
2 1/2 stars
|
|
Jim Bennett is a risk taker. Both an English professor and a high-stakes gambler, Bennett bets it all when he borrows from a gangster and offers his own life as collateral. Always one step ahead, Bennett pits his creditor against the operator of a gambling ring and leaves his dysfunctional relationship with his wealthy mother in his wake. He plays both sides, immersing himself in an illicit, underground world while garnering the attention of Frank, a loan shark with a paternal interest in Bennett's future. As his relationship with a student deepens, Bennett must take the ultimate risk for a second chance... ![]() This movie was okay. Jessica Lange was really good playing Jim Bennet's mother. She was my favorite in this movie. I also liked Amy, Frank, Dexter, and Lamar. Jim gambles himself into debt where he has to pay back everyone he owes within a certain amount of days. Who puts themselves into this kind of problem? I think gambling is serious and you should get help if you have a gambling problem. Shouldn't a professor be fired for having a relationship with a student? I didn't think that was okay at all. A teacher should never have a relationship with a student. This movie made me feel bad for Jim. He has a gambling problem and it causes so many problems in his life and hurts his mother. I did think Frank was funny and cared about Jim even though he said he'd kill Jim if he didn't pay him back on time. 2 1/2 stars
0 Comments
Larry spans the globe, uniting favorite and new characters while embarking on an epic quest to save the magic before it is gone forever. ![]() I love these movies so much. All of them have been funny, but this one is the best! My favorite characters were Jed. Octavius, Rex, Eastern Island Head, Teddy, Sacagawea, and Tilly. My top favorite though is Dexter. He's an amazing and you gotta love that monkey! I also like Larry. I'm a little disappointed that Rex wasn't in it that much. I'm really sad this is the last one. These movies are fun and good for family friendly movie time. I enjoy watching Night at the Museum. I like to picture what it would be like if all this happened in real life. Wouldn't it be fun to play fetch with a dinosaur? Feeding gum to an Eastern Island head would be great. It's easy to imagine talking to Egyptian Pharaohs. This movie makes me want to ask a real museum night guard if this really happens. These movies made going to museums fun. I think you should see this movie. I will miss Robin Williams playing Teddy Roosevelt. He was the character that held everyone together. Rest in Peace Robin Williams. 5 stars Into the Woods is a modern twist on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tales in a musical format that follows the classic tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel-all tied together by an original story involving a baker and his wife, their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch who has put a curse on them. ![]() This was an amazing movie! Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick, and Lilla Crawford were fantastic. I have never heard Meryl Streep sing before, but she has an incredible voice. My favorite song was Agony with Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen. It was really funny. The movie had many funny parts in it. Johnny Depp was the perfect wolf! He played the character so well it was creepy. He's good in everything, but he was perfect as the wolf. I found it funny that Lucy Punch got the part of the evil step sister because that was the part she played in Ella Enchanted, and she was great both times. I liked that her name was Lucinda because that was the name of Ella's fairy godmother. Into the Woods is really worth seeing. I haven't seen it on Broadway, but did see the play once at Rowan University. I want to see it on Broadway. My favorite characters were Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, the witch, the baker, and the baker's wife. My least favorite were the giants because their voices were hard to understand and they were so big and blurry. You couldn't really see the girl giant's face until Jack was in a tree throwing rocks at her. You should see this movie. 5 stars Academy Award® nominee Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) stars as Annie, a young, happy foster kid who's also tough enough to make her way on the streets of New York in 2014. Originally left by her parents as a baby with the promise that they'd be back for her someday, it's been a hard knock life ever since with her mean foster mom Miss Hannigan (Cameron Diaz). But everything's about to change when the hard-nosed tycoon and New York mayoral candidate Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) - advised by his brilliant VP, Grace (Rose Byrne) and his shrewd and scheming campaign advisor, Guy (Bobby Cannavale) - makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and takes her in. Stacks believes he's her guardian angel, but Annie's self-assured nature and bright, sun-will-come-out-tomorrow outlook on life just might mean it's the other way around. ![]() The movie was better than I thought it would be even though the story was changed. I liked how they tied the old movie into the new movie. Although he was nothing like Daddy Warbucks, I really liked Mr. Stacks. Jamie Foxx did a really good job with his character. Hannigan was different, but still the same. She was mean but also deep down had a good heart. Deep down, but it was there. I don't think Cameron Diaz was very good for this part. She seemed kinda awkward. Annie was great! She still had the half locket and was fun and sassy. I loved her voice and she seemed like a really cool person to know. Sandy was cuter than ever! I loved the new Sandy! I also really liked this group of foster kids. One of my favorite parts of the new story is how many people around the city cared about Annie. It was nice. I really enjoyed the modern music, and loved when Stacks said a line from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. I loved the way they updated the songs and added a fresh beat to them. The movie had a lot of funny references and moments in it. I thought it was cool when they used modern technology to find Annie after they found out those people weren't her real parents. 4 stars A young Peruvian bear with a passion for all things British travels to London in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone at Paddington Station, he begins to realize that city life is not all he had imagined - until he meets the kindly Brown family, who read the label around his neck ('Please look after this bear. Thank you.') and offer him a temporary haven. It looks as though his luck has changed until this rarest of bears catches the eye of a museum taxidermist. ![]() I thought it was a really cute movie. Paddington lived in a beautiful giant beehive in the darkest part of Peru with his aunt and uncle. They had a beautiful life in Peru until something happened, and Paddington was sent on an adventure to London. He meets a strange family who agreed to help him find a home. Paddington is an unusual but funny bear who is easy to fall in love with. Throughout the movie he learns how life in London is different than his old life, in a funny way. There are a few sad and scary parts, but it makes you love Paddington even more! I believe everyone needs a beary best friend, even if it's not Paddington. Maymay was very fortunate to take part in an interview with Kevin Macdonald, the director of Black Sea. He is extremely funny and very generous with his time. It was a true pleasure to speak with him. Kevin Macdonald was born on October 28, 1967 in Glasgow, Scotland. He is a director and producer, known for The Last King of Scotland (2006), State of Play (2009) and Touching the Void (2003). What drew you to the script?
Well, I had the idea long before the script. In 2000, there was a Russian Na vy Sub, the Kursk, that had an accident. The explosion and sinking of the submarine, there were people trapped and died because the government was more concerned about keeping its secrets than saving the sailors. All I could think was how horrifying...and it could be a movie. I wanted to make a movie without the military, more like Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I gave all my ideas to the writer, Dennis Kelly. You did much of the filming on an actual submarine. Are you claustrophobic? No, I'm not claustrophobic, but I've also never been under deep sea. The submarine is kind of like a spaceship. There is something both terrifying and amazing. The sub we used had a crew of 85 and only 12 bunks. There were planks all over for them to sleep. It's very tight quarters. There is also a smell. Diesel. There is also the smell of everyone. Water is used for the diesel engines first, crew second. But the over powering smell of diesel is everywhere. That smell just sticks with you. Jude Law spent five days on a nuclear submarine. He slept in the bunks with everyone, and was most surprised by the exercise bike right next to the missiles. Are you planning a sequel? (laughed for a minute) No...but, I did have a thought of Jude Law and a shark... What type of movie is this? It's not a typical submarine movie. This is sort of a caper movie where the caper doesn't come off. There is also the horror of being stuck at the bottom of the ocean. Is there anyone in the cast you feel we should keep our eye on? Obviously Jude Law is a huge actor, but we get to see something new. He becomes a character actor and you see him like never before. No one in this cast was fussy or annoying. This was a cast of amazing characters who were a real joy. The Russian actors are well known actors in Russia. They don't typically do international films because they hate being typecast as the Russian bad guy. When they read the script and saw the Brits were equally bad, they agreed. It is true that Russians like their vodka. Where was the movie filmed? Pinewood Studios. We did most of the film at Pinewood using a tank 8 meters deep. We lowered some of the set into the tank. We did use some CGI, but also used some old ways. Do you know how you get the water to look murky with seaweed? Broccoli. We floated cut up broccoli in the tank. I don't know why it works, but it does. We also spent six weeks on the sub. Two weeks were shot underwater. In all, about 1/3 of the movie was shot on the sub. Is there any historical significance, or is the movie purely fictional? Yes. Both. Shortly before World War II broke out, enemies Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. Hitler forced the pact, and then attacked anyway. We took what was true and made it fiction. Why did you make Jude Law Scottish? Well, I'm Scottish. (we all laughed for a moment) I wanted to make him someone completely different, to become someone else. We changed his appearance, he lowered his voice, and we researched different Scottish dialects. We settled on a rare, unusual accent. Did you run into any issues while filming? Yes. The Crimea crisis. Putin invaded, made things a bit dangerous. Studio wouldn't allow us to continue getting the shots we wanted due to safety issues. A chronicle of one woman's 1,100-mile solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent catastrophe. ![]() I enjoyed this movie very much. I really thought Reese Witherspoon did an amazing job. She was very believable. I did not like the beginning of the movie. That was really gross. I liked that almost everyone she met on the trail helped her and were nice. She did meet some creepy people, but mostly nice. I also liked that she thought about her family to keep going. It was really cool that her family and friends were sending her boxes of supplies on the way. I felt it was a dangerous journey but she learned a lot about herself on it and that is pretty cool. She seemed like a brave woman. 4 1/2 stars In order to make good with his former employers, a submarine captain takes a job with a shadowy backer to search the depths of the Black Sea for a submarine rumored to be loaded with gold. ![]() It was a really well done submarine movie. I liked how Jude Law's character, Captain Robinson, was very fatherly towards Tobin, and was kind and encouraging to him. When there was so much anger, he was protective of Tobin. I liked that. I didn't like that the only American in the whole movie was really mean. I did think someone was going to get eaten by a shark, but there wasn't a shark in the movie. I learned a lot about submarines, and found it interesting. I never knew that when the lights on a submarine explode it can cause a fire. Submarines look more dangerous than a normal boat. I liked that they made Jude Law Scottish instead of British. I liked his accent. It was cool. I also thought that submarines had windows in the front so you could see all the fishies and other cool creatures in the ocean. 4 stars Maymay had the opportunity to interview actor/writer/director Alonzo Jones about his awarding winning short film, Eli's Liquor Store. Mr. Jones was extremely generous with his time, and his consideration and kindness towards Maymay is greatly appreciated. Here is the interview: 1.) What are you hoping people will get out of watching your film? We hoped that people would get an understanding that, even though sometimes they don't stand out, problems do exist; i.e. stereotypes, misconceptions, etc. and the first step in avoiding conflicts such as what we're dealing with right now, is taking preventative measures. 2.) How did you come up with the story for Eli's Liquor Store? Well, At the time we, me and my co-writer/co-director Arnold Chun, were primarily working as actors. I'm black and my co-writer/co-directer is Korean and we felt that the roles that were available to us were the stereotypical black and Asian roles, so we decided to start writing materials that we would prefer to act in. In the midst of working on an action/comedy script we began to talk and realized A LOT of similarities and differences in our races. That sparked conversations on things we dealt with like and subtle and blatant racisms. So we decided to deal with the stereotype of Asian's opening liquor stores in the 'hood' and flip it, where an African-American opens a liquor store in Korea-Town L.A. We then started jotting down some scenarios and Eli's Liquor Store was born. 3.) Did you have a real life experience with this situation in the film? All of the scenarios in this film are based off of things that we have witnessed or been a part of. 4.) Your movie showed me that no matter what you do or where you go there will always be ungrateful people.Was that the message you were trying to send? We weren't trying to say that people are "ungrateful". Basically, those situations were a metaphor for ALL bad situations and attitudes. The message that we were trying to convey was that no matter how hopeless things feel, you HAVE to acknowledge and deal with these situations and attitudes in a positive way. That is the ONLY way to achieve the change that we all want. 5.) With everything that has been going on in the news do you think civil rights has taken a step backwards? I believe its taken a hit, but I'm hopeful that things will get better. Its VERY unfortunate that people have to lose their lives before these issues are put in the news. And at the risk of sounding too political, PEOPLE of ALL colors are victimized, but only a select few are publicized. 6.) Is there anything you would like to share or add that I didn't ask about? Basically, we would like to simple like to emphasis the last line in the movie.. " We all need to wake up.. I believe people can change.. and I hope for all our sakes, that it happens soon." Eli's Liquor Store is set in Koreatown circa 1999. It's the story of Elijah Gooden, a 43-year-old African-American man from Atlanta, Georgia. With a degree from Georgia Tech University, he worked in corporate America before moving his family to Los Angeles to start his own business. He and his family experience culture shock and adversity as they struggle to build their livelihood in an area dominated by Asian-American business owners. It is worlds apart from what he knew in Atlanta, and despite the varying degrees of suspicion, contempt, resentment and prejudice that he faces, Gooden makes a challenge to overlook racial lines and focuses on the humanity of every person in hopes of building better relationships.
You can watch the film here: http://vimeo.com/7532820 Bilbo and Company are forced to engage in a war against an array of combatants and keep the terrifying Smaug from acquiring a kingdom of treasure and obliterating all of Middle-Earth. ![]() I liked this movie. I liked it a lot. I liked the action in it. I didn't think the dragon was gonna die that fast. I only counted four armies though. The men, the elves, the dwarfs, and the orcs. Where was the fifth army? I'm confused. I still think Gandalf looks too much like Dumbledore. I like Tauriel, Legolas, Bilbo, and Kili the best. Thorin was just to selfish. I got to say those elves got some skills. Serious skills. The orcs are ugly and creepy looking. I don't like them. Why is everyone after that gold anyway? Gold doesn't make anything better. Thorin said he was king under the mountain in the last movie didn't he? Wouldn't it be his decision to give it away if he chose? The dragon has a real deep creepy voice. Benedict did a good job with making that dragon scary. I am pretty sure that dragons don't talk though. I don't know for sure, they might. I just don't think they do. I wish there could be more adventures. 5 stars |
About Maymay...Movie reviews from a special autistic girl and her Berry best friend. Archives
August 2018
LinksHere are other sites you should check out! They are supporting Maymay and share her reviews. |