A Million ways to die in the West Starting and Ending with a Bang

A Million ways to die in the West was shown to me by my boyfriend. I was against it at first because the previews made it look like it would be full of the stupid comedy that I really don’t like, but he still got me to watch it. It turns out that it was a good thing I watched it because it turned out to be a fairly good movie. The first time I watched it I laughed so hard. This movie has nonstop comedy, but it does get pretty inappropriate at times. Still it’s a good movie to watch for a laugh.

            Albert, Seth MacFarlane, is just trying to survive in the west. All that changes, though, when a new mysterious woman comes to town. Now the problems of the west seem to be fading away as he begins to fall for this new girl. But all that changes when Clinch, Liam Neeson, comes to town and has a serious bone to pick with Albert.

            I’ve seen this movie several times since my first time experiencing it and the one thing I can say about that is that it does not get funnier with every viewing. Actually it seems the reverse is true. The more this movie is watched the more boring it seems to get. It just doesn’t stand up to a prolonged time of watching. The movie starts with some pointless narration that is just there to get some cheap laughs. Really the movie could have started just where the narration ends and you never would know that there was something that was supposed to go before it. There’s no story lost is all I’m saying. But after the narration comes the first gun fight and it pulls you in to think that there is going to be a lot of action in this movie. But really this movie is like fighting a war. There are long periods of nothing, boredom, dotted with short periods of excitement. The only thing that keeps you in your seat is waiting to see where the next laugh will come from. Another problem with this movie is that it is supposed to take place in the old west and this is pointed out a lot throughout the movie. There are jokes made about how old people are living to be at that time and jokes about the cloths people wear and yet the characters all seem to have a working knowledge of things that weren’t discovered till after their time. Sure these make for funny moments in the movie, but it kind of takes you out of the movie in that instant thinking, “Should they know what that is right now?” As the title of the movie sort of suggests there is a lot of death to be seen while watching this film, however I wouldn’t say that they even come close to pointing out or showing a million ways to die. I know the title is what draws people in and it probably wouldn’t have been so popular if it was called 100 ways to die in the West, but hearing that big number and then watching the movie and hearing only maybe fifty ways to die and then seeing about five or so others it just kind of seems like they let a kid name the movie. Seth MacFarlane wrote, directed, and stared in this film. This seems to be a very common thing for the people of Hollywood to be doing these days. Normally, though, when it happens the movie is awful in one way or another. But this one seemed to actually turn out to be fairly good. The story was fairly original and the movie seemed to be put together rather well. There were no forced lines or awkward moments that tend to come with movies that are written and directed by the lead star. So I would like to say congrats on that little thing that is really not that little. So anyway the verdict on this one is to rent it and remember when you decide to sit down and watch it that there is a fair amount of death to be seen so maybe don’t let the kids sit in on it.

Why don't you see how many ways you can count to die in the west by watching this preview.

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A Word on Reviews and my Process

Movie reviews are a hard thing to sell. People always read them thinking that this is just what one person thinks so why should I care what this person is saying? The thing is though there is a lot more than that that goes into a review. Everyone that is following me and coming to my page may have noticed that recently I reviewed the movie Tron. When I did this review I said that I personally did not like this movie but when you read the review I said pretty much only good things about it and I said that people should watch the movie. This means that when I wrote the review what I thought of the movie didn't come into play.I look at how the film was shot or how the script felt. I also like to look at was it an original story. But that is just extra details. What I'm trying to get at is why you should listen to reviews that are written by random people like me. Me personally I have watched over 1,000 movies so far in my life and I'm just counting that by the number of movies in my collection. They say once you've done something 100 times that makes you an expert at that thing, so since I'm an expert at watching movies I figured I'd work on my 100 reviews so I could be an expert at that too.

My personal method for writing a review is some what simple. No matter how many times I've seen the movie I always watch it once the week of the review and one more time all the way through right before I write the review. Then I even have the movie cued up in case I need to refresh my mind on a certain part of the movie. At this point I sit down with my computer and begin to type. The first thing I have to come up with is a clever and catchy title that will catch peoples attention. Next for the first paragraph I have to figure out what my biased opinion of the movie was. After that is figuring out a way to summarize an entire movie in one small paragraph. Finally, the hardest and longest part is keeping my personal feelings out of the writing of the whole review of the movie. The whole process takes anywhere from three to five hours and that doesn't include the time of me watching the movie earlier in the week.

The whole process sounds easy but the real challenge is keeping your feelings out of the review.

The Voices Giving a voice to Schizophrenia

                The Voices was a movie I decided to watch for two simple reasons. The first being that Ryan Reynolds was in it and the second reason was that it is a movie about mental illness and I like to see how accurate they are about the illness they are showing. I got a kick out of this movie. It made me laugh and at the same time it made me cringe. I’d like to say that everyone would love to see this but I know that that is far from the truth.

                Jerry, Ryan Reynolds, is just your average factory worker. He goes to the company picnic. He falls for the pretty girl in the office. He gets yelled at by his cat when he goes home at night. His dog keeps telling him not to listen to the cat. He even kills the pretty girl and keeps her head in his fridge……..Hmmm………wait a minute…………..Nope I guess Jerry isn’t just your average factory worker.

                The Voices is a movie about schizophrenia and while it does show a pretty extreme side of it it does seem that they did their homework. Most people hear schizophrenia and they think of a person with multiple personalities, but I’ve got a little secret for the world, multiple personality disorder is actually a disorder all its own. Schizophrenia is noted by a person hearing disembodied voices, hearing other people’s thoughts, or even the person can see things that are not really there. This movie covers these symptoms and more that are for more extreme cases. The thing that the writer, Michael R. Perry, did not look into was the medication. All anti psychotics take at least 5 days to get into the system, so this means that when Jerry takes the pills and goes to sleep for a couple hours he shouldn’t have noticed such a drastic change in his world. But I guess if we would have had to wait for 5 whole days before we saw the change it wouldn’t have been as jarring of an experience. The acting in this movie was really up there in skill. They took Ryan Reynolds, a confident person, and had him play a timid twitchy man. He did it amazingly. It was nothing like in Southland Tales when The Rock had to play a scared, nervous guy and all he would do is twiddle his fingers together and blink a lot. Ryan Reynolds actually came across as a normal guy with a problem. Then there was Anna Kendrick who also had the awkward role. She had always been shown as the leading lady, but in this movie she isn’t even the first pick for Jerry. The movie also had a different way of doing its music. The songs that Jerry hears and sings are just about his mood. There’s the happy song and the crying song, they simply sing about how Jerry feels at that particular moment in the movie. This movie is described as a dark comedy, but I would have to argue that it is a bit darker than it is comedic. There are definitely moments that make you laugh in this movie but there are far more that make you cringe and want to look away or plug your ears. It’s still a decent movie to watch and it can give you a look into what it is like to live with schizophrenia. It of course is not a movie for the faint of heart but if you have the stomach for it you should definitely check it out.

Are the voices in your head telling you anything about this movie? Well maybe you should give them a little more information before you make your decision about this movie. So here watch the trailer.

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How Did You Find Me

So here I sit at my computer trying to Google my own blog. Funny thing though, I can't seem to find it that way. However, when I look at the stats for my page I see that some of you have found me through Google. So the question I have is what are you guys typing into the Google search bar that I'm not to come across my page? Please leave a comment below to let me know what key words you are using to find me.

Identity making you Question your Own

                Identity is a movie that was introduced to me by my boyfriend. He likes to show me all these really great off the wall movies that somehow made it past me as I gathered my collection of over 1,000 movies and tv shows. This was really an interesting movie to me, but it is sadly one of those movies that you are only completely enthralled with the first time you see it. After the first time the surprise is gone and from the very beginning you know the surprise at the end, but in my book movies like this can be fun if you watch it a second time and see if you can pick up hints that you missed the first time. My opinion is that it is a real puzzler that everyone should try to puzzle through at least once.

                One dark and rainy night 10 strangers find themselves with no choice but to stay the night at an old motel in the middle of nowhere. The worst thing that people are worrying about at this motel is cockroaches and mice but what they should be worried about is how they will make it through the night. As the guests begin to die one by one will they be able to stop the killer before there is no one left?

                When my boyfriend told me about Identity it sounded like any other slasher film that Hollywood had made. But I was proven wrong as I sat watching this original idea come across the screen. I can’t say exactly what makes it original without completely ruining the movie for anyone who hasn’t seen it but let me just say that the real story of this movie is quite the surprise. Michael Cooney, the writer, definitely knew what he was doing when he wrote this gem of a movie. However, I do have to nitpick that some of the characters were very much clichés and it seemed that he could have used a little more imagination while outlining these people. I mean if I had a dime for every movie with an actor playing a washed up actor who spends all their time on screen trying to show that they are still important and deserve to be treated as such then I would have enough money to at least buy a half way decent car. The colors of this movie were almost completely the same through the whole thing, however they were not exactly the same. If you pay enough attention you will notice that at parts of the film a little more color is added to the pallet. But for the most part, since the movie takes place at night, the color pallet is very dark and the colors are muted. Of course with that said you should know that the blood tends to be the brightest color (even though sometimes it is too bright and looks as fake as it really is). The director, James Mangold, seemed to really want the audience to see the blood and be drawn into the horrible deaths of the people. Before I end this review I would like to say that the boy who played Timmy York, Bret Loehr, did an amazing job. Hollywood tends to go for the child actors that look good when filmed but not when acting, but Bret had it all. He was very convincing in his role and it almost made me worry that maybe this role might have screwed with his head a bit but he seems to have moved on nicely in his career. I almost forget to mention the great use of a poem that is apparently very popular to use in movies. In Identity they quote lines from the poem Antigonish (I met a man who wasn’t there). It’s a haunting poem and it really added something to the spooky level of the movie, it sort of makes your skin crawl as the characters say it throughout the movie. Okay, now I must stop talking about Identity before I give away the best parts. The end result is that this movie may not be for those with a weak stomach and it is definitely not a family film but it is a movie that you should see at least once. So mull it over and then go rent Identity and enjoy trying to figure out the movie before the movie shows you what you were missing.

Questioning your identity a bit? Maybe if you watch this trailer you'll have a better grasp on things.

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Tron User Friendly Since 1982

            Today I look to the past. The days before everyone and their brother had a cell phone. I look to a movie that is as old as the word “internet”. I’ve been blocked lately on what I wanted to review so I took some suggestions and the one I settled on wasn’t even one that was directly suggested. I was told by someone very close that I should review the latest installment of Tron. However, after this person suggested it they said, “Actually that won’t work because you haven’t seen the original and you won’t fully appreciate the latest one and how well they did with it.” Well I took that advice and found the original so I could watch it and then I planned to do this review on Tron: Legacy, but since I just watched a fairly well known classic I thought, “Why not review the one you just watched stupid.” So my feel personally for the movie is that I am really not much of a fan of it. Its main strike in my book is that it is so much a sci-fi film. That is just one genre that I could never get into. There was too much technical talk that made no sense to me and with the age of the film the computer lingo made even less sense because it’s so out dated. But, alas, I will keep those feelings to myself as I move on to the rest of the review.

            Hacker Flynn, Jeff Bridges, thinks that he is in a dream when suddenly he finds himself in a digital world surrounded by people calling themselves programs and speaking almost religiously about people outside their world known as “users”. All Flynn ever wanted was his due credit for some video games he made, but now he must fight for his life and the life of all the programs if he ever wants to get back to the real world where he belongs. But have no fear because he will have help in the form of a security program by the name of Tron, Bruce Boxleitner.

            This is an interesting and original concept for a film for the time that it came out and actually it is still a fairly original movie for today. The idea that a person can get sent into a computer and meet programs as if they were real people is just not something you hear a lot about.   It was actually pretty funny to hear the programs talk about what they are meant to do in the system and see the delight on their face as they tell others what they do for their users. It’s interesting to see this side of a computer too because it probably made a few people think twice before deleting an old program after watching this movie. Really probably one of the best things this movie did for people is that it made them think after they left the theater. You always have to remember that in every work of fiction it is still based on some truth. The question with Tron would be, how much truth is hidden in this old 1980s sci-fi film? Then I would like to compliment this film on some pretty cool special effects. Just about the whole film takes place in a digital world and, while yes you can tell as you’re watching it that this is a very old movie, you see the creativeness in the machines and creatures of that world. There are no strings to be seen helping the disc fly through the air and actually there is like a reverse Wizard of OZ effect in this movie. Just think about it for a minute. In the real world Flynn and everything else is in perfect color, but then he goes to the digital world and it’s different. The only color on the people there is in the lines of the outfit they are wearing. Everybody’s face is in black and white. There are even very few colors at all in the computer world. There’s blue, red, yellow/gold, and I was going to list one more but it would seem that there are no more except for black and white (and if you ask any student of art those are not colors they are shades). Also it would seem that in 1982 when Tron was released that people had more of a sense of humor about religion. They flat out say pretty early in the movie when one of the programs mentions his user something along the lines of “Oh boy another religious one”. Come on, even in Tron: Legacy they couldn’t get away with a joke like that. Then there is basically a short religious ceremony towards the end that just seemed to slip past the radar of all the people with outrageous opinions about everything. On a down side though, the movie felt a bit slow at times. It falls into the action and adventure genres but I just feel that some of the action was really not all that action packed. It felt at times like The Lord of the Rings trilogy. By this I mean that there was someone that needed to get from one place to another that is a fair distance away so the writer, Steven Lisberger, created hardships for that character to make the journey more exciting. This works for some movies where the whole movie is not just the journey, but for The Lord of the Rings and Tron it just seemed like the writer could have made the journey a bit easier so it wasn’t 90% of the movie and maybe added some more things before and after the journey so we, the viewers, could see some good old fashioned character development. In all reality there isn’t really an obvious lesson that I noticed in this film. I mean everyone started and ended exactly as they were. There just really doesn’t seem to be much of a character arch in this movie. So in closing I would say that you should probably look around and find this movie if you can if only to see some pretty cool connections between the original and Tron: Legacy.

Ready to join the fight between Tron and the Master Control Program, no? What do you mean you can't digitize yourself into your computer? Well then I guess you'll have to watch the trailer and see how Flynn did it.

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                                                                  END OF LINE.

Idiocracy how much Stupider Could Mike Judge Get

            If you are reading this then you are probably noticing that it has been far more than a week since my last post. All I can say is sorry, life happened and I was unable to make new posts. Any way let’s get to the movie at hand. Idiocracy is sort of a well-kept secret. Not many people have heard of it and I was included in there until last year when I was forced to watch it by my boyfriend. But, even though I didn’t want to watch it at first I ended up loving the film, it’s funny and has a great message to it.

            Joe Bauers, Luke Wilson, is the most average soldier in this man’s Army, because of this he is selected for a top secret project. He and Rita, Maya Rudolph, are to be put in a state of stasis for one year. However, shortly after their stasis begins the project gets scrapped and they are forgotten. It’s not until 500 years later that Joe and Rita wake up and the world they wake up to is in dire need of saving.

            I bet that from the title of this review you think that I have nothing but bad things to say about this movie, but you could not be more wrong. I call the director, Mike Judge, stupid because of how he dealt with the release of this film. While Judge was making the film he did test screenings, like all directors do, but where he expected laughs he got angry looks and bad reviews. This scared Judge so he stopped advertising the film’s release and gave it a limited release in only about 6 cities, dodging the major cities like New York. However, in the cities he did release the critics that watched the film and reviewed it gave it great reviews. Very few critics had a bad word to say about Idiocracy. But that is neither here nor there because all that has nothing to do with the movie, it is all about the choices of the director. So on to the movie. Idiocracy starts off with a nice epic sound that makes you stop fidgeting and take notice that the movie has begun. Then after the epic sound they hit you with a good laugh and the laughs just don’t stop. I can’t say they’re not cheap laughs but I don’t laugh at just anything and this movie kept me giggling the whole way through. Also this movie came out in 2006 and predicted a serious dumbing down of the population by 2505. When I first saw Idiocracy I laughed because the references to people being really stupid were funny, but now when I see this movie it makes me scared for our future because a lot of the stuff in the movie is starting to already happen in the world today. Most would think that the creator of a show like Beavis and Butthead would be unable to make a movie that has any meaning or depth to it, but they would be very wrong. Idiocracy has great depth buried beneath all the crude humor and thirst for violence. One complaint I do have to make is with the jumpiness of the film. I read online that the average length of a shot in this film is 1.9 seconds. That means that about every two seconds the camera shot is changing. In a movie that is 80 minutes long (really 84 but I’m taking off 4 minutes for credits) the shot changes approximately 2400 times! That’s a lot of editing and if you pay too much attention to all the edits it can make the movie feel a bit choppy. So to recap we have an epic, funny movie that has depth and not many people really know about it. So what you should do is run to your nearest video store, or your computer, and demand a copy of Idiocracy, because you need to be prepared for 2505.

Feeling a little confused? Not sure how to deal with all this new information? Maybe you should just sit back, relax, and watch the trailer.

Normally there would be a clip from the next video that I'd be reviewing here but I think that I am going to make it a come back and see sort of thing now. So if you liked this review and want to keep reading more subscribe for e-mail notifications and you'll be the first to know when I post a new review.

Changing up and Begging for Forgiveness

I am so sorry that I have yet to make a review and we are pretty much a whole month into the new year. As it is a new year I am going to start a new. From now on I promise to write one review a week. The day it comes out will change but there will be one posting a week starting next week. Please stick with me guys. I promise I won't flake out again and stop posting to my page.

The first review for the year is going to be a surprise. So don't ask, I'm not telling. Hope you come back and check it out next week.