the other one, it felt either too forced, or perhaps fake. Why does this love interest subplot work? First of all it feels real. There was one point where Kate Hudson receives a call where she’s given the information having to do with the incident the movie is focusing on, she’s crying, her daughter is watching her, she’s asking a realistic question, followed by Kate Hudson giving a realistic answer. So I would give props to the writers and actors for the successfully delivering the drama factor.

This movie is based on a true story so spoiling the movie isn’t really something that should drag it down for the most part so I’ll say this: the Deepwater Horizon oil rig had a BP Safety award streak. In the movie they show that they won it again around the time of the rig explosion, which does add to the story because for a company that won quite a few BP Safety awards, an event like the one mainly depicted in this movie is a bit of a downfall. The movie did a good job of showing positives about the subject that may make the upcoming negative a little more interesting.

Unlike the middle and end of the movie, the beginning of the movie, wasn’t the best example of quality. Sure, it was effective, but it could have been more. I wouldn’t take too many points off though because I will say it did a nice job at establishing the characters and situations in a proper manner. Speaking of characters and things that appear to be lamer than other things, Mark Wahlberg’s co-workers for the most part didn’t do it for me at the beginning. Their characterization definitely improved throughout the film though so that makes up for it. There were a few characters that were fine at the beginning, but let’s just say there’s room for improvement.

I may be cheating here because when I saw this movie, I actually saw this in IMAX, but this movie is one of the most intense things I’ve seen all year. Throughout the entire disaster I was beginning to lose my breath, feel bad for everyone on the ship, especially considering this was real, and sweat. OK, the last one may have been because I had a sweatshirt on but I don’t care. If I were there at Deepwater, I’d probably run around screaming until I die, or run around screaming until I jump off and die, or run around screaming until I jump off and I have assistance getting to a lifeboat therefore I survive. It’s probably worse for me because I have sensitive ears, which means if the average person hears an explosion, it’s probably already loud enough, whereas I hear it and I just want to cover my ears, making them warm and red.

Deepwater Horizon was one of the better movies of the year and contains some of the best performances I’ve seen this year. I’m not surprised if Mark Wahlberg gets nominated for a ton of awards including Oscars, because of this movie. I have not seen The Lone Survivor, but Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg make a great team and I cannot wait to see what the two can do with the upcoming film Patriots Day, which comes out this December. I’m gonna give Deepwater Horizon a 9/10. Also coming up, I’m gonna review another movie pretty soon, that review will be out in just a few days. I just need to see that movie before I review it. I’m either going to review Sully, The Girl on the Train, or Denial. Which one will I review? Find out in just a few days! Until then, stay tuned. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Before we begin, if you keep up with this blog and enjoy reading it, you might just be asking yourself right now, where have I been? Well school just started a month ago so I couldn’t see too many movies recently. Luckily I’m back now for another post so let’s talk about Thinkgeek.

Just recently I was at the Northshore Mall, which if you’re not in the Massachusetts area, it is a mall located in the town of Peabody (P-bedy), and I went there last Sunday to look at the new ThinkGeek store that opened the Friday beforehand. What is Thinkgeek? Here’s some background.

Thinkgeek started out as a website selling nerdy goodies, collectibles, etc. It has become rather popular within the community and while I don’t usually buy anything on their site, I do enjoy window shopping there from time to time. Since then they have expanded to the physical store realm and I was excited when I heard three of them were going to be near me, and as soon as I heard about the first, not to mention closest store that was going to open, I was pumped. I longed to go throughout most of Saturday and when I got to go Sunday, it was a blast.

Based on research and reviews I came across online, when I walked into the store I was expecting a medium sized store with a bunch of collectibles all over the place almost as if I were in the comic book store (the old one) from Big Bang Theory. Did I get that? Yes I did. However, this was just the start.

When I walked in, it was black all over, The floor tiles are very dark, the walls were black, and considering the storefront was covered in black as well, the atmosphere worked.

I’m not usually one for Pop figures, but I think the more I come to this store, the more I’ll want to start collecting them. The front of the store is flooded with Pop figures, and the more I think about it, it’s like walking down a supermarket aisle as several Pop dolls are on one side and more are on the other.

I don’t browse the Thinkgeek site often, however when I walked around the store feeling like I entered Heaven, I noticed something that kind of ticked me off. They’ve got some pricey items on their hands. I saw a Captain America shield for $399.99 for example. Granted it’s a nice product from my perspective and it looks sleek, but $399.99 was also the launch price for the PS4. Do a lot of the expensive items deserve this high of a price tag? Sure, but since they are so high, I’m in no rush to get them. Also now that I think about it, considering I live in Massachusetts, if I were to get one of these items, I would go to New Hampshire in order to avoid taxes. Also I want to state for the record, the TV that’s currently in my room was something I ended up paying $349.99 for. That’s $50 less than the Captain America shield. On that note, the TV had a built in Roku Smart platform, 43″, and 4K compatibility. So maybe the shield is overpriced, who knows?

There was also a decent t-shirt selection as well. The prices were fairly reasonable for t-shirts (around $15), and I might come back to get some t-shirts here in the future.

My absolute favorite part about this store is the music they play inside. I was expecting something that I could call great, but this pushes the meter from great, to amazing. For the first time ever, I found a store that plays music from soundtracks of movies or games! There was one point where I heard part of the soundtrack from The Dark Knight and I stomped around the store to it, along with making movements to it.

This place has some cool stuff, what did I get? Nothing. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? I love the store, but due to how I couldn’t decide what to get, also because I wanted to save some money for another store I went to, I decided to lack purchases from this store.

I mentioned already that this store has some pretty cool goods, and if you know any nerds, geeks, or hardcore fans of something, you might want to check this place out if you want to give a gift to someone. The place has something for just about every age such as action figures, Hot Wheels toys, pillows, clothing, backpacks, posters, blankets, and more!

One more thing about Thinkgeek, in case you weren’t aware, they are linked with GameStop, so if you have a GameStop PowerUp Rewards card, you can use it here and save some moolah! I don’t buy anything from GameStop as much as I used to, I’m more of a movie guy, but I definitely will take any chance I get to use the company card in this store.

Overall, Thinkgeek is an awesome experience, and if you are a hardcore nerd like me, going here is something you have to do before you die. Doesn’t matter if you purchase anything, or just skidaddle around the store for a period of time. Heck, I might even go as far to say you can just go somewhere that has the store and just walk by it while you look at it from the outside. If you hate going outside, or if you have none of these stores in your area, or you just do everything on your computer, visit Thinkgeek.com. I personally prefer visiting the store as you get to touch everything and walk around to music of movies and video games, but you do you. To me, it’s an awesome experience in a nutshell and I probably will be back soon making purchases.

On another note, I am trying to get more reviews of movies up. Yes I haven’t done one in over a month but I would like you all to be patient. Why? It takes some time to actually watch new movies. Also in case you are unaware, I am going to be doing something Star Wars related before the upcoming movie “Rogue One: a Star Wars Story” comes out. Just thought I’d let you know in case you didn’t, and speaking of upcoming events I’m probably going to watch a new movie over this Columbus Day weekend. I’m not sure what it’ll be, I’m willing to bet either Sully or The Girl on the Train, maybe even two movies, we’ll have to see what the future holds. Whatever reviews I post soon, make sure you stay tuned for those. Scene Before is your click, to the flicks!

First off, before I review this, my review is dedicated to Gene Wilder, the man who took on the role of Willy Wonka in this movie. He passed away yesterday and his passing inspired me to review this movie. RIP, and onto the review.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory came out in 1971, and to this day it is still one of the most talked about family films known to man. It is based off the book of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” which was one of those books I always remembered from my childhood, and I can also say the same for this movie. I also saw the 2005 movie adaptation directed by Tim Burton, which I’ll be honest, I actually loved as much as you might hate me for saying it, although that’s another story.

The premise of this movie is that there is a chocolate company called Wonka, it is known for making the world’s best choclate and candy related products. One day, at the time in which this movie is set, the doors to the factory are locked to let nobody in the factory. Every human employee that once worked there, doesn’t work there anymore, and one day Wonka decides that they are going to let people in the factory for a tour. The idea was that five golden tickets would be inside five ordinary Wonka bars. Whoever finds one said golden ticket will be able to embark on a tour of the factory along with someone they know from their kin. Speaking of the story, the buildup on the story itself to the point where we get to the chocolate factory, is SURPRISINGLY interesting, even by today’s standards. Like seriously, ALMOST half the movie is buildup and it’s entertaining. There are a few cool musical numbers, one was hit or miss but I don’t really care, we got introduced to all of the winners of the golden tickets and each one was intriguing and it did a good job at highlighting their individual personalities. There’s also a cool little subplot introduced along the way.

The character that the movie focuses mostly on is Charlie Bucket. He is in a poor family who doesn’t really get much to satisfy themselves. Charlie lives with his grandparents (not sure if any of them are great or which side they’re on, but it doesn’t really matter) and his parents. They all live in a small home, the grandparents all sleep in the same bed, and Charlie wants more than what he’s getting. I don’t blame him because he barely has enough to support himself along with his family. Peter Ostrum plays Charlie in this movie and MAN, whoever did casting for this movie deserves a medal because for a child actor, this guy can blow many others out of the gate. The same goes for basically all the child actors present in this film.

The next character I’ll touch upon is Augustus Gloop. He is essentially this obese kid who never stops eating chocolate. You can tell he has such a fascination with chocolate just by his size. The point where he won his ticket is where we are introduced to somebody who plays a big role in the film, but I won’t talk much about him during the review because some things are better left mysterious. This character along with a few others in the movie are characters I can relate to. I’m not fat, but I find movie theater popcorn and Lays Wavy potato chips insatiable. Right now I don’t really have to worry about it because my metabolism is off the charts, we’ll just have to see what comes up. Granted I don’t have abs but I’m definitely not clogging up space.

Up next is Veruca Salt. Her character is basically a spoiled brat whose dad is in the nut business. Throughout the movie she keeps bragging about things she wants. One of her recurring lines is “I want it now!” and it really added a lot of personality to her character. Her dad was happy to tend to this girl which if I was a father and my daughter or son was like this, I’d be irritated. There are some connections I can make with Veruca. I want a lot of cool stuff as well. However unlike Veruca I know when to save my money. Also I just tell my mother to never give me an allowance, essentially because I want her to keep her money the way she sees necessary. That one wasn’t a connection, but it’s something I think about.

Violet Bereguarde is next on the list and she is a world record gum chewer. When it was announced she won her golden ticket on the news she talked about laying off gum and directing full attention to candy bars since they have the “ticket things.” You can tell that this character is a winner based on her attitude and unlike the character the Tim Burton movie, she is very energetic and doesn’t put other people down, which made me like her as a character.

Last of the ticket winners is Mike Teavee. This guy would be me if I were ignoring society altogether. Do I have a TV problem? Not really. I make an effort to livetweet certain shows on Twitter and I watch TV in my room on my 4K TV past 2 in the morning on some nights but that’s about it. When his character was introduced they NAILED his personality. He eats TV dinners all the time, he’s never eaten at the table, and as everyone is interviewing him, he’s watching TV and ignoring them! The representation of this character is spot on!

Let’s not forget Gene Wilder’s interpretation as Willy Wonka. This was one of the movie’s highlights. His character flew off the pages of Rohld Dahl’s book and whoever designed his suit can live life on a peaceful island with no intruders because it looks great. One thing I noticed more and more for his character is that he was funny, which was something I never put in my mind when watching this movie as a young child. There was this one line when one child got into a disasterous situation and their parent told everyone (mainly Willy Wonka) to help them out of the situation and Wonka just says “Help, police, murder.” Not to mention, it’s a dark joke in a family film! A joke of that tone worked a light film such as this!

Inside Wonka’s factory, there were tons of areas to explore. One in particular being the chocolate room. To this day, that set still dazzles me. It’s large, feels like a real place despite how glossy it is, and it just sucks you in and makes you become Veruca Salt and say something like “I want a choclate room! I want a chocolate waterfall! I want eatable grass! I want it now!” Although I can imagine you wouldn’t be saying that out loud. This is also where Willy Wonka sings “Pure Imagination,” one of the other highlights of the film for me.

Another thing a lot of people still think about when this film is mentioned today are the Oompa-Loompas. In the movie they do these musical numbers and they are all very similar. Does it matter? No. Because it is all very catchy that you don’t care in the end. Fun fact for those who never read the book, this was actually never in the book, this was an original thought by everyone involved in the movie’s production. I don’t really care because it was still all very well done.

However this film does have flaws. They are those sort of flaws that maybe you don’t notice at first but you may grow to notice them in the meantime if you look hard enough. Two of them have to do with vehicles. A boat comes along the choclate river. There are eight people left, not including Mr. Wonka, and if the two people who haven’t left before the boat arrived were still here, they would have to stand on the boat. However the boat had JUST enough seats for everyone onboard. So that’s one flaw, and the other is the scene where everyone is about to go into the Wonkavision room, they take a vehicle that seems to run on and spray cola related materials. The problem I found with this vehicle is the same problem I found with the other vehicle. The seating capacity is just enough for everyone. Also, just a thought, why did you need to take that vehicle to the TV room when you could have easily walked through the path to it. For the scenes in place, it seemed that the door at the end path of the second vehicle could have possibly lead into the Wonkavision room. If not, maybe everyone didn’t want to waste time walking to the room, which I get, you don’t want to waste tape, and it may feel unneeded in the very end.

Willy Wonka and the Choclate Factory may be one of the best movies of the 70’s, and I hope years from now it is still talked about so future generations can see it for themselves. Gene Wilder, if you were still alive today I wish you could have seen this, because I’m going to give Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory a 10/10. They call this a family movie, but honestly, almost every time I watched this movie, I watched it by myself, and I don’t regret any of the times I watched it. Stay tuned for more reviews. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Ride Along 2 is the sequel to the 2014 comedy starring Kevin Hart and Ice Cube as two members of same police department. Kevin Hart is a recently graduated rookie and Ice Cube is a detective. Ben, played by Kevin Hart is aspiring to become a detective like James, played by Ice Cube. Despite his aspirations James doesn’t think Ben has what it takes to become a detective, but after incessant begging to make something of himself on the force, Ben is taken alongside James to Miami to follow up on a lead. The situation that starts out rather simple eventually expands into an epidemic. Meanwhile, back at home, Ben is getting married in a few days to James’ sister played by Tika Sumpter and Ben has to make sure he’s home on time for their wedding.

Kevin Hart is probably one of the best comedians in our day and age. He is hilarious, he has a good stage presence when presenting his material, and he is excellent in movies. At this point, there is no wonder how this guy is in a substansial number of movies nowadays and this movie supports that.

I don’t really like Ice Cube as much as I like Kevin Hart, but I find the guy to be a great actor and I liked him in the first Ride Along. He displayed the serious type of personality and when you place him and Kevin Hart together and put them in a movie such as this, it can make for a good movie. Everytime I saw the two on screen it made me laugh and I couldn’t help but think of this as if it were real.

As I mentioned before, Tika Sumpter returned to reprise the role of James’ love interest, Angela. Her side of the story didn’t really add too much to the plot, I still enjoyed her character and what she had going on during her screentime. However if you see her side of the story with Sherri Shepherd’s character in the movie, along with some of Kevin Hart’s side as well, it’s almost like it’s only in there to have humor. I have no problem with that, after all when you’re watching a comedy, humor is a key piece to finishing the puzzle but in the end the movie kind of could have done without it, or at least most of it, because there were some points I found to be necessary. Granted the wedding side of the story was necessary, and if the movie focused more on Ben trying to make it back for the wedding, it probably would have ended with a better result. It’s not a big issue for me but it’s on my mind.

Did Ride Along 2 make me laugh? Yes. Did it make me laugh more than the first one? Based on my memory, no. It was almost as much as the first one. The humor had a lot of the same elements as the original in play but came out differently. The humor presented in the movie works for the cast working on it and the overall concept. So good job Ride Along 2!

If I had any other problems with the movie it would be some points with Sherri Shepard’s character, her attitude at times was a hit or miss point for me. The other problem I had with the movie was the antagonist. He somewhat reminded me of Jason Statham in Furious 7 too much and he didn’t seem to stand out as much as some of the other key characters.

Speaking of key characters, the movie featured a guy played by Ken Jeong. He brought a bit of a charm to the beginning of the film and he had some important elements to the story that made the movie slightly more interesting. When I was 30 minutes into the film, Ken’s character seemed to add some suspense in one way or another and it made the movie boost itself in likability.

Ride Along 2 is a pretty good action comedy, and also a good sequel. I laughed at a lot of points during the film, Kevin Hart and Ice Cube have great chemistry together, and it is one of the funnier films I’ve seen this year. I’m going to give Ride Along 2 a 6/10. Just to let you all know, I actually have school starting up in about a week, so it may impact how often I post here. I still hope to see some movies throughout that time so I can talk about them with you all. Or at least to myself, because I am able to have a good time here that way too. Stay tuned for more reviews. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!