The Girl On The Train

Well this movie seems to revel in misery and tragedy and scandal, over and over and over again. That's the tone of the movie, and it made me feel miserable watching it. There's a certain point that showing us continuous scenes of women in sad situations, that it becomes simple eye rolling melodrama. Yes there is a crime thriller whodunnit aspect to the story as well, and it's arguably one of the main things about the movie that's actually interesting. However the melodramatic portions got a little unbearable for me. 

The three main female leads were fine in their roles I suppose, but it's Emily Blunt's take on a broken down alcoholic that's going to get your attention. At times it feels like she's overdoing her acting a bit that it starts feeling over the top, but out of all the characters she's the one I felt the most for by the end of the movie. So if you're going to see this movie, watch it for Emily Blunt. 

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The Birth Of A Nation (2016)

I'll be completely honest by saying this... I was already prepared to not like this movie, based purely on the controversial past of the film maker Nate Parker, not to mention the already controversial history of the primary character of Nat Turner. With that said, I thought this film has some positive merits in several respects, but it also equally has flaws that is common for these types of films. 

As a historical biopic, the story as told here seemed like it was just going through a check list of plot points. Usually character development suffers because of that, and this is no exception. Most of the characters end up just being rather one-note or just caricatures, although there are some effort to bring additional dimensions for a few of them.

The main aspect of the story that I really did enjoy however, is how they integrated the topic about Religious interpretations. There's a conversational exchange with two characters trying to one up each other via Bible verses that I found to be rather on point. 

There are some visually emotionally powerful scenes that are meant to get a reaction out of me, and some of those scenes can be hard to watch. However, it's nothing you haven't seen in other slavery movies either. So on that note, I think you're just better off watching "12 Years A Slave" again. 

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Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

There's a lot of young-adult novels turned movies around, and this one might just attract the Harry Potter and the X-Men crowd. Interesting characters with special abilities, scary looking villains, and a time travel element, makes this worth checking out. The lesson learned from the story is about adventure and wonder, and I believe it succeeds in that regard. Definitely made me want to read the books it's based off on now. 

Although it's directed by Tim Burton, it actually didn't feel like a Tim Burton movie, and that's either a compliment or a complaint for some people. I like a lot of the ideas that the story plays around with, but there are still some problems and plot conveniences that I had issues with. Despite some complaints, I completely bought into the premise, had fun watching it, and now want more! 

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Deepwater Horizon

Although this movie is inspired by true events, it has the unfortunate sense of still feeling like a generic and predictable disaster movie. You've got the typical elements here, from blue-collar workers vs upper-management, safety procedures vs financial interests, and of course the heroism of individuals when faced against catastrophe.

There are tons of characters here, but besides Mark Wahlberg's role, everybody else is mostly relegated to character development via small talk. The real reason to see this movie is to experience the drama of this oil rig disaster, and to be in awe of the spectacle of feeling like you're watching the event take place in real time. As a disaster film, it's fine for what it is, but I just wished that it could have done more. 

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Train To Busan

As far as zombie movies are concerned, this is arguably one of the better ones made. However, there are still logical flaws coming from both the human characters and the zombies themselves. Oh, I should specify that these are your "infected" humans, which also means that these are zombies that can run. Despite the basic problems and issues that will show up when watching this movie, I have to admit to say that the entertainment factor trumps all that. 

As with many zombie themed apocalyptic stories, the main social commentary for this movie, are about what people will do when they are put in these kinds of extreme situations. Do you just save yourself or do you try and save others? Standard stuff right? What might catch people off guard when watching this movie, is that there are some very effective emotional scenes befitting to a Korean Drama. Fantastic movie! 

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Storks

As cute and silly and energetic as this movie is, I suppose my biggest disappointment was that as an adult watching this kid's animated film, I just didn't find it that funny. I was generally bored throughout most of the setup and the general first 30 minutes of this movie. It started picking up once the wolf pack was introduced, and I began to appreciate the sit-com that is "the stork, the orphan teenage girl, and the baby." I liked some of the self-aware humor that is littered throughout, and there are a few genuinely entertaining scenes, but I just thought this movie was more miss than hit. I did appreciate the thematic message of the story at least. 

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White Girl

I'll be upfront and say that this movie has a lot of drugs, sex, and partying. Yes, this is another one of those cautionary tales about young adults that regularly live in a supposedly romanticized edgy lifestyle filled with drugs, sex, and partying. Prepare to be hit over the head continuously with scenes of people doing drugs, having sex, and partying. As these kinds of stories goes, with that living on the edge high, there soon comes the downward spiral. 

Kudos to Morgan Saylor for her ferocious performance of Leah. She has that combination of naive innocence mixed with some wild naughtiness. Watching the experiences she goes through in this movie might not be for everybody though, but it's supposedly somewhat based on real life. Like I said earlier, this is after all a cautionary tale. Did I mention that there's a lot of drugs, sex, and partying? 

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The Magnificent 7

If you're looking for a GREAT movie, this is not it. This has a very simple plot, and the story is something you've already seen before. The characters are mostly one-dimensional without much development. Plus you can also fault it for being a remake of a remake. With that said, if you're looking for a crowd-pleasing FUN popcorn movie, then this may just be it for you.

The familiarity of the premise actually felt pleasantly welcome, and shows us many favorite Western movie story tropes. The characters may not be deep, but it was easy to feel attached to them, and I enjoyed their chemistry together. Each one of the seven brought something unique to the group, and I was very much entertained by each one of them. From the duels, shoot-outs, stand offs, Denzel being Denzel, and Chris Pratt being Chris Pratt, there's a lot to like about this movie. It'll remind you as to why the Western film genre were really popular back in the day. 

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Blair Witch

If you didn't know this was a sequel, you would think it was suppose to be a remake of "The Blair Witch Project." The plot progression is almost exactly the same, but just with more content. Now even though I can guess where the story is going, and the characters still do some stupid things, this movie was somehow still able to create incredible tension and terror. Even though the scares are generally predictable, they were still pretty effective, and succeeded in keeping my heart pounding fast. It was easy to feel the helplessness of the characters, and that's the key of a good horror movie experience, despite the familiarity. 

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Snowden

Being that this movie is a historical biography and a dramatic recreation of true events, it carries the typical flaw of having to convince the audience to connect with a story filled with time jumps, and plot points that are only briefly focused on. With that said, this movie was surprisingly pretty straight forward, with an undeniably interesting subject matter. It helps that it was easy to get invested with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Snowden, the moral dilemma that he found himself in, and his relationship with Shailene Woodley's character. Although Director Oliver Stone made this compelling story easily digestible for general audiences, people might be better off just watching an actual documentary about Edward Snowden. 

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