I needed the 2 week vacation! It was amazing, peaceful, relaxing, stress free and exactly what I needed to get my mind right for this new and beautiful year. I watched a couple movies, went to a couple of movies but mostly watched tv and caught up on tv shows episodes I had missed. There were a couple of days were all I did was watch re-runs as I did things around my house. In a nutshell that was pretty much my relaxing vacay! A round up of the movies I watched over break are below.
Excited for 2015,
L.
My Movie Grading - D-
This wasn't a good film it was very wishy washy which really annoyed me. Christian Bale in my opinion has a one track voice (meaning he can't switch between accents). He tried this various times thru out the film and none of them worked. It just got to be extremely awkward with him switch between his regular voice and the three I picked up on - British, Scottish & Old English. It was horrible - I could never tell how he would sound in the next scene. The acting was so-so and the storyline just didn't do anything for me. It was very dry and drab but did have some exciting interactions placed here and there. This particular story about Moses was just a jumbled mess. Also there was a horrible casting decision - A little British boy placed God. It was like the oddest thing I've ever seen. First off the movie is supposed to take place in Egypt - Christian Bale & Joel Eggerton are none of the sort but actually as white as can be. It seems they just covered them in bronzing powder and a little dark colored make-up but that still didn't do it for. What made this even worse was that just about every other major character was played by a white person (nothing against them but seriously - not a dark colored person was considered for any of those major roles. Secondly the original story of Moses & Ramesses seemed to focus more on their feud but this version focused far too much on an all out war. The movie had classic war scenes and lots of action which after a while - I lost interest due to the amount of constant and unnecessary fighting.. I must applaud the graphics though - wonderful visual effects were used for the plaques. All in all - I probably won't rush to purchase this on DVD especially at $16.99.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
My Movie Grading - B+
I really enjoyed this movie. It was funny, silly and entertaining. I love a film that starts off with with the narrator giving us background information and once the back story was known it just got even better. This film had a wonderful cast which made me even more interesting in seeing it. The plot keeps getting thicker and thicker and it ends almost as it started. If you haven't seen it - check it out. It's currently on HBO On-Demand (Comcast Subscribers) and also on the HBO Go app.
The Pyramid
My Movie Grading - C-
Let's see this movie wasn't bad either. The acting was probably the worst part of this film. One thing I can't stand is silly banter that the audience is suppose to believe when it wasn't delivered well - this happened far too much. It wasn't scary so much as it was predictable as most of these found footage films are. It starts off a little slow and then begins to pick up with an interesting but again predictable ending. The plot follows - father & daughter archaeologists with a team (camera man, friend & host) into this new and never before seen pyramid that has just been discovered. Of course something goes missing and they all crowd into this never explored pyramid to find it and also do research, something starts attacking them - and needless to say things don't go well and almost everyone ends up dead. I won't spoil it but the mysterious creature at the end - I didn't see coming (though on hindsight I should have). I believe that it is now out of theaters but check it out on On-Demand or Redbox before you purchase - wouldn't want you to be disappointed.
The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death
My Movie Grading - C-
I have a serious thing about little kids and animals. For one - I always get this eerie sense that they can see or feel things (angels, demons, ghost, goblins) that adult's have either tuned out or forgotten about. This was one of those films that reminded me of this thought - a little boy who has lost his family in a war and has decided to stop speaking entirely is possessed and tormented by the Woman in Black. This time unlike the first she seems even more hateful as she starts to kill already orphaned kids one by one ( as if they didn't already have it bad). If you've seen the first one you know she kills "Harry Potter" (just kidding) Daniel Radcliffe's character and his son by a on-coming train and killed others kids in the town closest to her home. Of course the main character is a do-gooder young woman who seems tortured by her own demons but always displaces those thoughts with a smile and kindness until she starts to see things especially the words "You let him go": - we don't get an explanation for a while but eventually it's revealed she had a son that was taken away from her as she was too young to care for him and after a long search she decided it was best and let him go. One thing I could never figure out - even with the first film was "Why is she killing everyone" if she was mainly angry at her sister Alice for keeping her away from her son and then angry about his death - why kill anyone who had nothing to do with this. I walked away from this film feeling the exact same. A lot of thoughtless deaths but again no real explanation as to why.