Scene Before

“You Can’t Have It” is directed by Andre Gordon and stars Matthew Pohlkamp, Joanna Krupa, Armand Assante, Dominique Swain, Jillian Murray, Mindy Robinson, and Dade Elza. Nearly the entirety of “You Can’t Have It” takes place in a nightlife spot called Mr. Phil’s Bar, which according this movie’s timeline, will be closing soon. Bill Sullivan, played by Matthew Pohlkamp spends his final night in the bar when all of sudden, drinking, sex, fights, and murder eventually ensue.

A lot of you are probably wondering what this movie is, and trust me, I actually found out about this movie because I follow Mindy Robinson on Twitter, if you don’t know who Mindy Robinson is, I just recently mentioned that she is in this movie, and she plays a girl named Karen. If you have seen “King of the Nerds,” you may know her as the “Pom Pom Kitty.” Also, in case you are wondering, this movie is in theaters, but they are very few and far between, so if you can’t hit a theater, the movie is also available to rent or buy on streaming services, which I did take advantage of. I figured I’d see this for a few reasons: To support Mindy Robinson’s work considering she is related to “King of the Nerds,” simply because I love movies, and I figured I should review a movie that probably not many of you have heard of. So let’s get into it.

The main character of this movie is Bill Sullivan, when watching the movie’s overall story unfold I was able to feel bad for Bill as a character, I kind of lost emotion in the end, but we’ll get to that later. I mean, sure, Bill shows some assholery in the film, but despite that fact, the way the story was delivered gave Bill some weight and made him somewhat likable.

Dominique Swain actually plays Bill’s wife, Tammy. You know how I said for Bill, he’s kind of a likable asshole? Tammy is this way too, I won’t explain how or why she happens to be an asshole, but still, she is.

One character that really stood out to me in this film is the bartender played by Joanna Krupa, she’s also known as Jackie. Throughout the film she sounds like a girl that would take absolutely no nonsense and it really suited her character in my opinion. Like for example, if she notices someone sexualizing her, she’d put them down for it. Granted, there’s more than one character that does this in the film and I would imagine this would happen a lot in real life, but the way it is executed in this film makes the movie flow naturally. Also, on a little sidenote, she’s kinda attractive in this film, much like a good number of the ladies in the film, which I personally believe was intended from casting, and if that was an intention, I’d say that intention was met.

Kevin Porter (left) is also in this film, and before appearing in this film, Porter played Lazer from “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.” In this film, he played a character named Tyler, throughout the film, a lot of the girls in the bar seem to sexualize him, which personally I’m fine with, because this is the type of film where sexualization seems normal, he’s not the only person in the movie being sexualized, plus it adds some weight, which I won’t go into because it does delve into spoiler-territory, to the character later on.

As far as other characters go, the only one I’m gonna talk about in depth is Officer Weadon. He is played by Rob Gronkowski, who you may know as a tight end for the New England Patriots. I mean, it does feel kinda weird having Rob Gronkowski playing a character in a movie, but then again look at Shaquille O’Neal and all the movies he has done. Plus Gronkowski has done work as himself in the “Entourage” movie and in a season 15 episode of “Family Guy.” How is his performance? Personally, it felt very unnecessary at the last minute and I don’t know, just having him in the movie really just feels like a lame-ass excuse. Also, another problem I have with him, is that he is in the very center of the poster for this film (the first image in the entire post) and he’s not even close to being the main character! I mean, if he is in the center of the poster to make it look like he’s about to stop some unneeded chaos in the bar, I can understand it, but it just feels very awkward. Not to mention, Bill, the main character, can barely be seen in the poster at all!

Speaking of problems, this film is horribly edited. I mean, all of the scenes mesh together well, but that’s not my problem, my problem however is that there are so many jumpcuts that kind of throw the movie off, also there is one scene in the beginning of the movie, where characters are interacting with each other in the bar area, there is blaring music. What’s wrong with that? When cutting between the characters talking to each other, the audio levels are COMPLETELY different from scene to scene, one scene it’s loud, the other scene it’s quiet, it doesn’t feel natural and it is perhaps some of the worst editing I’ve seen in a movie! Serious points is gonna be taken off because of this, just an alert.

Also, I want to bring this up again, how unneeded Gronk is in this film. Apparently, something comes up at the end of the film moments after he appears, and based on how close to the end of the film it is, it just feels incredibly tacked on and I was just like “Why?”. This felt like one of the most shoehorned moments I ever seen in a movie, it felt just an excuse just to get Gronk on screen, which I really don’t get! I mean, you have this movie, to me it just felt like it had a “Clerks” feel, that is if “Clerks” were presented in color and focused a bit more on the customers as opposed to the employees, then it suddenly turns into, I don’t know, some sort of investigation movie that didn’t even need to exist. This movie really needed to take 3/4 of its runtime for this to happen and when it did, I just lost my s*it. Personally, I would have been fine if this were simply a movie about the last night of a bar’s existence, and what it means to everyone, there wouldn’t be as big of a problem in there, but the whole idea simply sounds entertaining in my mind, but no, they had to get some sort of problem in at the last minute, because, well, GRONK HAS TO BE IN THE MOVIE! I honestly don’t know why else they would do this!

In the end, I was not pleased with “You Can’t Have It,” I mean, I liked a lot of the characters in this film, but there are so many things in this film that just BOG IT DOWN SO MUCH. Am I being a little hard on this film? I certainly hope not, but this film really irks me the more I think about it, by the way, Mindy Robinson, if you’re reading this, you weren’t bad in the movie, you were not the problem at all (I say this as a “King of the Nerds” fan). So for right now I’m going to give “You Can’t Have It,” a 4/10. This movie gets lots of points for the story and characters, but it’s all lost thanks to a totally ridiculous climax and some really bad editing. Thanks for reading this review everyone, there are a couple movies that are coming out this weekend I want to see, and hopefully I’ll tackle at least one of them. First off, there’s one movie called “Life,” which is about a group of people discovering life on Mars, and also, I don’t know if I’ll do this, but part of me has ambitions to go see the new “Power Rangers” film. I grew up with Power Rangers as a kid, and I’m somewhat excited to hear that they’re making a movie catering towards some older audiences in it. I mean, I honestly don’t know if it’ll be good, but we’ll just see what happens. Anyway, stay tuned for more reviews. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Hey everyone, Jack Drees here! I have an announcement to make. In case you didn’t know, there’s a new “Spider-Man” movie coming out this July, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” to be specific. Leading up to that, I’m gonna be doing reviews for previous “Spider-Man” films. Today we will be starting off with the first movie in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy. In April, we will go onto “Spider-Man 2.” Then in May, we will tackle “Spider-Man 3.” After that, we’ll be looking at “The Amazing Spider-Man” in June, and in July, just DAYS before Homecoming arrives in theaters, we’ll take a glance at “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” Right now, as I’m writing this, it is March, so let’s “MARCH” right into business and start talking about “Spider-Man.”

“Spider-Man” is directed by Sam Raimi, who also directed the original “Evil Dead” films, along with the recent Disney Wizard of Oz prequel “Oz the Great and Powerful,” and it stars Tobey Maguire, Willem DaFoe, Kirsten Dunst, and James Franco. This film revolves around the well known Marvel character of Spider-Man, or Peter Parker. If you don’t know the story, a nerdy boy who was orphaned as a child was once bitten by a radioactive spider, this causes him to eventually gain superpowers and become Spider-Man.

I watched this movie multiple times when I was younger, I even watched it a few times in my teen years. In preparation for this review, I figured I should rewatch the movie. After the rewatch, not only did it take me back, but I cannot say it was worse than the previous times I watched it.

Now lets move onto the characters, starting off with Peter Parker himself, Tobey Maguire. One common complaint I heard with Tobey Maguire being cast as Spider-Man is the age factor. In the movie and the comics, Spider-Man’s origin story takes place around his teen years, at the time which this was filmed, Tobey Maguire was in his mid twenties. Let me just say however, for a guy who was in his mid twenties during the filming process, his performance was not bad. He wasn’t too bad as Spider-Man either. I can’t say I have any complaints. Although I will say, when it comes to the Spider-Man humor you may have seen in other Spider-Man related material, it’s here, but the amount of it is kinda few and far between. Peter is also after a girl, if you read the comics before seeing the film you may have known her before seeing this film.

That girl I’m talking about is played by Kirsten Dunst, AKA Mary Jane Watson. Mary Jane’s contributions to the movie as a whole overall just made the movie seem much more interesting than it already was. And I’m not gonna talk about the ending, but towards the end of the film, MJ interacts with Peter, and their interactions just bring out the wow factor and has my brain going around in circles, and I mean that in a good way.

Another character I want to talk about is Norman Osborn played by Willem DaFoe. This guy is also the film’s antagonist, the Green Goblin. Despite how Norman is evil in this film, there were some moments where I was able to understand him and just so happen to feel his pain. I won’t go into much detail, but the more I think about it, the more it just feels like I’m watching a much more mature, and earlier produced version of Kylo Ren from “Star Wars,” despite being such a harsh villain, he is conflicted and still has a human side to him, the human side represented in this film is different than the one represented by Kylo Ren in “Star Wars,” but still, it’s there. Speaking of Osborns, let’s talk about his son.

Norman’s son is played by James Franco, who before taking on the role of Harry Osborn in this movie played Daniel Desario in the TV show “Freaks and Geeks,” which is “Firefly” before “Firefly” even started on television, it is a show which many people like and say got canceled way too early. Let me just say, I’m wondering if Franco would even be in this movie if it weren’t for the cancellation of “Freaks and Geeks.” I digress however, to stay on topic, Harry was Peter’s friend throughout the film, and let me just say, what happens with Harry at the end is just another example of a wow factor.

Fun fact you might want to know about this film is that JK Simmons is in it. Before earning his Oscar in “Whiplash” 13 years later, Simmons played J Jonah Jameson in this film. In case you care to know, JK Simmons is actually my favorite actor of all time, and his excellent acting ability just SHOWS TO THE UTTER CORE in this film. After watching this film recently, I can now say that this character actually reminds of one teacher I have in high school. I’m in his TV production class, and the guy also teaches film studies, which is a survey course on film. Also another fun fact, JK Simmons is also known for voicing Cave Johnson in “Portal 2,” my favorite video game of all time. I bring that up because I’m wondering if the folks who made the game saw the “Spider-Man” films and thought they should make a character with a similar vibe to Jameson for Simmons to play in that game, because if you compare between the game and the movie I’m reviewing now, the characters are somewhat similar. And the more I think about it, Simmons is kinda well known for playing somewhat commanding characters, because a lot of the characters I’ve seen him play give off that sort of vibe. For example, you’ve got this character we’re talking about here, Cave Johnson who was just mentioned, Terence Fletcher from “Whiplash,” and PJ Jordan from “Men at Work,” a pretty funny sitcom that lasted for three seasons on TBS but was unfortunately canceled. Jameson also happens to deliver some my favorite lines in this film. Here are some examples below:

“If we can get a picture of Julia Roberts in a thong, we can certainly get a picture of this weirdo.”

“He doesn’t want to be famous? Then I’ll make him infamous.”

PETER: “You don’t trust anyone, that’s your problem.”

JAMESON: “I trust my barber.”

One of my favorite things about this movie is how real it feels, and this is actually something I’ll be bringing up in my review for “Spider-Man 2” as well. You’ve got this relateable nerd getting superpowers, who has a crush on a girl, but finds out he’s gonna have to get through some obstacles to have her, and the way it’s done feels extremely authentic and feels like one example of what would really happen if someone was in high school and somehow gained superpowers, and used those powers as a hero. I mean, it’s not entirely real, but even in moments that feel like a fantasy, it almost gives off this feeling that makes it come off as something that would actually happen as a real life event, I don’t know if you feel same way watching this film, but that’s just how I feel.

I mentioned this recently and I’ll mention it again, I really like the ending to this film, I said there are two things that had a wow factor to me. I won’t go into detail, but the ending is one of the best endings I’ve seen in film history, it still carries the realism and it just makes the film better.

If there was anything else I had to mention as a positive, it’s Danny Elfman’s score. In case you didn’t know, Danny Elfman has done music for some TV and movies which you probably have at least heard about. He’s done a crapton of Tim Burton films, he did the theme music for “The Simpsons,” he’s also worked on the music for the “Men in Black” films. He has also done a bunch of other stuff, but I don’t want to waste time by typing all of it, so if you want to know more, do your own research. This film, along with the other films in the franchise have some of my favorite scores in movie history, and that is because of this guy. There are so many cool themes in this movie, the mood of the music is perfect from scene to scene, and there’s also this 3 minute intro credit montage, and the more I watch it, the more I get invested in the music, it just literally sets the tone for the film, trust me, if you watch this film, it all just sounds amazing.

In the end, this movie does whatever a movie can, play on a screen, any size, entertain, as time flies. If you don’t get that, I’m sorry. Although seriously, I really had fun watching this movie again, it’s been almost a couple of years since my last viewing and I’m glad I can watch it again, and it just goes to show how great of a hero Spider-Man is. I’m gonna give “Spider-Man” an 8/10. Guys, I hope you enjoyed this review, and despite me mentioning this before, I’ll mention it again, I’ll let you all know that I have another Spider-Man related review coming up in April, and that will be for “Spider-Man 2,” words cannot describe how much I can’t wait to get that review out to you all and I hope the time comes soon. Stay tuned for that review, and stay tuned for more of my Scene Before content, coming soon. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Hey everyone, Jack Drees here. Last Wednesday I received some news that devastated me to the bottom of my heart. One of my favorite movies of all time is “The Matrix.” Not only is the movie itself spectacular, but it is the first R rated film I ever watched in full length so I have fond memories of it. Say what you want about its sequels, also say what you want about Wachowski movies in general, heck, there are people who actually happen to dislike the original Matrix. Doug Walker, AKA the Nostalgia Critic, a famous YouTube movie critic made a 30 minute review of it and he disliked the film. I have no problem with people who dislike “The Matrix,” I love it and I consider it one of the greatest films ever made, not everyone has to like the same things, it’s absurd to think that’s possible. I may sometimes question people for disliking it but it doesn’t mean I hate them for it. However, something came up yesterday I thought I would NEVER see. (Sigh) It’s getting remade.

Eh, yep. The remake craze isn’t stopping. We have seen so many remakes come out over this decade, and there are still more on the rise. Lets just list a few, and by a few I mean a lot. “Point Break” (2015), “Ghostbusters” (2016), “The Mummy” (2017), “Evil Dead” (2013), “Red Dawn” (2012), “Poltergeist” (2015), “Robocop” (2014), “The Karate Kid” (2010), “Gambit” (2012), “The Gambler” (2014), “Annie” (2014), “Arthur” (2011), “Beauty and the Beast” (2017), and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (2010).

I mean, heck, I recently heard of a possible Tron reboot with Jared Leto as the starring role. Disney at one point was thinking of doing a Tron 3 movie but that got canceled, the fact that they want to do a remake of it and not a sequel is astounding to me! I mean, WHAT THE F*CK?! I’m telling you guys, it’s almost as if Hollywood is out to kill me right now, it’s as if I’m saying that the apocalypse has begun! I need to grab my pitchfork and duke it out against a bunch of executives in California! I need all of my movie loving pals to join me!

I mean, come on guys! For Pete’s sake! There is no reason this remake should happen! If there were any reason to remake this film, it would only be to improve the sequels, and if that were the case, awesome. Although I don’t really think that would be the case here. I mean, it’s possible, but another case I have in mind is just to grab cash from the viewers! Yeah, like, people are gonna recognize the name of the movie and they’re just gonna flock to the theater without a care in the world! Also, consider what “The Matrix” did for movies. It had stunning visual effects that still hold up today, it went up there with the best sci-fi films of all time, and it made lots of money at the box office as far as R rated films go. According to Box Office Mojo, as of now, “The Matrix Reloaded” is at the #4 spot for the highest grossing R rated films of all time! Granted that movie was not as much of a quality film as the first one, but it doesn’t change the fact that people wanted to see that. “The Matrix Revolutions” made half of what “The Matrix Reloaded” made, but in my book, it’s not disastrous as far as R rated movies go. It’s a huge dip, but it could have been worse.

The original Matrix film actually came out in 1999, right now it is 2017. I don’t usually see remakes announced this early for a film since another’s release related to its own property (unless we are talking about comic book heroes like Spider-Man or Batman). But let me just say out of all the remakes right now, this may be one of the most pointless remakes I’ve ever heard in my entire life. The visual effects still hold up today, the action is revolutionary (no pun intended) even by today’s standards, and oh my gosh, I also realized we’re gonna have to put in new music, there was some music in those films which I actually thought was pretty sick. When you look at something like Spider-Man, it almost feels necessary to remake it. I didn’t think “The Amazing Spider-Man” was necessary after seeing it, but that’s because my stupid brain for some reason couldn’t figure out they were trying to restart the franchise. Sure, it hasn’t been long since there was a movie with him, but it’s a story some people don’t mind seeing again, just look at how people reacted to “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” people didn’t like it so they wanted that series buried in the ground. Not to mention, not long after that movie released there was that whole thing with the rights to Spider-Man going to Marvel Studios. Sony was still allowed to distribute solo films with Spidey, but Marvel Studios was now going to use him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and based on how he was portrayed in “Captain America: Civil War,” I can see the solo film being good. By the way, I actually have more faith in it now than I did some time ago now that I found out that Zendeya is not playing a black Mary Jane, she’s actually playing a character with a different name, which personally, I can get behind.

Any other possible positives that could come out of the remake? None that I can really think of. I mean, there is only one that I thought of but the more I think about it, the more annoying it gets, and that is someone playing Neo who isn’t Keanu Reeves. A lot of people consider Keanu Reeves to be a less than stellar actor, he doesn’t have much range when it comes to his acting ability. But let me just say, in some weird way, I can buy into Keanu Reeves’s performance. I don’t know if you feel the same way, but there are moments in the movies that only feel like moments Keanu Reeves can pull off. If they do remake this film, it would be interesting to see an actor playing Neo with slightly more emotion and a greater range, but that is one of the only few positives I can see coming out of this remake.

(Sigh) Just… wow. I have no words. I hope this remake is good. If it does get remade I’m probably still gonna see it, after all this almost feels like a job I don’t get paid for. By the way, if anyone wants to advertise on here, let me know and I’ll think it over (insert smiley face). Just a little note to Warner Bros, if you do remake this, you are gonna have a lot to live up to. There’s a reason why “Back to the Future” never got remade, and hopefully a movie such as that NEVER WILL GET REMADE. Is my life ruined? No. But it could be in the future if this movie gets remade into some cash grab which is the movie equivalent to getting hit in the head with a volleyball, getting hit in the nipples with one baseball per nipple, getting hit in the stomach with a football, and getting hit in the nuts with a soccer ball, WITH EACH ONE OF THOSE THINGS HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME! It’s probably gonna be embarrassing and painful to go through, and once it’s over, I’ll probably feel pretty f*cked up. Just… why?! OK, rant over. I’m done. Now somebody hand me my paycheck of $0. Wait, what’s that? Oh, right, at the end of the post there’s actually a link to a petition to keep this remake from happening, if you want to sign it, go right ahead!

Last but not least, I have an announcement, coming up I am doing a series of reviews leading into July, these reviews will be for past Spider-Man movies. This month I’ll be doing “Spider-Man,” in April I’ll be doing “Spider-Man 2,” in May I’ll be doing “Spider-Man 3,” in June, I’ll be doing “The Amazing Spider-Man,” and in July I’ll be doing “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” This is to prepare for the upcoming Spider-Man movie which will hit theaters on July 7, otherwise known as “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” Also, just a note on “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” I am doing that review in July, but I will make sure it is posted days before the Homecoming movie comes out. Stay tuned for those reviews, and stay tuned for more of my content, coming soon! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

MATRIX REMAKE PREVENTION PETITION: https://www.change.org/p/warner-brothers-stop-the-matrix-reboot-from-happening?recruiter=138626870&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=share_twitter_responsive

“La La Land” is directed by–

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: Excuse me, Jack?

ME: Yeah?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: Why are you reviewing “La La Land?”

ME: Because you told me to.

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: You already did that review.

ME: Oh yeah, right. No wonder I felt like I was watching something I saw before. Why did you tell me to review La La Land?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: A card said so.

ME: A card?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: Yes, a card.

ME: You’re joking.

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: Nope, not at all.

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Wait! Wait! Hold the phone! The review was supposed to be for Moonlight!

ME: Moonlight?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Yes! This voice you’re talking to must have read the wrong card!

ME: What the f*ck are you talking about?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: Yeah, what the f*ck are you talking about?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Another voice must have handed you the wrong card! I guess that voice was “too busy” trying to finish some pointless tweet instead of doing its job!

ME: Moonlight card wielder? Couldn’t you have just told me to review Moonlight?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: It wasn’t my turn to determine your reviews today!

ME: Since when do you take turns at something like this?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Like, literally, since now, I came up with it a couple nights ago while you were asleep. I guess we won’t be doing this anymore.

ME: No kidding, that was a f*ck-up. Now if you could please be quiet and let me do my review.

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: You have to see the movie first.

ME: Oh for Pete’s sake! There goes my time to get the new Zelda game that just came out a week ago!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: That’s an incredible waste of money, you don’t have a Nintendo Switch.

ME: It’s out for the Wii U goddammit!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Relax Jack, I didn’t know.

ME: Alright, the show must go on. *Moves away from keyboard*

AFTER ONE VIEWING OF MOONLIGHT

ME: *Arrives back at keyboard* Alright, let’s just do a couple things here… *Starts new post* Ba-bam! It’s review time!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: *Interruptedly* Jack?

ME: Yeah?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: You weren’t supposed to review Moonlight today.

ME: Goddammit! What the hell are you talking about?!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: You were supposed to review “Fifty Shades Darker.”

ME: You’re f*cking kidding me! That piece of crap?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: How would you know? You haven’t seen it.

ME: Actually that’s a good point. But still, don’t make me want to see that! If you want me to review another movie that I was SUPPOSED to review, it better have been something like “Kong: Skull Island” and not this uninspired clusterf*ck! So stop this game!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD: It’s not a game, it’s reality.

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Relax now, the guy’s only kidding.

ME: Is THAT a joke?

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: No!

ME: Ah, thank goodness!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: Now start your review, you’re wasting time!

ME: Tell that to the voice who was making me waste it!

VOICE INSIDE HEAD #2: OK, calm down! Just go on with the review.

ME: As you wish. Alrighty then, let’s continue.

Reminder to everyone reading right now that this is not a joke, I’m actually reviewing this, not “La La Land.” The card told me to go see “Moonlight,” so let’s get cracking. “Moonlight” is directed by Barry Jenkins, and it is a coming of age story of a homosexual black man. This film has been out for a bit of time now, but considering the fact that this has won many awards, including Best Picture at the Oscars, I figured it was my duty to go see this movie at some point and get a review up.

Let’s start off by talking about the main character in this movie, a character who just so happens to go by multiple names in the film. As a kid, he’s often called “Little,” as an adolescent, he’s often called by his actual name of “Chiron,” and as an adult, he was sometimes called “Black.” As far as this character goes, I would say that for all three phases, none of the actors playing him let me down and I felt the character’s pain, mainly when he was younger. His lack of relationship with his mother throughout the beginning of the film became more compelling as the film progressed. By the way, in the first act, this character asks what a faggot is. If you don’t know what that is, it is a name meant to make homosexuals feel bad, and if you want my opinion, this character, like any other homosexual, to me, isn’t a faggot. One more thing is that there are certain points where this character doesn’t really talk all that much, at first I thought if the entire movie were like this, I would probably like it a tad less than I would have hoped. I don’t mind characters who don’t talk (just look at a number of video games out today that have characters like this), but if this character didn’t talk, I probably wouldn’t have found this movie as engaging it was when I saw it the way it was presented.

One character in this movie I want to talk about goes by the name of Juan. This character is played by Mahershala Ali and he’s a Cuban immigrant. I found him to be extremely caring when I first saw him and I wasn’t really disappointed with Ali’s performance. Once again, I’m gonna talk about Chiron’s relationship with his mother. This character actually contributes to the ruckus going on in this movie between Chiron and his mother. Despite how chaos was formed and it created some unfortunate effects between Chiron and his mother, I was able to understand why the mother was acting the way she was when it came to the relationship between Chiron and Juan, because if you watch the movie and notice the chemistry between Juan and Chiron, it’s almost like Juan is a second father to him.

Another big character in this movie goes by the name of Kevin. He’s essentially Chiron’s closest companion. Their relationship is also pretty crucial towards the development of the film and I have to say as far the relationship goes, this one was relatively unique and also refreshing. I usually don’t see homosexual relationships in movies and the fact that we have one in here makes this relationship stand out from a number of others I’ve seen in film.

If I was seeing this film months ago, this topic probably would have never come up, but since I just saw it not too long ago, I for one consider this topic relevant. For those of you who don’t know, “Moonlight” won Best Picture at the Oscars along with some other awards there. The film has also received a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture-Drama. So a question I had in mind before getting into the auditorium to see this movie was whether or not it was truly worthy of these awards. I wouldn’t take the film that far. While I do think this film has great cinematography, decent pacing, and one of the better soundtracks I’ve heard at certain points from the movies I’ve seen that have come out in 2016, I couldn’t help but nearly forget some of the characters from the beginning of the film. I almost forgot about characters like Juan and Teresa, which is kinda unfortunate, especially when you consider how big of a role Juan has in the film.

Another problem I had with the film is the scene in the diner. I won’t get into too much detail here, but if you have seen the movie, chances are you know what I’m talking about. There was a couple moments during that scene where I felt entertained, but it absolutely could have been trimmed. Just make it like a minute or two shorter and it would have been better. I like long and detailed scenes, but this part just felt more slow than it was detailed.

After seeing “Moonlight” I kind of left the theater with similar thoughts in my head that I had after seeing “Manchester by the Sea,” good for certain qualities, but it is not worth all of the praise it has been getting. Oddly enough, part of me is saying I like this better than “Manchester by the Sea” but at the same time if I were having a movie night, I’d rather watch that film as opposed to “Moonlight,” maybe it’s because I live near Manchester by the Sea, I don’t know. It’s kind of like how I have a soft spot for “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” I actually live near the malls used to shoot the film so at times it makes me want to watch that movie. I’m going to give “Moonlight” a 7/10. Guys, I hope you liked that introduction I did, if you don’t know already, it was inspired by the Academy Awards Best Picture mishap and I had a lot of fun making it. As far as upcoming reviews go, I might go see “Kong: Skull Island” at some point, I’m not sure, but we’ll see what happens. Stay tuned for more reviews coming up and I promise you all, I will have the right cards. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Hey everyone, Jack Drees here. I don’t have any kids, but if I had kids and happened to live in California, I think I just found a new place I would never ever want to take them. I love going to the cinema, to me, it’s a home away from home. Now, a Mexican cinema chain is making a so called innovation. This chain is known as Cinepolis, and their idea towards innovating is opening theaters that contain jungle gyms. Here’s my response to that. Are you f*cking kidding me?!

 

I thought excessively renovating theaters to put in reclined seating was absurd, this puts the word “absurd” in a whole new dimension I never even imagined. Apparently, there are locations set to open in southern California, and there are actually locations of this kind open in Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. From that, I can only imagine there are days when parents from these countries have huge headaches because of places like this. When the locations in southern California opens, southern Californian parents will probably feel the same way.

You know how in a lot of movie theaters they have those warnings before the show begins to shut off your phones and be quiet? This actually may encourage talking throughout a movie. Granted, kids aren’t the quietest folks in the world, and sometimes their behavior in a movie theater can show that. But just imagine kids going “WEEEEE!” down a slide while a movie is playing, that would actually be worse. For what I can imagine, only kids movies would play in here. So anything PG-13 or higher won’t be playing in an auditorium like this. You know what I would imagine as well? With the jungle gym inside, the kids are going to be around there for a portion of the feature presentation and parents who probably dislike films such as animations will have to put up with whatever’s on screen without the kid by their side. Also, this goes for kids as well, but I think parents will be more annoyed by this, with all the noise kids will be making in the jungle gym, it’s quite possible it will be a lot harder to hear the movie. If the sound system is excellent, that’s something I’d appreciate at any age, but if not, I’d just roll my eyes and probably just want to leave.

One common bane of every parent’s existence from what I heard, happens to be Chuck E Cheese. I have been there multiple times as a kid. If you don’t know, they are a popular spot for children’s events or birthday parties, they have an arcade, and they also have a jungle gym. I haven’t been in years, especially when you consider the fact that I’m 17. As far as complaints go there, I heard the food is terrible, and there’s not really much for a parent to appreciate about the place. For what I remember, the only times I recall having any food there is during birthday parties, I don’t remember their food being the worst thing I’ve ever eaten. Then again, every single time I have been was when I was at a single digit age and when it comes to food like pizza, I didn’t really think much about quality. Let me just say, this movie theater/jungle gym idea, at least to me, IS WORSE.

A lot of people enjoy going to the cinema. Granted there are lots of people who would rather stay home and rent a movie On Demand, but still, there are people who still go to the cinema. There are also a lot of people who find amusement in going to arcades. Chuck E Cheese is partially an arcade, and even if I went in as an adult, I’d have fun in that sort of way. Sure, it might be awkward, but still fun. With that being said, the problem I have with the jungle gym movie theater idea is that the movie will be playing in a room with a jungle gym inside. If there were, I don’t know, say a jungle gym in the lobby that kids could play around, I’d accept that. That idea would cause less of a disturbance, give kids something to do before a movie starts if they arrive at the theater early, and make the cinematic experience quite possibly less awkward for parents.

Also, let’s take the price in mind. I first heard about this entire jungle gym movie theater thing in an article from LAist. It mentions that the price will be $3 more than a standard movie ticket. So while children may be happy, adults are paying $3 extra per ticket just to enter hell for a couple of hours. Even if you are one of those people who hates 3D, you’d probably rather pay a few extra bucks to see a 3D film than this because at least something like that would focus on the film itself. This is just Chuck E Cheese in a movie theater. By the way, I mentioned an article at the beginning, if you want to look at it, I have the link right here.

http://laist.com/2017/03/07/cinepolis.php#photo-1

Just…Wow. When it comes to movie theater innovations I find ridiculous, I thought the overuse of recliners was bad enough. The jungle gym movie theater may just take the recliners, and put them in a junkyard with a slide, merry go round, beanbags, and unmovable pogo sticks. I don’t believe what I’m seeing here. Well, at least I don’t live in California so that takes some worries off my chest. First off, today is March 8th, or as some people may call it, International Women’s Day, so happy International Women’s Day to all the women out there! Second, for upcoming reviews, I currently have nothing planned this upcoming weekend. If I were to see something, it would either be “Kong: Skull Island,” “Fist Fight,” or “Moonlight.” I’m also thinking of seeing “Get Out” after all of the positive reception I’ve collected about it, but that shall probably remain a mystery for now since horror movies aren’t my go to genre. I don’t mind watching them, they just aren’t my first choice, not to mention, I don’t think they are the first choice of certain folks I know either. Nevertheless, if I post a review over the next weekend, please stay tuned. Also, stay tuned for posts that aren’t reviews. (Sigh) Please just tell me this jungle gym s*it isn’t gonna spread far. Anyway, Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Hey everyone, Jack Drees here. A couple days ago, it was Zack Snyder’s birthday, if you don’t know him, he directed movies like “300,” “Dawn of the Dead,” and “Sucker Punch.” He’s also responsible for directing some of the DC Extended Universe films. The films in the franchise which he directed include “Man of Steel,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and the upcoming “Justice League” film which is supposed to come out in November. He’s also directing a “Justice League” sequel but there’s not an official release date on that film yet. The film I’m going to bring up today isn’t one he’s directing, but it is also one he’s producing, and that film, is “Aquaman.” I will be completely honest with you, when it comes to comic books, I don’t read them, I just follow the films, so if I insert anything that a comic book fan might know about Aquaman that a normal person usually wouldn’t, that’s likely to be based off of brief research. The greatest knowledge I have when it comes to Aquaman, is a brief clip of him from “Batman v Superman,” playing “Injustice: Gods Among Us,” quite possibly Comic-Con, “The Big Bang Theory,” and random places with that sort of information on the Internet and TV. I mean, I know his superpower…

In this post I’m going to bring up something Zack Snyder posted on his Twitter. He posted a few seconds of footage of “Aquaman” on there. The tweet stated “Working on my birthday 🎉.” After seeing that, some thoughts are on my mind 1: It’s nice to show people that more matters to you on your birthday than gifts or going out to dinner. And 2: Does Zack Snyder think nobody will care about or remember about his birthday? That’s not the point really, but still, it’s some stuff I thought about. If you want to watch the Aquaman footage, it’s down below, enjoy.

As far as this footage goes, I must say I’m impressed with it from a visual standpoint, in a way, it almost reminds me of “The Legend of Tarzan,” which came out last year, if it were underwater. I was bored throughout a good portion of that film, but I thought the visuals were tremendous throughout. Although just to get this out, “Aquaman” doesn’t come out until October 5th, 2018. The movie could look a lot different in the final product as opposed to how it looks now. Also, this video was shot on a camera looking at a screen, and maybe if you viewed it in real life, maybe the footage would look even better. After all, you still need to color grade, and if possible, add music to suit the scene depending on when this happens.

As far as Aquaman goes in the footage, I’d say, just from this short clip, I approve of Jason Momoa playing Aquaman. He looks like he has the qualities of a superhero. He’s fit, and while he may not look like the Aquaman you’d typically think of when it comes to the comic books, I still like the costume, or at least the part of it I can see, I bet his top will be covered for some time in the movie so I can glance at the rest of the costume. My only problem with Aquaman, is his hairstyle. When I look at Aquaman and notice his long hair, it almost reminds me of one of the dwarves from the “Lord of the Rings” franchise. I’m not joking! Regardless of whether or not you have seen one “Lord of the Rings” film (the books don’t matter in this case), specifically the ones in the Hobbit trilogy, I have two images of posters shown below. On the left, is Aquaman, on the right, is Thorin, as he is shown in a poster for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” Just look at them.

I mean literally, what the hell is this?! I apparently just entered the Twilight Zone! Oh, and by the way, despite having black hair in the video and the left poster, Aquaman from what I heard will be blonde in this movie.

There’s one more character in the video that I’ve yet to talk about. Aquaman is going up to him and he stops in front of him, based on some research, I was able to determine the guy would be a villain in the film, Orm/Ocean Master. In this movie, Ocean Master is being played by Patrick Wilson, who was in some fairly recent horror films including “The Conjuring” and “Insidious.” I can’t really say much else except that I hope Wilson does well in the film. From what I see, it looks like the movie interpretation of Ocean Master is faithful to the comic books just by the way it looks, but as far as everything else goes, that will be determined in the future.

I hope “Aquaman” is a good movie, because right now, the DCEU really needs something to boost itself. I enjoyed “Man of Steel,” “Batman v Superman” somehow gets better every time I watch it and it made me find my celebrity crush, “Suicide Squad” was fun the first time, but it got SO MUCH WORSE the second time, probably not top 10 of the year worse, but it’s just plain bad as of now. I mean, I have a lot of faith in the upcoming “Wonder Woman” film and I think it’s gonna be sick, but we’ll have to see. From the footage I saw, it looks pretty good, but we’ll have to see what happens in the future when it comes to this movie. Also, I feel I should remind all of you once again that I have a petition to get “King of the Nerds” back on the air. If you want to sign it, I have the link down below, go right ahead. Just a little announcement that just came up to me recently, apparently as of yesterday, I have been on Scene Before for 1 year now. I don’t know if I’m gonna do something for that, but we’ll see. Be sure to stay tuned for my future posts and reviews! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

KING OF THE NERDS SEASON 4 PICKUP PETITION: https://www.change.org/p/game-show-network-have-a-network-pick-up-king-of-the-nerds-for-season-4

Hey everyone, Jack Drees here! Thought I was done talking about the Academy Awards? You thought wrong! There’s another thing I want to bring up, and that is “Suicide Squad’s” win. “Suicide Squad” is probably one of the most controversial movies of the past year. After many folks happened to be disappointed with “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” it didn’t stop their excitement for “Suicide Squad,” which was supposed to come out in summer 2016. Then the movie came out, the opinions were across the board for this film. A lot of comic book nerds really hated it, critics trashed it (according to Rotten Tomatoes), then there’s that group of people who happened to really like it (also according to Rotten Tomatoes). When I first saw the film, I liked it, in my review, I gave it a 7/10. However, when watching the film on Blu-Ray, I felt like I was watching a selection of cool segments, but mostly uninspired s*it. So yeah, the score is now a bit lower than how it was after my first watch. Would I watch it again in the future? Quite possibly, but probably only for certain parts. I feel like I’m jumping on a bandwagon for saying this, but the fact that this very film is now an Oscar winner, is just hilarious.

This film won in the category of “Best Makeup and Hairstyling.” I’ll be honest, out of all the Oscars this film could possibly win, this would have been one of the most believable ones. In fact, compared to its competitors, I’m totally fine with this film winning, I have not seen “A Man Called Ove,” but after a brief look at some images from the film, I can’t say I’m thrilled with it. I saw its other competitor, “Star Trek: Beyond,” and as far as eligibility for this category goes, I’d say this movie is a reasonable nomination. One character really stood out to me, Jaylah played by Sofia Boutella to be specific. However, “Suicide Squad” was the film I actually felt was the most deserving of the three films. I was amazed with what they have done with a few characters. These characters include Harley Quinn, The Joker, and Enchantress. Everything looked glossy and colorful when it came to The Joker and Harley Quinn and Enchantress certainly looked intimidating. Even if I didn’t care much for a certain characters, I was able to admire how they looked.

Also, let me just remind you. As if calling “Suicide Squad” an Oscar winner isn’t weird enough, get a load of this. There isn’t a single Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that has won an Oscar. There have been multiple comic book based films that won Oscars in the past, including ones from Marvel like “Spider-Man 2” and “Men in Black.” Although, not one modern day Marvel Cinematic Universe film such as “Iron Man,” “The Avengers,” or “Guardians of the Galaxy” won an Oscar, EVER. They have been nominated, but not a single one was a winner. However, a modern day DC Comics film, one that was disliked by so many people, actually happened to win an Oscar. It’s just astounding to me.

All of this does raise a few questions. The first question being, is this a sure sign that DC actually has a chance of making great movies in the future? Well, nothing’s absolutely certain when it comes to that matter, and I’m ABSOLUTELY EXCITED for “Wonder Woman” coming out in June, and I also have faith in “Justice League” coming out in November, so we’ll see what happens with those films along with other DC films. Also, will Marvel Studios ever win an Academy Award? From research, most of the MCU films are nominated for best visual effects. Although its chances of winning, personally, probably aren’t gonna be the best. And I say that because a good portion of the MCU films look very similar in terms of visuals. Just watch a few Marvel Studios films and you’ll see what I mean. Last question I have in mind, is this. Will DC ever surpass Marvel in terms of quality? I honestly doubt that. Marvel has a formula with their films, and in some ways, this is completely unofficial, because in my view, this only applies to one DC film, but it almost seems as if DC is trying to borrow a lot of what Marvel has and put it into their films. This is evident when it comes to “Suicide Squad.” When you take the soundtrack, some of the visuals, and the whole team formation jazz, in some ways, it almost feels like at times that I’m watching a carbon copy of “Guardians of the Galaxy.” With films like “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” I felt like I was watching something new. I really enjoyed my experience of watching “Man of Steel,” and while I wouldn’t consider “Batman v Superman” a great movie, I can’t say it’s a horrible movie either.

I can’t say I’m entirely disappointed with this film winning the award it won, because out of all the choices, it looked like “Suicide Squad” put in the most effort when it came into this category and it definitely paid off. What are your thoughts on “Suicide Squad” getting an Oscar? Is this category appropriate for the film? Or I want to know this, what did you think of “Suicide Squad,” yeah, I’m actually somewhat curious, so leave a comment if interested! Be sure to stay tuned for more of my epic posts and reviews coming soon! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Hey everyone, Jack Drees here, and the 89th Academy Awards are officially over. Right I’m going to talk about some of the highlights of the show, whether or not my expectations were fulfilled, the political jabs, and THAT ENDING. If you have seen the show, chances are you automatically know what I’m referring to.

Starting off with the highlights we are gonna talk about the Walmart receipt films. In case you don’t know what I’m referring to. A group of people were asked to direct 3 films using a list of items shown on one Walmart receipt. One film was directed by Marc Forster, another film was directed by Antoine Fuqua, and there was another film by Seth Rogen along with Evan Goldberg. My personal favorite out of those films was the one from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. I am able to appreciate the other two, but I admire the third film for the number of set pieces it’s able to shove in a matter of moments without feeling bloated, along with the fact that it is able to do something that made me admire Tape Face from season 11 of “America’s Got Talent,” which is make something out of literally nothing. There’s no real big story or backbone, but the randomness which is executed feels like it’s masterfully done and it doesn’t feel crazy. In a way, it feels stupid, but in a way it’s also the work of a genius. And no, I don’t mean that like “Impractical Jokers” stupid, it’s actually kind of complex to explain.

One of the other highlights I will bring up has to do with “La La Land,” and I saw that movie in the theater and it was terrific. When I reviewed the movie, I gave it a 9/10. Going into the Oscars, “La La Land” had 14 nominations. After receiving huge praise from critics, also a high amount from average moviegoers as well, I was expecting a HUGE sweep. Did we get a sweep? Yes. But it wasn’t as big as I was expecting. I was expecting Hollywood to just go on loving itself, but no, the love wasn’t as tremendous as I thought it would be. Just to let you know, the record for the most wins at the Oscars for a film is 11 wins, while “La La Land” didn’t get 11 wins, it got 6, which is still pretty decent. So this kind of makes me think that Hollywood doesn’t love itself as much as I thought. I mean, I wouldn’t mind “La La Land” getting more than 6 awards but it would still leave that thought in my mind.

Going into the Oscars, one of the categories I was looking forward to was “Best Animated Feature Film,” I mentioned in my most recent post which has to do with the Oscars that I was desperately hoping that “Kubo and the Two Strings” would win this category. I also mentioned that my prediction for the winner was Disney’s “Zootopia,” which would have been my second choice. “Zootopia” did take the award in that category, which I do approve of, “Zootopia” was definitely the funniest of the animations I watched in 2016, it’s very well animated, and it’s almost a spoof of real life. However, I really do hope “Laika,” the animation studio behind Kubo does get more recognition in the future. I have seen two of their films so far and I really loved both of them. I saw “Coraline,” which was released back in 2009. Beautifully crafted and animated, well written, it had wonderful music, and it was very engaging. “Kubo and the Two Strings” actually managed to be better, like as in, MIND-BLOWINGLY better. I cannot wait to see what Laika does next!

Also, let’s get talking about one of my favorite movies of the past year, “Arrival!” “Kubo and the Strings” was my favorite movie nominated for anything at the Oscars, but of the ones nominated for “Best Picture,” Arrival was my favorite. “Arrival” actually happened to win one award, and that award is “Best Achievement in Sound Editing.” I was honestly expecting “Sully” to win in that category, but the fact that “Arrival” won anything satisfied me and me almost jump for joy. After all, as one who has seen the film, I will say that the film has a nice variation in terms of sound effects, the sound effects are timed well and happen to match with what is going on, and the sound effects themselves sound cool.

I’m now gonna talk about the categories of “Best Actor” and “Best Actress.” I actually got my predictions right for both categories, and I cannot be happier with the picks for these categories. Starting off with the fellow who happened to win “Best Actor,” Casey Affleck, there is NO OTHER CHOICE. As extremely disappointed as I was with “Manchester by the Sea” in general, I was amazed everyone’s ability to act throughout the film to the point where I thought it was some of the best acting I ever seen. Say what you want about Casey Affleck when it comes to that whole sexual harassment scandal, but the dude can act, and the same goes with just about everyone else in the movie. Even Michelle Williams, for the few minutes she’s around, was exceptional. Everything in the movie, despite being much more humorous and witty as opposed to sad, felt realistic and that’s one of the movie’s biggest positives, which I’m really glad to say.

Now, let’s move onto the “Best Actress,” Emma Stone. Emma Stone has proven that she’s a talented actress, and her work in “La La Land” just shows that significantly. In terms of lead actress performances, Stone is up there with Hailee Steinfeld in “Edge of Seventeen” as my favorite lead actress performances of 2016, and Emma Stone deserved her Oscar. Granted, part of it probably had to do with how well written the character was, but regardless of writing, Stone transformed this character, into a person. It absolutely shows during the near end of the film, which overall just made me go “Wow.” So, I would not only like to thank Damien Chazelle, who wrote the movie for coming up with such an inspiring and well written character, but I want to give thanks to Emma Stone for making the character so lifelike and fluid. It’s just, I don’t know, magic. Yeah, that’s the word, I’m gonna go with magic.

Now, let’s political. Sorry guys, I have to. Heading into Oscar night, a lot of people were expecting a bunch of jokes about Trump, specifically ones created with the intention to destroy him. I will admit there were a few, and as one who didn’t really like just about anyone running for president during the 2016 US election, I will personally admit that there were some jokes that had me cracking. I will say, most of the jokes came from host Jimmy Kimmel so not too many of the celebrities were exposing their political views, which is something I could personally consider a positive. There was even one that I thought was absolutely brilliant and had lots of attendees laughing and it had me busting my guts as well. Jimmy Kimmel went on his phone, there was a screen showing what he was doing on the phone, Kimmel went to Twitter and he tweeted the following:

“Hey @realDonaldTrump u up?”

Then a second later, he tweeted once more, saying this:

“@realDonaldTrump #Merylsayshi”

If you have you have seen or heard about Meryl Streep’s speech at the Golden Globes, chances are you will understand this tweet. By the way, there were less political jokes than I was expecting, so I consider that a nice plus.

Now, let’s talk about the ending that shocked everyone! Remember when Steve Harvey made a huge mistake at the 2016 Miss Universe show? Get a load of this! The Oscars are just about to come to an end, the “Best Picture” nominees were just announced, and the winner was announced. That award went to “La La Land,” which when I heard it, did not come off as a huge shock to me, I thought the film deserved it, but at the last second, it turns out that isn’t the real winner. Warren Beatty had the wrong card! The REAL winner was “Moonlight,” another movie which I wouldn’t have been surprised with taking the “Best Picture” spot. I gotta say, I don’t blame Warren for this, he didn’t have the card. Comparing it to the Miss Universe incident, Steve Harvey had the right card, but he read it wrong. Warren Beatty at the Oscars had the wrong card, but he read it right. I thought this was completely scripted, like, Jimmy Kimmel came up with this going into the show, and that was a joke. At another point, I thought there would be a tie between the two movies. Just wow. If I have anything else to say about it, I’m noticing a funny connection between this year’s Academy Awards and last year’s Academy Awards. The winners for “Best Picture” both have the word light in them. This year’s winner is “Moonlight” and last year’s winner is “Spotlight.” Just thought I’d shine some “light” on that. Also, I’d like to give kudos to the folks of “La La Land” for being good sports when they found out about the mistake. In fact I heard Emma Stone talking after the Oscars finished and the after party started. She stated “Moonlight” was one of the greatest movies of all time, so I can tell Emma was able to respect the movie’s victory. After all, I bet she’s pretty satisfied considering she won “Best Actress.”

Well that’s it for my thoughts on the 89th Academy Awards, and I just want to know, did you watch the Academy Awards? What did you think about it? Did you get any of your hopes or predictions met? What were your favorite moments from the show? Leave a comment! Right now, considering the fact that “Moonlight” won “Best Picture,” I want to go see it. Will I see it? That will be determined in the future, but it’s something I’m keeping in mind right now. Also as far as other movies go, I might want to see “Fist Fight.” If I do manage to see either of those movies, be sure to stay tuned for those reviews, along with other reviews aside from those, plus other random posts I might be in the mood to create. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Hey everyone, Jack Drees here! It’s that time of year, the Academy Awards show is upon us. Regardless of whether or not you watch them, you’d probably agree with me when I say that the Academy Awards happens to be the biggest award show in film. Despite the fact that I am a hardcore movie watcher and will make my best efforts watch any movie in my path no matter how good or bad, it is one of the few award shows I watch. Granted I know many other shows, but I either don’t get much advertising for them, I don’t have much awareness toward them, or I might even simply not care about them. Right now I just want to talk about the upcoming Academy Awards show on the 26th of February. By the way, when this first gets posted, the show is scheduled to start in LESS THAN 24 hours, so if you came in on this post by 8PM on the east coast or 5PM on the west coast, you have arrived before the show begins. Anyway, for this post, I’m gonna talk about my hopes for the upcoming show and also some of my predictions. I’m not gonna say all my predictions, but a select few.

To start this off, I’m gonna talk about something that is probably on the minds of many people living in the US. How political is this going to get? With the whole “liberal Hollywood” thing, several people have been somewhat mad because they feel they are having political information shoved down their throats, especially info that is anti-conservative or anti-Trump. To support my point, I’m gonna refer to the buildup to the Golden Globes this year. On Twitter, I saw a bunch of users saying that they are intending to boycott the Golden Globes because it will have jokes on Trump. At one point, #BoycottGoldenGlobes was trending on Twitter and it was on that trending list for a good portion of the day. Was there any sign of anti-Trump moments? Yes, but the way I see it, at least for the moments I recall, it was more about being informative and raising awareness of somewhat recent events as opposed to destroying him. If people like Meryl Streep planned to destroy Donald Trump, she’d probably be taking comedy lessons from Stephen Colbert. As far as future anti-Trump events go, if there are any, make sure that they are few and far between. There are a select group of people that do find this entertaining whereas others would much prefer gouging their eyes out. In all reality, I’d prefer that there would be no political correlation here, but we’ll see what happens. Do I like Trump? No. Do I need to hear jokes about him everywhere I go? No. By the way, for the record, I didn’t like too many 2016 US presidential candidates, especially the ones that survived to the very end. I digress.

Now, I bet some of you are so annoyed of hearing about politics everywhere that you’re probably just raging while I’m talking about it like when you hear it from someone else, so let’s go onto something movie related. Let’s get going with my first prediction. My first prediction is in the category of “Best Animation.” My prediction for this category is “Zootopia,” which fun fact, made my #9 spot on my top 10 best movies of 2016. Speaking of fun facts, that was only my 3rd favorite animation of that year, it is right behind “Kung Fu Panda 3” and “Kubo and the Two Strings” in terms of movies in the animation category. Despite how “Zootopia” is my prediction for this category, my desired pick for it would be “Kubo and the Two Strings.” That movie actually made my #2 spot on my top 10 best movies of 2016 for its beautiful stop motion animation, masterful sound editing, lovable story which just so happens to honor storytellers themselves, and a brilliantly chosen cast. Seriously, it’s near impossible that could you go wrong with folks like Charlize Theron (Hancock, Mad Max: Fury Road), Matthew McConaughey, and “oh myyyyy!” George Takei! Getting back to “Zootopia,” the reason why I made this my official prediction as the winner of the “Best Animation” category is based on a number of factors. This isn’t the case anymore, but during the movie’s opening weekend, it had a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics praised this film for not only having an entertaining story for kids and adults alike, but for also bringing up modern day social issues, which I actually found pretty entertaining as it is relevant.

Another one of my biggest wishes for the Oscars has to do with Casey Affleck. If you don’t follow recent films, chances are you aren’t familiar with “Manchester by the Sea.” I was honestly quite disappointed with the film because it was advertised as a tearjerker, but I found myself letting out laughs more than shedding tears, but the film still had a rather decent verdict from me (7/10) because several factors held the film from sinking in the sea (Get it?). The biggest example I can give towards an avoidance of total disaster, is Casey Affleck’s performance as the character of Lee Chandler. The timing when Affleck speaks was just squeaky clean and his body movements made it feel like I was watching a real person. The nominees for “Best Actor” all seem to be good choices (even though I haven’t seen every movie listed), but in the end, I’m rooting for Affleck.

Next up, we’re gonna talk about “Best Picture.” Considering how this may be an extremely popular and revered category, I’m gonna list the nominees right here. “Arrival,” “Fences,” “La La Land,” “Hidden Figures,” “Hacksaw Ridge,” “Moonlight,” “Manchester by the Sea,” “Lion,” and “Hell or High Water.” Now, I have not seen all of these movies. Of the ones I have seen, they are “Arrival,” “La La Land,” “Hidden Figures,” and “Manchester by the Sea.”

Out of all the movies on that particular list I’ve seen, my personal favorite is “Arrival,” which was my #4 spot on my top 10 best films of 2016. I love the movie because it just shows how essential communication and language are. The more I think about it, it makes me glad that I have the option to learn foreign languages. For the record, I’m taking Latin in school right now, it’s a very difficult subject in my opinion, but even if I was taking another language I’d still be thinking the same thing. There are aliens in this film, but this is not an alien invasion movie. Sure, aliens come down to Earth, but it’s nothing like a summer blockbuster, it has a very calm vibe as it keeps a slow and steady pace and focuses on the human characters trying to figure out whatever it is the aliens are saying and thinking, and trying to teach them their own language. Not only is this movie unique when it comes to movies featuring aliens, but it’s also important, engaging, and it’s also well shot at certain points. I’d be totally happy with this film winning “Best Picture,” however I would also be happy with another film winning. Before we get into the second film I’m rooting for, I will remind you, this is my prediction as the winner.

The film I’m referring to as my second choice, to be specific, is “La La Land.” As of now, “La La Land” is on my #10 spot on my top 10 best films of 2016. By the way, if you have seen that post, my original #10 spot was “Sausage Party,” but I’ve yet to see “La La Land” so I couldn’t judge the film yet. There are many reasons why I think this will win. This film is doing relatively well during its run in theaters, the trailers are showing it off by exposing its high ratings, by the way, it has high ratings, it’s an ode to dreamers, it’s an ode to Hollywood, it’s an ode to older films and musicals, the opening to the film was done in one continuous shot, and look at what happened at the Golden Globes. This film won SEVEN Golden Globes, which makes it the winningest film in Golden Globe history. If this film doesn’t win best picture, I predict it’ll probably rack up a bunch of other wins at the Oscars. I will say however, part of me thinks it somewhat has to do with Hollywood loving itself. Granted, “La La Land,” to me, is a work of art, but I bet some folks who work for Hollywood, or happen to live in Hollywood, or even happen to just follow the works of Hollywood like myself, could possibly have some sort of bias towards this movie. And if some people do, I can’t entirely blame them, because I will state that when it comes to “Arrival,” a small part of me feels like I have a bias towards it because I’m a sci-fi lover and the movie kind of reminds me of one of my all time favorite films, “Interstellar.” The two movies are similar in terms of pace, vibe, and the two films even happen to make you think. Also, I bet some of you might ask, why do I think “La La Land” is a work of art? I don’t want to digress too much, so I’ll give quite a few reasons, but I won’t go into a long explanation. 1: The opening scene. 2: Emma Stone’s performance. 3: Emma Stone’s character. 4: Ryan Gosling’s character. 5: It salutes old Hollywood while still feeling fresh. 6: Terrific score and numbers. 7: The movie is a gift to dreamers (including me from what I picked up). 8: The chemistry between Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling’s characters feels incredibly real. 9: Essentially says that you can make a dream a reality, but you might lose something along the way. 10: The ending.

When it comes to this year’s Academy Awards show, I’m pretty excited. I like Jimmy Kimmel and I’m glad to see him as the host, however that choice could probably be a little biased considering he has a talk show on ABC. Then again, Jimmy Fallon hosted the Golden Globes this year and he’s got a talk show on NBC, so I guess this is a trend this year. If you have a talk show on the same network an award show is on, you get to host that award show. As long as they don’t dive too far into politics, and just focus on the movies, the Oscars overall will be fine. Also, I want to know, are you watching the Oscars this year? Do you care? Are you rooting for certain movies? Do you have any predictions? Leave a comment! Also, stay tuned for my upcoming posts and movie reviews! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Hey everyone, Jack Drees here. If you haven’t been living under a rock throughout February, you’d probably already know that Super Bowl 51 recently took place. It was a big game indeed, you’ve got the Patriots, with a quarterback that everybody hates, but at the same time a lot of people love, going for his fifth Super Bowl win, and you’ve got the Falcons, trying to finally bring at least a single Super Bowl trophy back to Atlanta. After this Super Bowl, I happen to know many people who have considered this to be the greatest Super Bowl of all time, and quite possibly the greatest comeback in sports history. Also, it may bring some relief to Tom Brady (left), who despite winning Super Bowl 49 2 years ago, thanks to a surprise interception by Malcom Butler (right) which made him New England’s hero of the night, has had a tough ride getting to this Super Bowl. He was accused of using balls that weren’t properly inflated during a game, which if you want to know my thoughts on that, I believe the balls were inflated properly, and no, I’m not just saying that because I’m a fan of the Patriots. Brady also had to spend over a year going to court until finally in 2016 he received a 4 game suspension during the previous regular season. So seeing the Patriots win the Super Bowl not only made Brady and his team happy, but it also was successful revenge against Roger Goodell (commissioner of NFL). If you don’t know who Roger Goodell is, the reaction that certain Patriots fans would give when they hear his name is probably the same reaction John Oliver would give when hearing Sepp Blatter’s (former president of FIFA) name. With all that being said, Malcom Butler may as well be considered by many to be Super Bowl 49’s sneak attacker, and Tom Brady may as well be considered by many to be Super Bowl 51’s winningest winner, I am trying to come up with a good analogy, it’s really hard, forgive me. What’s next for these two? These two are gonna have movies made about them.

In case you ever cared to know, I live in New England, and I honestly don’t give a flying crap on a cracker about football. However, if there’s one team I’d force myself to root for, that team would be the New England Patriots.

If you want to call me a loser, do it all you want, I don’t care. You don’t have to like the Patriots. I just recently mentioned I don’t like football so it’s not like I’m the type of guy who goes to Buffalo Wild Wings every Sunday with his friends to watch the game, so I’m not gonna start a brawl against you. If it makes you feel better in any way, I’m wondering if these movies should even exist in the first place, and I’m willing to bet you’re wondering the same.

I mean, to me, these are interesting stories, and I bet in due time, these will be remembered and revered by a number of generations to come. But do they really need to be brought to the big screen this instant? I don’t think so. If you don’t follow football, a lot of people view the New England Patriots as the football equivalent to the New York Yankees. They just keep on winning and people hate them for it. I will say, if there were one movie that I think would relate to audiences more, it would be the Malcolm Butler movie. The problem I have with this Tom Brady movie idea is that Tom Brady at this point, is like Superman. He leads a powerful team with an iron fist with a big ego. Sure, he is a nice person from what I can imagine, but he’s incredibly well known, and not to mention super rich. If you have ever seen the movie “Cinderella Man,” the reason why that underdog story works, at least to me, is that it took place during the Great Depression. This gave me time to sympathize towards main character of the film and his family too. If you take the wealthy Tom Brady, along with his wife who also happens to make a ton of money, the story itself doesn’t really become as relatable. Malcolm Butler however, is not as rich or as well known when it comes to football. The thing although that makes me think his movie’s a dumb idea is the whole Deflategate controversy. The news about it was starting around the time of Super Bowl 49 and that probably brought in some more people who viewed the Patriots as the Empire from “Star Wars.” I will say that the idea of a Tom Brady is although worse.

I mentioned recently, Super Bowl 51 is argued amongst many people to be the greatest comeback in sports history. However to many other people, it is quite possibly considered to be a very big f*ck you. The Atlanta Falcons has never won a championship, so imagine how they must be feeling right now. A lot of people who watched the Super Bowl rooted for the underdog and quite possibly felt disappointed by the Falcons getting beaten. In fact, I might even consider this to be just like the 2016 US presidential election. A majority of people was hoping Hillary Clinton would win (look at the popular vote) while the electoral college wanted Donald Trump. I’m not gonna give my thoughts on the election, but I’ll say this, to make this even more like the 2016 election, I saw multiple tweets after the Super Bowl saying stuff like “Atlanta won the popular vote.” It just goes to show you, that despite the Patriots, along with Tom Brady himself, happening to achieve something so tremendous and rare, they still get lots of hate from hardcore football followers. I’m not saying the idea of this movie should be terminated entirely, but I am saying that this movie isn’t a good idea right now, and the idea of a Malcolm Butler film isn’t that much better. Maybe the idea could be revisited years from now, lets say if the Patriots hate stops, or when the Falcons finally win a championship, I don’t know. Only time will tell.

I do want to know however, what are your thoughts on a Malcolm Butler or Tom Brady movie related to the past two Patriots related Super Bowls? Leave a comment! Also, if you are interested, be sure to check out my review for “John Wick: Chapter 2,” I’ll have a link to the review posted for you to check out if you want to read it, and be sure to stay tuned for more reviews. Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

“JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2” REVIEW: https://scenebefore.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/john-wick-chapter-2-two-times-the-wickedness/