Hey everyone on the interwebs. Sorry that I haven't been on in a while, but these past several days have been pretty hectic. My family went up to Old Orchard Beach 2 Thursdays ago for the weekend and it was a pretty fun time although it was kind of frustrating that the Pier was shut down for the season which meant that I wasn't able to take part in karaoke. This was especially frustrating seeing as, the last time we were up, there the Pier wasn't doing karaoke until the exact same day that we were heading back home. DAMMIT!!!!!!!!
Aside from that, I got to hang out with a good buddy of mine from college for the first time in about a year. We went and saw Hotel Transylvania 2 and laughed our asses off. I've also been doing a lot of reading lately. Just this past Tuesday, I got Dark Tide in the mail, the 3rd book in the WaterFire Saga, and I had it completely finished by Wednesday afternoon. Another book I've been reading was one that I actually got from a bookstore up in Old Orchard Beach called Make Me A Star from Anastasia Brown, a judge on the short-lived Nashville Star. I've found that it has a lot of great information regarding the music industry from many great acts like Heart, Matt Nathanson, Keith Urban, and Kelly Clarkson just to name a few.
An idea that I just thought of recently when I was watching a reaction video to the latest Equestria Girls movie and watching some Schmoes Know videos on YouTube was the possibility of doing movie reviews on my blog. I don't necessarily have that much money to do like every movie that comes out as I'm still trying to find a job (more on that later), but I figure that I could probably start off small and work my way up from there. Maybe I could even review episodes of TV Shows I watch.
Currently, though, my job search hasn't been that productive. About 2 weeks ago I found out that GameStop was hiring so I filled out an application and turned it in the next day. But then when I called back last week to follow up on it, the hiring manager said that they had already filled all the positions at a job fair that happened a month ago. That was frustrating. I also checked in with Hot Topic and they hadn't started hiring people yet. I'm still willing to give them some time to square that away.
Another thing to worry about is all the upcoming birthdays and Christmas. Most of my family's birthdays are clumped pretty close together. My dad's is November 30th, mine is December 12th, my mom's is the day after on the 13th, one of my brothers' is the week after on the 19th, then there's Christmas, and finally my sister's birthday on January 24th. I'm in such desperate need for a job that it's not even funny. After Six Flags closed for the season last year on November 2nd, I didn't go back this past April for personal reasons and have been looking for a job ever since. Hell, even before the season ended I was still job searching.
It really is a pain in the ass that I haven't been able to find a new job in almost a year and I'm running out of options. I could really use some prayers right now as I continue the job quest. But anyways, what would your guys' thoughts be about me featuring movie reviews on my blog? Please feel free to leave a comment below on what you think about it and I appreciate you guys taking the time to read my rambling. Anyways, hope you guys have a great week and I'll catch you on the flipside. Later.
Monday, October 19, 2015
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Top 12 Movies I Like, But Everyone Else Hates
Well, for those of you who tuned in last month, y'all know the Top 12 Movies I Dislike, But Everyone Else Loves. So now, it's your turn to get your revenge on me as I count down the Top 12 Movies I Like, But Everyone Else Hates. Now before I start this list, I want to point out that the list itself takes more after Doug Walker's list in the sense that I don't think that any of these are perfect movies that no one else aside from me seems to see the genius of, I acknowledge that they have faults (one of the problems that I had with Tony's list like this was that it seemed to be just him singing the praises of his selections).
Still, I did manage to find some things in these movies that I genuinely enjoyed and made me glad that I had seen them. As I feel I need to bring up with these lists, these are just my opinions. There's nothing stopping you from hating these movies just like there's nothing to stop me from enjoying them. Additionally, just like the last list, there's potentially going to be some talk about the movie plots themselves so SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!! With all that out of the way, let's not waste any more time and dive right in.
XII. Ghost Rider (2007)
Now I'm not gonna deny that Mark Steven Johnson is one of the worst directors currently working in Hollywood and there's plenty of stuff to make fun of in this movie. Still, there were some things about it that I found enjoyable.
While I thought that Wes Bentley as the devil's son followed by his group of fallen angels made terrible villains, I thought that the representation of each of them by an element was interesting. For example, Bentley's character, Blackheart (pfft ha ha ha I'm sorry that's just hilarious), first appears as Fire is raining down and the other 3 appear through Earth, Water, and Air (now all they need is Heart. XD I'm sorry, I had to make that joke).
Another Awesome aspect is any time there's actual Ghost Rider onscreen. By god, one of my favorite moments is when Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) rides all the way to the train yard where he begins transforming into the Rider while the Latin Choir (which I already mentioned in a past post is my favorite cliche) sings in the background (as seen below). Plus, give Cage extra credit for having one of his traditional acting "freak outs" during that scene. Also, the design of Ghost Rider's motorcycle is super badass looking.
One thing that a lot of people were bothered by, but, strangely enough, I wasn't, was the fact that Blaze was the most powerful of all the past Ghost Riders because he sold his soul out of love rather than greed. That concept I thought was pretty cool. In fact, a running theme throughout most of this list is that I include movies based off of concept as I'm really big on that factor.
Still, there's a lot of stuff that's just really goofy here like Cage's actions, the character of Blackheart, a moment where the devil's cartoony shadow is shown at the beginning, an instance of using a Magic 8 Ball at a restaurant, and one character using a lantern in modern times. Another thing to point out is the missed opportunity for Cage to use this role to deliver a more over-the-top performance like he did in Face/Off.
But, hey, it was still better than that piece of shit sequel that came out 5 years later. Thank God that one sucked resulting in the rights reverting back to Marvel. Now all we need is for the same thing to happen to the Fantastic 4. Fingers crossed. :-)
XI. In Time (2011)
Like I said before, this movie I mostly like because I find the concept interesting. I thought that the whole idea of a future where time is literally money was fascinating and they explain how the system works pretty well that each person has a clock genetically engineered in their arm set for a year that starts counting down once they reach 25 whereupon they also cease to age. Once the clock reaches zero or "times out", the person dies.
There's some interesting commentary to be made in this movie about the rich constantly robbing from the poor in order to live forever by constantly raising the costs of basic necessities. I also really liked the relationship (brief though it was) between Will Salas (Justin Timberlake who does a pretty good job of acting here) and his mother Rachel (Olivia Wilde who also stars in another movie to make this list later on) and how they both loved each other to the extent that they were soo willing to give the other some of their own time when both of them are pretty hard pressed for time themselves.
Additionally, I found Cillian Murphy to be pretty decent as one of the villains, a police-like "Timekeeper". Even Amanda Seyfried as the daughter of an extremely wealthy time-loaner does a good job of playing the "fish out of water" when she's stuck with Will and learning the importance of time management when every second could be your last.
But now moving on to what I didn't like about this movie. I didn't like Fortis or his gang as they just seemed like 1-dimensional villains who only steal time from others... just because. That was stupid and I loved watching them time out when it finally did happen. But the other thing is that the story itself isn't anything new. It's basically a Sci-Fi, dystopian version of Bonnie and Clyde.
This movie was written, directed, and produced by Andrew Niccol, whose credits also include Sci-Fi cult classic Gattaca, The Truman Show, Lord Of War, and The Terminal (which many of you might remember from my previous Top 12 list) and despite this movie's faults I still find it enjoyable to watch, but maybe that's just the Sci-Fi geek in me.
X. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
AND
Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
So yeah. Just like my last list, I have a tie between 2 movies. The main reason I put these 2 together was because they both have a certain campy charm to them as they take characters we thought we knew and reimagines them as hunters of supernatural beings.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was originally a mashup novel done in the same style as Pride And Prejudice And Zombies (which I heard is getting its own movie come next year) and Sense And Sensibility And Sea Monsters. The novel's original author, Seth Grahame-Smith (who also wrote Pride And Prejudice And Zombies), served as screenwriter for the movie while Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov helmed it and there was plenty that I enjoyed about this reimagining of the 16th president as a vampire hunter.
Some of the things I found interesting were how it adds its own spin to the vampire lore. For instance, according to this movie, the reason vampires are vulnerable to silver dates back to biblical times when Judas betrayed Jesus for the 30 pieces of silver, marking it as a symbol of betrayal.
Also, those who are pure of heart simply die from a vampire's bite while those whose hearts are tainted are turned. Some people might've been turned off by the fact that this movie states that some of the vampires were pastors, but people forget how corrupt most Southern pastors were during slavery era America. I even thought that the logic that vampires can't kill each other as "only the living can kill the dead" was interesting and there were even some kick ass scenes of Honest Abe wielding his silver coated axe against the undead legions.
Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters, a fun little cult gem, has a lot of interesting stuff going for it. I found it interesting how Hansel ended up becoming a diabetic from when they were kids first arriving at the gingerbread house where the witch forced him to gorge himself on sweets to fatten him up.
Also the twist where it's revealed that Hansel and Gretel were descended from a white witch, therefore explaining their invulnerability to black magic, was pretty cool. And, of course, all the blood and gore was a lot of fun for my dumb male brain to watch. I've heard that there are plans to make a sequel out of this movie which I'd really like to see as I'd love to watch how this world is expanded upon.
Both of these movies are pretty goofy when you come to think about it which might be what turns some people off to them, but there are still others who view them as pretty enjoyable. I personally find myself among the latter category.
IX. 9 (2009)
Now this was a movie that I was super psyched to see when I first saw the trailer (shown below)
Based on the 2005 Academy Award Nominated short film of the same name by Shane Acker, this movie, like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, is helmed by Burton and Bekmambetov as well as Acker himself. I saw this movie in its original theatrical run (I saw the very first showing with a friend's dad) and I found it fairly enjoyable.
The animation is impressive as all of the 9 main characters have their own distinct appearance and personalities based off of the many different sides of their creator's own personality. The different machines are fascinating to see as their designs are inspired by such diverse things as a cat, a pterodactyl, a cobra, and even one that brings to mind a hybrid of an AT-ST walker from Star Wars and an alien tripod from War Of The Worlds. Also the dreary, sepia toned, Post-Apocalyptic background is amazing to look at (I'm a major sucker for anything Post-Apocalyptic).
Another aspect that I found interesting was one particular scene where 2 is looking over 9 and makes comments about all the thought and detail that was put into 9's creation. Acker himself even stated in an interview with scienceblogs.com, "There's some spirituality in [our] creation, some indescribable thing that can't be broken down into scientific terms. Though we can start to describe [the] brain as a complex collection of nerves that creates thought, you can say that we're complex amino acid collections, how do you describe that consciousness that humans have?" That's something very rarely brought up in movies.
The voice acting is also pretty decent from such actors as Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, and Christopher Plummer. In addition to that, the messages of teamwork and even self sacrifice were interesting to see here. And of course what I really liked was the fact that it was an animated movie that was trying to touch on darker subjects. We already have an overabundance of brightly, candy-coated, family-friendly, animated movies to the point that more adult animated movies are a welcome breath of fresh air.
Unfortunately, this movie has some problems when it comes to its pacing and character development. Another aspect that I could go either way on is that it's a rather short movie, clocking in at about 75 minutes. On the one hand, it's kind of refreshing that this movie is shorter than other movies that are bloated out with "too long" runtimes. On the other hand, though, this movie could've been a little bit longer to smooth out some of the character development and pacing problems. It's a delicate balance.
Even with its flaws, I still think this movie deserves to be seen by as many people as possible as I feel it's criminally underappreciated. Feel free to give it a watch for yourself some time. You might just be surprised.
VIII. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2008)
Alright. Y'all heard me bitch and moan about Temple of Doom in my last list where I said that I consider it to be the worst Indiana Jones movie in the franchise. If I was ranking all of the movies, Temple of Doom would be rock bottom below Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, although, when it comes to Raiders Of The Lost Ark or The Last Crusade, I can't decide which is my favorite.
Some of the things I like about this movie are the villain, Irina Spalko, the return of Marion, and, the one thing that's probably going to make you all hate me, I thought that Shia LeBeouf was actually pretty decent in this movie as Indy's son, Mutt. Why? Well, unlike Willie from Temple of Doom who constantly had to have her ass saved while contributing nothing to the group (except to annoy the living piss out of me and others), Mutt proved he could actually take care of himself. He certainly held his own pretty well in a fencing duel against Spalko on top of moving vehicles.
I didn't even mind the fact that they were searching for extra-terrestrial artifacts in this movie as I felt it fit in with the time period of the 50s that the movie was set in. People seem to forget that that decade was when a lot of the Sci-Fi alien invasion movies were coming out.
But, of course, like most others, I had a problem with the overuse of CGI. I mean, Mutt swinging from vines with a bunch of CGI monkeys like Tarzan? Really? That was stupid. Also, surviving a nuclear blast in a fridge was dumb, but at the same time, Temple of Doom had people jumping out of an airplane on an inflatable raft before sledding down a slope until they fly off the edge of a cliff into the river below without sustaining any injuries so I give it a pass.
Personally, despite its flaws, I find this movie far better than most people give it credit for. Just goes to show you the difference.
VII. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
This is probably one of my more selfish selections as Electro is my all-time favorite Spider-Man villain because I've always wanted electrical manipulation as a superpower and it was nice to finally see him on the big screen. Funny story, back in 1991 (my birth year), James Cameron was originally going to make a Spider-Man movie starring Electro as the main villain, but those plans sadly fell through.
Marc Webb I feel did a good job with modernizing Electro's appearance as that goofy green and yellow get-up from the comics would never work. Even having Rhino in this heavily armored high tech suit was pretty cool to see. The death of Gwen Stacy was really sad as I felt she was a far superior love interest for Spidey when compared to Mary Jane Watson from the Raimi Trilogy, which you could say means that there was more of an audience attachment to Gwen as a character.
Another aspect that I thought was handled really well in this movie was how Peter Parker actually quit being Spider-Man for an extended period of time after Gwen's death, which totally makes sense as pretty much anyone would be shaken up from the death of a loved one, and it's made all the more tragic seeing as he was soo close to saving her. Compare this to Spider-Man 2 of the Raimi Trilogy where Peter quits being Spider-Man because the job is too hard and really think which of these 2 would you be more able to relate to?
But of course the problems that this movie has are hard to ignore. Mostly the fact that it feels more focused on setting itself up for a Sinister Six movie that will never happen now (well that sucks) and therefore is overly bloated with trying to juggle too many elements, side plots, and character developments all at once. I was pretty annoyed at the fact that Rhino is just thrown in at the last 5 minutes.
I still think this movie is better than Spider-Man 3 though as I felt Spider-Man 3 terribly handled Venom and the whole "emo Peter Parker" thing was dumb and unforgivable. Really depressing that this movie is ranked as the worst of the franchise and was the least successful. :-(
VI. Tron: Legacy (2010)
Now I'm gonna be completely honest with you guys, I never saw the original 1982 Tron movie before watching Tron: Legacy. Still, I don't think that my lack of Tron knowledge kept me from enjoying this movie in any sense because I found plenty of things to like about it.
I saw this movie in 3-D at an IMAX theater and I can just tell you guys right now that this movie was GORGEOUS to look at. This was definitely a movie that justifies itself for being released in 3-D unlike others who just use it as a gimmick. I feel it makes up for me not seeing Avatar in 3-D.
The whole first half of the movie is really fun as it introduces the audience to the world of The Grid and its rules. The fight scenes are a lot of fun to watch, all set to the electronic house mixings of Daft Punk (who even make a cameo appearance at the End Of Line nightclub). Some people had a problem with Jeff Bridges' performance, but I actually thought it was pretty entertaining at times. The one line that has me pissing my pants with laughter is when he says, "You're messin with my 'Zen thing', man." Me and my friend Caleb, who I saw the movie with, still quote that line to this day.
But once the second half comes around is when the plot holes start to show up. So C.L.U.'s (who's essentially a program clone of Bridges' character) plan is to bring an army he's been raising into the real world to take it over, but isn't that kind of a problem when these programs can just be destroyed by hitting them? Seriously, one blow and they collapse into pixels or, as they say, they're "derezzed". Also, earlier on in the movie, the main character of Sam Flynn is trying to sabotage his own company. Yeah. Try to make sense of that.
I still think that this movie is worth seeing even if just for the spectacle alone. If you have the chance to watch it in 3-D, do it. You won't regret it.
V. Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Now this was back when Disney was trying to do something different with its animation studio and I think that the style, inspired by Hellboy creator, Mike Mignola, was very interesting as was the culture of Atlantis itself. Also worth mentioning is that the Atlantean language itself was created by Marc Okrand, the same man who developed the Klingon language in Star Trek.
I grew up reading a lot of Sci-Fi stories and watching a lot of Sci-Fi movies like 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Journey To The Center Of The Earth, War Of The Worlds, and many others so this movie really captured my interest. The Atlantean technology was very futuristic, alien-like, and almost alternate reality based which I felt fit in well with this movie.
The characters were all very interesting and memorable from Mole to Audrey to Vinny to Dr. Sweet and even Cookie got a good laugh out of me every once in a while. Plus, speaking of Star Trek, late legendary actor, Leonard Nimoy, even lends his voice to the King of Atlantis. I also really loved the music, particularly in the Crystal Chamber.
What I didn't like though was the villain and his motivations. They basically discover Atlantis, but he decides to steal the city's life crystal just because it'll make him rich. I'm just like "DUDE!!! You discovered a lost civilization. You're going to be rich anyways. You don't have to steal this life crystal." So yeah. That was stupid.
Despite bad critical reception, this movie has received a strong cult following as it should. It's kind of sad that this movie came out during a time where more and more kids were leaning towards CG animation because this is a seriously underappreciated movie and definitely worth a watch if you ever get the chance.
IV. The Reaping (2007)
Now I doubt any of you guys have even heard of this movie, but it was one that, when I first found out about it, I really wanted to see it super bad. Unfortunately for me it was R rated and I wasn't quite old enough to watch it at that time. I eventually forgot about it over time until just recently when I finally watched it and there were several aspects of it that I enjoyed.
The whole concept of the 10 Biblical plagues of Exodus striking this small town was the first thing to capture my attention. I also found it interesting how Hilary Swank's character, Katherine, who has left her faith after her husband and daughter were murdered by the same people they came to help and has since been using scientific means to explain miraculous occurrences, is brought back to her faith when she realizes that these miracles can't be explained through science.
In addition to this, I thought that the effects were really cool to see as each and every one of the plagues occurred and even a few of the people were very enjoyable and likable. Some of my favorite characters being Katherine, her assistant, Ben, and a young girl, Loren McConnell, who the inhabitants of this small town believe to be behind these plagues.
I also really fell in love with the music. This music shifts back and forth between calm and quiet to loud and boisterous but no matter which of the 2 it's on, there's always a sense of darkness, sinister foreboding, and even dread to it, which one would come to expect in a biblical horror movie (one of my favorite tracks is Locusts as it's loud and boisterous while also containing the Dramatic Choir throughout its entirety). It's a soundtrack that I would definitely recommend listening to.
But even with that, the acting, while not godawful, leaves something to be desired. Also, it kind of bothered me somewhat with some areas where it lacked biblical accuracy with the order in which the plagues happened or even when someone says that Pharaoh's men matched Moses plague for plague when they only matched him for the first few plagues.
Still, even with those flaws I found it to be relatively enjoyable. There's nothing really that offensive that I could think of and the plagues were particularly fun to watch, so I'd definitely recommend it.
III. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith (2005)
Now, of course, a lot of people have bashed the prequel trilogy to death and there's a lot of stuff to make fun of, but I'm still surprised by all the people who include Episode III in their bashing. It just boggles my mind when they say nothing good comes from it.
What I really loved about this movie was how much more action packed it was. This movie gave us not 1, not 2, not 3, not even 4, but 5 lightsaber duels in its runtime from Anakin and Obi Wan VS. Count Dooku to Yoda VS. The Emperor to Obi Wan VS. Anakin (which has gotta be one of the most intense duels ever put to film). One thing that the prequels did better than the original trilogy was their lightsaber duels.
Also watching the Emperor slowly but surely twist Anakin's mind to turn to the Dark Side was interesting as he plays on his fears of losing Padme, which makes it all the more tragic when his own turn to the Dark Side results in her losing the will to live. Finally I loved how much darker this movie was as it's currently the only Star Wars movie to have a PG-13 rating. Me and my sister (who wasn't quite a teenager yet) both saw the premiere of this movie and loved it.
Now, of course, the acting from the majority of the cast isn't particularly good, but people forget how silly some of the acting from the original trilogy could get at times. Also, that puss out Darth Vader moment at the end where he shouts, "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" after discovering Padme is dead was really dumb (at least we now know where Luke got it from. XD ).
So yeah. Don't act like there's absolutely nothing redeemable in the prequels because when something has that much time, money, and, dare I say, effort put into it, it deserves to be acknowledged when all of that pays off and I feel it really does here.
II. Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
Now there were only 2 Pirates movies that I actually saw in theaters: Dead Man's Chest and this one. I did watch the movies in order, but At World's End I didn't see until several months before On Stranger Tides was released because, in all honesty, it didn't really interest me. OST was the movie that I really wanted to see as it had Blackbeard, Mermaids, Zombies, and a quest to find the legendary Fountain Of Youth so I begrudgingly watched AWE beforehand and was really bored by it.
The lack of action throughout the majority of the movie, the convoluted plot, the bloated runtime, the stupid financial currency scandal no one gave a flying fuck about, and all of it leading up to what felt like a half hour of ships circling in a whirlpool left me thinking "Well that sucked. I guess the next one can only go up from here." and when I got around to seeing OST... I found it to be much better than AWE.
There was a nice balance of action and calmer moments between scenes that I enjoyed, a lot of that action coming from Penelope Cruz's character, Angelica, who is the type of woman that Keira Knightley should've been. The music is also really fun with Rodrigo y Gabriela adding a nice Latin American flair to it. The Mermaids were a very interesting blend of Siren and Vampire with their razor sharp fangs to eat people alive and I even found the 3-D to be pretty decent. Not phenomenal, but not terrible either. Not to mention this was also the shortest movie in the franchise.
One thing that really bothered a lot of people, but, once again, I didn't really mind, was the whole romance sideplot that was going on between the missionary, Phillip, and the Mermaid, Syrena. One of the things that really bothered me about AWE (and partially DMC) was this whole love triangle bullshit that they were playing with between Will, Elizabeth, and Jack.
I'm just going to come out and say it right now: I hate when people try to force these stupid love triangles on me because they're very rarely ever done right in my opinion. The only love triangle that I was seriously invested in was the one between Gale, Katniss, and Peeta from The Hunger Games books (also, possibly Harry, Hermione, and Ron from the Harry Potter movies). This movie just had one romance between Jack and Angelica and another between Phillip and Syrena. No love triangle required here.
But there were some areas that I had problems with. One of which being the convoluted plot and its pacing. The reason why this is a bigger problem here than in something like AWE is because, strangely enough, AWE kind of justifies it with having a longer runtime whereas OST has a shorter runtime so it seems like they're just trying to cram as much stuff as they can in at once.
But the biggest, and I really do mean the biggest, problem that I had was with the character of Blackbeard. This guy is supposed to be the pirate that all other pirates fear and... he just came off as soo boring and bland compared to the villains that we've been given in past films. When you take into account all the stuff that's known about the original Blackbeard and how intimidating he was, it just seemed like a wasted opportunity. I was more invested in Phillip and Syrena than I was in Blackbeard. That's not a good sign.
With all that said, though, I'm just really shocked that soo many people praise AWE over OST. Tony himself had AWE on his list of movies he likes but everyone else hates which I was O.K. with at first until... he tried spreading this bullshit lie that people praise OST over AWE. O.K. I don't know what planet or alternate reality he's living in because no one praises OST over AWE. Even WatchMojo.com featured OST on their list of Top 10 Bad Movies That Were Successful. Not AWE. OST. They also went on to say that the first 3 Pirates movies were effortless fun while OST was all effort.
BULLFUCKINGSHIT!!! AWE was anything but fun while OST actually felt like a real Pirates movie to me. Also, did I mention the fact that AWE opens with a little boy being hung at the gallows? Fucking sign me up for that please. NOT!!! So the way I see it, OST is nowhere near as good as The Curse Of The Black Pearl, but it is waaay superior to AWE. I think I'd put it on about the same level as DMC as I was able to enjoy both of those movies in spite of their flaws. With all that said, I'm really looking forward to Dead Men Tell No Tales where Jack will go up against ghost pirate, Captain Salazar (played by the always intimidating Javier Bardem), in search of the Legendary Trident Of Poseidon come 2017.
WARNING!!! The following entry you're about to see may cause similar side effects to those caused from seeing the #1 entry of my past list. If you've already experienced these side effects before and do not desire to experience them again, I suggest that you navigate away from this post and find something else to do. For those of you who choose to stay, once again, you've been warned. So without any further delay, the #1 Movie I Like But Everyone Else Seems To Hate is...
I. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005)
Yeah. Another Johnny Depp movie. Something about the majority of his more recent movies turns people off. When I first found out about this movie several years back and that it was directed by Tim Burton, I was really eager to see this movie. I was sure that this movie would be far more faithful to the book than Willy Wonka was and I was positive that Burton helming it would be a literal match made in heaven. But, when I finally did get around to watching it (I believe it was one of the first Tim Burton movies I saw. Either that or Pee Wee's Big Adventure.), much to my surprise... I was totally right. :-)
Tim Burton was beyond perfect for this movie as he properly handles the wacky and eccentric nature of the story from the original book. When I first saw this movie, I was under the assumption that everyone else liked this movie also. It got good critical acclaim and so I thought that there were legions of others who liked it. Noted, my mom wasn't particularly crazy about it, but I just chalked that up to the fact that she didn't like Tim Burton's work (she didn't even let me see The Nightmare Before Christmas when I was a kid). Boy was I in for a rude awakening.
A few years after first seeing Charlie, I came across a WatchMojo.com video of the Top 10 Worst Hollywood Remakes which Charlie landed on (one of the things that really pisses me off is when people refer to Charlie as a remake of Willy Wonka when it's not. It's an adaptation of the original book for god's sake) where they proceeded to rip apart everything about this movie, referring to Charlie's Oompa Loompas as "unlikable" (Fuck you WatchMojo!!! These Oompa Loompas were adorable and didn't give me nightmares like Willy Wonka's did) and stating that Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka was just a bad Michael Jackson impression (another thing that pisses me off as, if they had done any research, they would've known that Depp's Wonka was based off of kid's show hosts like Bob Keeshan and Fred Rogers, the latter of whom I actually saw a little bit of in Depp's performance, and that Depp's Wonka couldn't stand children while Michael Jackson loved children, but more on that later).
I think I've made it very clear by this point that I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of WatchMojo.com. I often compare WatchMojo.com to the Oscar's for the following reasons: I. I rarely ever agree with them, II. They leave me really pissed off after watching them, and III. For some unknown reason, I keep going back to it. It's essentially an abusive relationship, but I digress.
I said before that no movie is perfect and this movie isn't either. Still, though, I feel like it came much closer to properly representing the original spirit of the book it was based on. Charlie here is just the way that I imagined him from the book: kind, positive thinking, and selfless. I also really enjoyed the stories that Grandpa Joe told about the many unusual confections Wonka created in his earlier years and even the story from the book of Prince Pondicherry and his chocolate palace. The visuals were really great (as one would come to expect from Tim Burton) and I really loved how they modernized some of the characters.
Violet Beauregarde (played by AnnaSophia Robb, who also played Loren McConnell in The Reaping), for instance, was updated from a mere gum enthusiast to the competitive daughter of a soccer mom who's always pushing her to win at everything, creating a superiority complex in her daughter in the process. Also, Mike Teavee, while he still loves watching TV, is updated to being really big into excessively violent video games. Even his parents seem very passive about it as if they're more than happy to let their son be raised by technology.
The music was also a lot of fun to listen to as it has a very wacky and zany feel to it. Danny Elfman provides both the score and the vocals for the songs (his first time singing since 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas) which were a ton of fun. The Oompa Loompa songs here were taken directly from the book and each one was given its own unique style and sound from a Bollywood mambo to 70s funk to 60s psychedelic pop to 70s-80s hard rock. I still find myself singing them to this day. Wonka's Welcome Song can get annoying at times (I personally have a love/hate relationship with it), but, in all honesty, give me that over the Oompa Loompa song from Willy Wonka any day.
But now it's time to discuss the big elephant in the room: Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. While I will admit that his acting can get grating at times, I did find some of his performance to be enjoyable. There were certain lines from the book that I remembered reading like when Veruca introduces herself to Wonka and he says, "I always thought a veruca was a type of wart you got on the bottom of your foot" or even when Mike repeatedly says something Wonka doesn't like and he constantly tells Mike not to mumble. I loved those moments from the book and was glad to see them used in the movie. Side note: My brother was in a local theater production of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and they incorporated both the veruca joke and the mumbling comment in the script. If a local theater is smart enough to use these jokes, you know they're good.
I also thought that he handled the eccentric, mischievous, and sometimes even asshole side of Wonka from the book very well. Many people probably had a problem with the fact that he didn't even bother to learn the kids' names or that he seemed kind of nasty towards the 4 bratty kids (but at the same time I also felt was the proper level of polite to Charlie). As far as I'm concerned, though, I just associated that with his godlike omniscience that I remembered from the book. Additionally, people condemn Depp's Wonka for his lack of concern for the children's safety. Oh yeah. Because Gene Wilder's Wonka from the first movie wasn't in any way like that at all. Uneducated dumbasses!
I found it kind of interesting when they decided to give Wonka more of a backstory to sort of explain how he ended up becoming this eccentric, reclusive shut-in. It was certainly interesting seeing the late great Sir Christopher Lee playing Wonka's dad, a dentist who was completely opposed to Willy becoming a chocolatier.
Now, if you'll allow me to diverge slightly off topic, I'm a huge fan of the Nostalgia Critic, but there's one particular video of his that I don't like: his Old VS. New of Willy Wonka VS. Charlie. For those of you unfamiliar with Old VS. New, it's a series he does where he compares 2 similar movies from different periods (King Kong 1933 VS. 2005, Batman (1989) VS. The Dark Knight (2008), True Grit 1969 VS. 2010, Ten Commandments VS. Prince Of Egypt, etc.) that he views as being pretty equal to each other.
The only problem is he doesn't view Charlie as being equal to Willy Wonka so his arguments are completely biased from the get go. He's soo blinded by nostalgia that he praises the aspects of Willy Wonka that stray from the source material and yet he criticizes the aspects of Charlie that remain the most faithful to it. In fact, I'm wondering if he's even read the damn book!
Now there was an episode of Old VS. New where he compared Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy to Marc Webb's Spider-Man movies and he was pretty biased towards the latter, but even then he had someone there to argue for the Raimi movies so that it was a fair fight. In addition to that, they actually referenced the source material (in this case the Spider-Man comics) when making their arguments, something that the NC didn't even bother doing with the Willy Wonka VS. Charlie battle. I have the feeling that if I was in a redone Willy Wonka VS. Charlie fight, I could definitely give the Critic a run for his money. I don't necessarily know if I'd win, but I'd certainly give Charlie more of a fighting chance than he ever did.
When I was doing research on this movie, I actually came across an article where Gene Wilder was quoted as calling Charlie And The Chocolate Factory "an insult", more specifically "Warner Bros.' insult". This got me particularly pissed off because Dahl's estate, particularly his widow and daughter, fully approved of Burton's vision for the movie. So if that's the case, who is this movie really an insult to? Is it an insult to Dahl himself or is it an insult to Wilder?
It then occurred to me that Wilder himself is a bit of an egotist here. He apparently can't stand the idea of there being another adaptation of the book other than the one he was the star of. I don't care if people hate me for this or if it's too controversial of an opinion (being a Brony, controversial opinions are nothing new as, to state a few examples, I didn't mind Twilight becoming an Alicorn Princess in the Season 3 Finale, I didn't hate Equestria Girls like everyone else did, and I thought Flash Sentry was a pretty decent character, not deserving of all the hate he's been getting lately, but I digress) this is just how I saw all of this.
Personally, I'm also of the very controversial opinion that neither Gene Wilder nor Johnny Depp properly portrayed the Wonka that I remembered from the book. Wilder seemed to focus more on the charming whimsical side of Wonka while Depp focused more on the eccentric mischievous side of Wonka. Both actors cranked their portrayals up to 11 where with Wilder it felt very pedo and uncomfortable at times and with Depp it felt very grating and awkward at other times (and why I don't see Depp's portrayal as being pedo was because he couldn't stand kids except for Charlie who, like I said earlier, he was the proper level of polite around).
In my opinion, the proper Wonka would have to be a combination of both Wilder and Depp's portrayals in equal amounts. All I can say is if you like Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, maybe we can be close friends. If you like Willy Wonka, that's perfectly fine only as long as you don't bash Charlie in favor of it, in which case there will be a pretty nasty bloodbath to follow. But if by some miracle of God you're someone who happens to like both Willy Wonka and Charlie equally, then you're clearly a far better person than I am.
So that was my list of the Top 12 Movies I Like, But Everyone Else Hates and I'd like to know what's a movie that you really enjoy but everyone else seems to hate? Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this list (and my last list) and I hope I didn't piss off too many people with my opinions (I probably did anyways). In the meantime I hope you guys have a great week and I'll see you on the next blog post. Take care.
Still, I did manage to find some things in these movies that I genuinely enjoyed and made me glad that I had seen them. As I feel I need to bring up with these lists, these are just my opinions. There's nothing stopping you from hating these movies just like there's nothing to stop me from enjoying them. Additionally, just like the last list, there's potentially going to be some talk about the movie plots themselves so SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!! With all that out of the way, let's not waste any more time and dive right in.
XII. Ghost Rider (2007)
Now I'm not gonna deny that Mark Steven Johnson is one of the worst directors currently working in Hollywood and there's plenty of stuff to make fun of in this movie. Still, there were some things about it that I found enjoyable.
While I thought that Wes Bentley as the devil's son followed by his group of fallen angels made terrible villains, I thought that the representation of each of them by an element was interesting. For example, Bentley's character, Blackheart (pfft ha ha ha I'm sorry that's just hilarious), first appears as Fire is raining down and the other 3 appear through Earth, Water, and Air (now all they need is Heart. XD I'm sorry, I had to make that joke).
Another Awesome aspect is any time there's actual Ghost Rider onscreen. By god, one of my favorite moments is when Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) rides all the way to the train yard where he begins transforming into the Rider while the Latin Choir (which I already mentioned in a past post is my favorite cliche) sings in the background (as seen below). Plus, give Cage extra credit for having one of his traditional acting "freak outs" during that scene. Also, the design of Ghost Rider's motorcycle is super badass looking.
One thing that a lot of people were bothered by, but, strangely enough, I wasn't, was the fact that Blaze was the most powerful of all the past Ghost Riders because he sold his soul out of love rather than greed. That concept I thought was pretty cool. In fact, a running theme throughout most of this list is that I include movies based off of concept as I'm really big on that factor.
Still, there's a lot of stuff that's just really goofy here like Cage's actions, the character of Blackheart, a moment where the devil's cartoony shadow is shown at the beginning, an instance of using a Magic 8 Ball at a restaurant, and one character using a lantern in modern times. Another thing to point out is the missed opportunity for Cage to use this role to deliver a more over-the-top performance like he did in Face/Off.
But, hey, it was still better than that piece of shit sequel that came out 5 years later. Thank God that one sucked resulting in the rights reverting back to Marvel. Now all we need is for the same thing to happen to the Fantastic 4. Fingers crossed. :-)
XI. In Time (2011)
Like I said before, this movie I mostly like because I find the concept interesting. I thought that the whole idea of a future where time is literally money was fascinating and they explain how the system works pretty well that each person has a clock genetically engineered in their arm set for a year that starts counting down once they reach 25 whereupon they also cease to age. Once the clock reaches zero or "times out", the person dies.
There's some interesting commentary to be made in this movie about the rich constantly robbing from the poor in order to live forever by constantly raising the costs of basic necessities. I also really liked the relationship (brief though it was) between Will Salas (Justin Timberlake who does a pretty good job of acting here) and his mother Rachel (Olivia Wilde who also stars in another movie to make this list later on) and how they both loved each other to the extent that they were soo willing to give the other some of their own time when both of them are pretty hard pressed for time themselves.
Additionally, I found Cillian Murphy to be pretty decent as one of the villains, a police-like "Timekeeper". Even Amanda Seyfried as the daughter of an extremely wealthy time-loaner does a good job of playing the "fish out of water" when she's stuck with Will and learning the importance of time management when every second could be your last.
But now moving on to what I didn't like about this movie. I didn't like Fortis or his gang as they just seemed like 1-dimensional villains who only steal time from others... just because. That was stupid and I loved watching them time out when it finally did happen. But the other thing is that the story itself isn't anything new. It's basically a Sci-Fi, dystopian version of Bonnie and Clyde.
This movie was written, directed, and produced by Andrew Niccol, whose credits also include Sci-Fi cult classic Gattaca, The Truman Show, Lord Of War, and The Terminal (which many of you might remember from my previous Top 12 list) and despite this movie's faults I still find it enjoyable to watch, but maybe that's just the Sci-Fi geek in me.
X. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
AND
Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
So yeah. Just like my last list, I have a tie between 2 movies. The main reason I put these 2 together was because they both have a certain campy charm to them as they take characters we thought we knew and reimagines them as hunters of supernatural beings.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was originally a mashup novel done in the same style as Pride And Prejudice And Zombies (which I heard is getting its own movie come next year) and Sense And Sensibility And Sea Monsters. The novel's original author, Seth Grahame-Smith (who also wrote Pride And Prejudice And Zombies), served as screenwriter for the movie while Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov helmed it and there was plenty that I enjoyed about this reimagining of the 16th president as a vampire hunter.
Some of the things I found interesting were how it adds its own spin to the vampire lore. For instance, according to this movie, the reason vampires are vulnerable to silver dates back to biblical times when Judas betrayed Jesus for the 30 pieces of silver, marking it as a symbol of betrayal.
Also, those who are pure of heart simply die from a vampire's bite while those whose hearts are tainted are turned. Some people might've been turned off by the fact that this movie states that some of the vampires were pastors, but people forget how corrupt most Southern pastors were during slavery era America. I even thought that the logic that vampires can't kill each other as "only the living can kill the dead" was interesting and there were even some kick ass scenes of Honest Abe wielding his silver coated axe against the undead legions.
Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters, a fun little cult gem, has a lot of interesting stuff going for it. I found it interesting how Hansel ended up becoming a diabetic from when they were kids first arriving at the gingerbread house where the witch forced him to gorge himself on sweets to fatten him up.
Also the twist where it's revealed that Hansel and Gretel were descended from a white witch, therefore explaining their invulnerability to black magic, was pretty cool. And, of course, all the blood and gore was a lot of fun for my dumb male brain to watch. I've heard that there are plans to make a sequel out of this movie which I'd really like to see as I'd love to watch how this world is expanded upon.
Both of these movies are pretty goofy when you come to think about it which might be what turns some people off to them, but there are still others who view them as pretty enjoyable. I personally find myself among the latter category.
IX. 9 (2009)
Now this was a movie that I was super psyched to see when I first saw the trailer (shown below)
Based on the 2005 Academy Award Nominated short film of the same name by Shane Acker, this movie, like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, is helmed by Burton and Bekmambetov as well as Acker himself. I saw this movie in its original theatrical run (I saw the very first showing with a friend's dad) and I found it fairly enjoyable.
The animation is impressive as all of the 9 main characters have their own distinct appearance and personalities based off of the many different sides of their creator's own personality. The different machines are fascinating to see as their designs are inspired by such diverse things as a cat, a pterodactyl, a cobra, and even one that brings to mind a hybrid of an AT-ST walker from Star Wars and an alien tripod from War Of The Worlds. Also the dreary, sepia toned, Post-Apocalyptic background is amazing to look at (I'm a major sucker for anything Post-Apocalyptic).
Another aspect that I found interesting was one particular scene where 2 is looking over 9 and makes comments about all the thought and detail that was put into 9's creation. Acker himself even stated in an interview with scienceblogs.com, "There's some spirituality in [our] creation, some indescribable thing that can't be broken down into scientific terms. Though we can start to describe [the] brain as a complex collection of nerves that creates thought, you can say that we're complex amino acid collections, how do you describe that consciousness that humans have?" That's something very rarely brought up in movies.
The voice acting is also pretty decent from such actors as Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, and Christopher Plummer. In addition to that, the messages of teamwork and even self sacrifice were interesting to see here. And of course what I really liked was the fact that it was an animated movie that was trying to touch on darker subjects. We already have an overabundance of brightly, candy-coated, family-friendly, animated movies to the point that more adult animated movies are a welcome breath of fresh air.
Unfortunately, this movie has some problems when it comes to its pacing and character development. Another aspect that I could go either way on is that it's a rather short movie, clocking in at about 75 minutes. On the one hand, it's kind of refreshing that this movie is shorter than other movies that are bloated out with "too long" runtimes. On the other hand, though, this movie could've been a little bit longer to smooth out some of the character development and pacing problems. It's a delicate balance.
Even with its flaws, I still think this movie deserves to be seen by as many people as possible as I feel it's criminally underappreciated. Feel free to give it a watch for yourself some time. You might just be surprised.
VIII. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2008)
Alright. Y'all heard me bitch and moan about Temple of Doom in my last list where I said that I consider it to be the worst Indiana Jones movie in the franchise. If I was ranking all of the movies, Temple of Doom would be rock bottom below Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, although, when it comes to Raiders Of The Lost Ark or The Last Crusade, I can't decide which is my favorite.
Some of the things I like about this movie are the villain, Irina Spalko, the return of Marion, and, the one thing that's probably going to make you all hate me, I thought that Shia LeBeouf was actually pretty decent in this movie as Indy's son, Mutt. Why? Well, unlike Willie from Temple of Doom who constantly had to have her ass saved while contributing nothing to the group (except to annoy the living piss out of me and others), Mutt proved he could actually take care of himself. He certainly held his own pretty well in a fencing duel against Spalko on top of moving vehicles.
I didn't even mind the fact that they were searching for extra-terrestrial artifacts in this movie as I felt it fit in with the time period of the 50s that the movie was set in. People seem to forget that that decade was when a lot of the Sci-Fi alien invasion movies were coming out.
But, of course, like most others, I had a problem with the overuse of CGI. I mean, Mutt swinging from vines with a bunch of CGI monkeys like Tarzan? Really? That was stupid. Also, surviving a nuclear blast in a fridge was dumb, but at the same time, Temple of Doom had people jumping out of an airplane on an inflatable raft before sledding down a slope until they fly off the edge of a cliff into the river below without sustaining any injuries so I give it a pass.
Personally, despite its flaws, I find this movie far better than most people give it credit for. Just goes to show you the difference.
VII. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
This is probably one of my more selfish selections as Electro is my all-time favorite Spider-Man villain because I've always wanted electrical manipulation as a superpower and it was nice to finally see him on the big screen. Funny story, back in 1991 (my birth year), James Cameron was originally going to make a Spider-Man movie starring Electro as the main villain, but those plans sadly fell through.
Marc Webb I feel did a good job with modernizing Electro's appearance as that goofy green and yellow get-up from the comics would never work. Even having Rhino in this heavily armored high tech suit was pretty cool to see. The death of Gwen Stacy was really sad as I felt she was a far superior love interest for Spidey when compared to Mary Jane Watson from the Raimi Trilogy, which you could say means that there was more of an audience attachment to Gwen as a character.
Another aspect that I thought was handled really well in this movie was how Peter Parker actually quit being Spider-Man for an extended period of time after Gwen's death, which totally makes sense as pretty much anyone would be shaken up from the death of a loved one, and it's made all the more tragic seeing as he was soo close to saving her. Compare this to Spider-Man 2 of the Raimi Trilogy where Peter quits being Spider-Man because the job is too hard and really think which of these 2 would you be more able to relate to?
But of course the problems that this movie has are hard to ignore. Mostly the fact that it feels more focused on setting itself up for a Sinister Six movie that will never happen now (well that sucks) and therefore is overly bloated with trying to juggle too many elements, side plots, and character developments all at once. I was pretty annoyed at the fact that Rhino is just thrown in at the last 5 minutes.
I still think this movie is better than Spider-Man 3 though as I felt Spider-Man 3 terribly handled Venom and the whole "emo Peter Parker" thing was dumb and unforgivable. Really depressing that this movie is ranked as the worst of the franchise and was the least successful. :-(
VI. Tron: Legacy (2010)
Now I'm gonna be completely honest with you guys, I never saw the original 1982 Tron movie before watching Tron: Legacy. Still, I don't think that my lack of Tron knowledge kept me from enjoying this movie in any sense because I found plenty of things to like about it.
I saw this movie in 3-D at an IMAX theater and I can just tell you guys right now that this movie was GORGEOUS to look at. This was definitely a movie that justifies itself for being released in 3-D unlike others who just use it as a gimmick. I feel it makes up for me not seeing Avatar in 3-D.
The whole first half of the movie is really fun as it introduces the audience to the world of The Grid and its rules. The fight scenes are a lot of fun to watch, all set to the electronic house mixings of Daft Punk (who even make a cameo appearance at the End Of Line nightclub). Some people had a problem with Jeff Bridges' performance, but I actually thought it was pretty entertaining at times. The one line that has me pissing my pants with laughter is when he says, "You're messin with my 'Zen thing', man." Me and my friend Caleb, who I saw the movie with, still quote that line to this day.
But once the second half comes around is when the plot holes start to show up. So C.L.U.'s (who's essentially a program clone of Bridges' character) plan is to bring an army he's been raising into the real world to take it over, but isn't that kind of a problem when these programs can just be destroyed by hitting them? Seriously, one blow and they collapse into pixels or, as they say, they're "derezzed". Also, earlier on in the movie, the main character of Sam Flynn is trying to sabotage his own company. Yeah. Try to make sense of that.
I still think that this movie is worth seeing even if just for the spectacle alone. If you have the chance to watch it in 3-D, do it. You won't regret it.
V. Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Now this was back when Disney was trying to do something different with its animation studio and I think that the style, inspired by Hellboy creator, Mike Mignola, was very interesting as was the culture of Atlantis itself. Also worth mentioning is that the Atlantean language itself was created by Marc Okrand, the same man who developed the Klingon language in Star Trek.
I grew up reading a lot of Sci-Fi stories and watching a lot of Sci-Fi movies like 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Journey To The Center Of The Earth, War Of The Worlds, and many others so this movie really captured my interest. The Atlantean technology was very futuristic, alien-like, and almost alternate reality based which I felt fit in well with this movie.
The characters were all very interesting and memorable from Mole to Audrey to Vinny to Dr. Sweet and even Cookie got a good laugh out of me every once in a while. Plus, speaking of Star Trek, late legendary actor, Leonard Nimoy, even lends his voice to the King of Atlantis. I also really loved the music, particularly in the Crystal Chamber.
What I didn't like though was the villain and his motivations. They basically discover Atlantis, but he decides to steal the city's life crystal just because it'll make him rich. I'm just like "DUDE!!! You discovered a lost civilization. You're going to be rich anyways. You don't have to steal this life crystal." So yeah. That was stupid.
Despite bad critical reception, this movie has received a strong cult following as it should. It's kind of sad that this movie came out during a time where more and more kids were leaning towards CG animation because this is a seriously underappreciated movie and definitely worth a watch if you ever get the chance.
IV. The Reaping (2007)
Now I doubt any of you guys have even heard of this movie, but it was one that, when I first found out about it, I really wanted to see it super bad. Unfortunately for me it was R rated and I wasn't quite old enough to watch it at that time. I eventually forgot about it over time until just recently when I finally watched it and there were several aspects of it that I enjoyed.
The whole concept of the 10 Biblical plagues of Exodus striking this small town was the first thing to capture my attention. I also found it interesting how Hilary Swank's character, Katherine, who has left her faith after her husband and daughter were murdered by the same people they came to help and has since been using scientific means to explain miraculous occurrences, is brought back to her faith when she realizes that these miracles can't be explained through science.
In addition to this, I thought that the effects were really cool to see as each and every one of the plagues occurred and even a few of the people were very enjoyable and likable. Some of my favorite characters being Katherine, her assistant, Ben, and a young girl, Loren McConnell, who the inhabitants of this small town believe to be behind these plagues.
I also really fell in love with the music. This music shifts back and forth between calm and quiet to loud and boisterous but no matter which of the 2 it's on, there's always a sense of darkness, sinister foreboding, and even dread to it, which one would come to expect in a biblical horror movie (one of my favorite tracks is Locusts as it's loud and boisterous while also containing the Dramatic Choir throughout its entirety). It's a soundtrack that I would definitely recommend listening to.
But even with that, the acting, while not godawful, leaves something to be desired. Also, it kind of bothered me somewhat with some areas where it lacked biblical accuracy with the order in which the plagues happened or even when someone says that Pharaoh's men matched Moses plague for plague when they only matched him for the first few plagues.
Still, even with those flaws I found it to be relatively enjoyable. There's nothing really that offensive that I could think of and the plagues were particularly fun to watch, so I'd definitely recommend it.
III. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith (2005)
Now, of course, a lot of people have bashed the prequel trilogy to death and there's a lot of stuff to make fun of, but I'm still surprised by all the people who include Episode III in their bashing. It just boggles my mind when they say nothing good comes from it.
What I really loved about this movie was how much more action packed it was. This movie gave us not 1, not 2, not 3, not even 4, but 5 lightsaber duels in its runtime from Anakin and Obi Wan VS. Count Dooku to Yoda VS. The Emperor to Obi Wan VS. Anakin (which has gotta be one of the most intense duels ever put to film). One thing that the prequels did better than the original trilogy was their lightsaber duels.
Also watching the Emperor slowly but surely twist Anakin's mind to turn to the Dark Side was interesting as he plays on his fears of losing Padme, which makes it all the more tragic when his own turn to the Dark Side results in her losing the will to live. Finally I loved how much darker this movie was as it's currently the only Star Wars movie to have a PG-13 rating. Me and my sister (who wasn't quite a teenager yet) both saw the premiere of this movie and loved it.
Now, of course, the acting from the majority of the cast isn't particularly good, but people forget how silly some of the acting from the original trilogy could get at times. Also, that puss out Darth Vader moment at the end where he shouts, "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" after discovering Padme is dead was really dumb (at least we now know where Luke got it from. XD ).
So yeah. Don't act like there's absolutely nothing redeemable in the prequels because when something has that much time, money, and, dare I say, effort put into it, it deserves to be acknowledged when all of that pays off and I feel it really does here.
II. Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
Now there were only 2 Pirates movies that I actually saw in theaters: Dead Man's Chest and this one. I did watch the movies in order, but At World's End I didn't see until several months before On Stranger Tides was released because, in all honesty, it didn't really interest me. OST was the movie that I really wanted to see as it had Blackbeard, Mermaids, Zombies, and a quest to find the legendary Fountain Of Youth so I begrudgingly watched AWE beforehand and was really bored by it.
The lack of action throughout the majority of the movie, the convoluted plot, the bloated runtime, the stupid financial currency scandal no one gave a flying fuck about, and all of it leading up to what felt like a half hour of ships circling in a whirlpool left me thinking "Well that sucked. I guess the next one can only go up from here." and when I got around to seeing OST... I found it to be much better than AWE.
There was a nice balance of action and calmer moments between scenes that I enjoyed, a lot of that action coming from Penelope Cruz's character, Angelica, who is the type of woman that Keira Knightley should've been. The music is also really fun with Rodrigo y Gabriela adding a nice Latin American flair to it. The Mermaids were a very interesting blend of Siren and Vampire with their razor sharp fangs to eat people alive and I even found the 3-D to be pretty decent. Not phenomenal, but not terrible either. Not to mention this was also the shortest movie in the franchise.
One thing that really bothered a lot of people, but, once again, I didn't really mind, was the whole romance sideplot that was going on between the missionary, Phillip, and the Mermaid, Syrena. One of the things that really bothered me about AWE (and partially DMC) was this whole love triangle bullshit that they were playing with between Will, Elizabeth, and Jack.
I'm just going to come out and say it right now: I hate when people try to force these stupid love triangles on me because they're very rarely ever done right in my opinion. The only love triangle that I was seriously invested in was the one between Gale, Katniss, and Peeta from The Hunger Games books (also, possibly Harry, Hermione, and Ron from the Harry Potter movies). This movie just had one romance between Jack and Angelica and another between Phillip and Syrena. No love triangle required here.
But there were some areas that I had problems with. One of which being the convoluted plot and its pacing. The reason why this is a bigger problem here than in something like AWE is because, strangely enough, AWE kind of justifies it with having a longer runtime whereas OST has a shorter runtime so it seems like they're just trying to cram as much stuff as they can in at once.
But the biggest, and I really do mean the biggest, problem that I had was with the character of Blackbeard. This guy is supposed to be the pirate that all other pirates fear and... he just came off as soo boring and bland compared to the villains that we've been given in past films. When you take into account all the stuff that's known about the original Blackbeard and how intimidating he was, it just seemed like a wasted opportunity. I was more invested in Phillip and Syrena than I was in Blackbeard. That's not a good sign.
With all that said, though, I'm just really shocked that soo many people praise AWE over OST. Tony himself had AWE on his list of movies he likes but everyone else hates which I was O.K. with at first until... he tried spreading this bullshit lie that people praise OST over AWE. O.K. I don't know what planet or alternate reality he's living in because no one praises OST over AWE. Even WatchMojo.com featured OST on their list of Top 10 Bad Movies That Were Successful. Not AWE. OST. They also went on to say that the first 3 Pirates movies were effortless fun while OST was all effort.
BULLFUCKINGSHIT!!! AWE was anything but fun while OST actually felt like a real Pirates movie to me. Also, did I mention the fact that AWE opens with a little boy being hung at the gallows? Fucking sign me up for that please. NOT!!! So the way I see it, OST is nowhere near as good as The Curse Of The Black Pearl, but it is waaay superior to AWE. I think I'd put it on about the same level as DMC as I was able to enjoy both of those movies in spite of their flaws. With all that said, I'm really looking forward to Dead Men Tell No Tales where Jack will go up against ghost pirate, Captain Salazar (played by the always intimidating Javier Bardem), in search of the Legendary Trident Of Poseidon come 2017.
WARNING!!! The following entry you're about to see may cause similar side effects to those caused from seeing the #1 entry of my past list. If you've already experienced these side effects before and do not desire to experience them again, I suggest that you navigate away from this post and find something else to do. For those of you who choose to stay, once again, you've been warned. So without any further delay, the #1 Movie I Like But Everyone Else Seems To Hate is...
I. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005)
Yeah. Another Johnny Depp movie. Something about the majority of his more recent movies turns people off. When I first found out about this movie several years back and that it was directed by Tim Burton, I was really eager to see this movie. I was sure that this movie would be far more faithful to the book than Willy Wonka was and I was positive that Burton helming it would be a literal match made in heaven. But, when I finally did get around to watching it (I believe it was one of the first Tim Burton movies I saw. Either that or Pee Wee's Big Adventure.), much to my surprise... I was totally right. :-)
Tim Burton was beyond perfect for this movie as he properly handles the wacky and eccentric nature of the story from the original book. When I first saw this movie, I was under the assumption that everyone else liked this movie also. It got good critical acclaim and so I thought that there were legions of others who liked it. Noted, my mom wasn't particularly crazy about it, but I just chalked that up to the fact that she didn't like Tim Burton's work (she didn't even let me see The Nightmare Before Christmas when I was a kid). Boy was I in for a rude awakening.
A few years after first seeing Charlie, I came across a WatchMojo.com video of the Top 10 Worst Hollywood Remakes which Charlie landed on (one of the things that really pisses me off is when people refer to Charlie as a remake of Willy Wonka when it's not. It's an adaptation of the original book for god's sake) where they proceeded to rip apart everything about this movie, referring to Charlie's Oompa Loompas as "unlikable" (Fuck you WatchMojo!!! These Oompa Loompas were adorable and didn't give me nightmares like Willy Wonka's did) and stating that Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka was just a bad Michael Jackson impression (another thing that pisses me off as, if they had done any research, they would've known that Depp's Wonka was based off of kid's show hosts like Bob Keeshan and Fred Rogers, the latter of whom I actually saw a little bit of in Depp's performance, and that Depp's Wonka couldn't stand children while Michael Jackson loved children, but more on that later).
I think I've made it very clear by this point that I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of WatchMojo.com. I often compare WatchMojo.com to the Oscar's for the following reasons: I. I rarely ever agree with them, II. They leave me really pissed off after watching them, and III. For some unknown reason, I keep going back to it. It's essentially an abusive relationship, but I digress.
I said before that no movie is perfect and this movie isn't either. Still, though, I feel like it came much closer to properly representing the original spirit of the book it was based on. Charlie here is just the way that I imagined him from the book: kind, positive thinking, and selfless. I also really enjoyed the stories that Grandpa Joe told about the many unusual confections Wonka created in his earlier years and even the story from the book of Prince Pondicherry and his chocolate palace. The visuals were really great (as one would come to expect from Tim Burton) and I really loved how they modernized some of the characters.
Violet Beauregarde (played by AnnaSophia Robb, who also played Loren McConnell in The Reaping), for instance, was updated from a mere gum enthusiast to the competitive daughter of a soccer mom who's always pushing her to win at everything, creating a superiority complex in her daughter in the process. Also, Mike Teavee, while he still loves watching TV, is updated to being really big into excessively violent video games. Even his parents seem very passive about it as if they're more than happy to let their son be raised by technology.
The music was also a lot of fun to listen to as it has a very wacky and zany feel to it. Danny Elfman provides both the score and the vocals for the songs (his first time singing since 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas) which were a ton of fun. The Oompa Loompa songs here were taken directly from the book and each one was given its own unique style and sound from a Bollywood mambo to 70s funk to 60s psychedelic pop to 70s-80s hard rock. I still find myself singing them to this day. Wonka's Welcome Song can get annoying at times (I personally have a love/hate relationship with it), but, in all honesty, give me that over the Oompa Loompa song from Willy Wonka any day.
But now it's time to discuss the big elephant in the room: Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. While I will admit that his acting can get grating at times, I did find some of his performance to be enjoyable. There were certain lines from the book that I remembered reading like when Veruca introduces herself to Wonka and he says, "I always thought a veruca was a type of wart you got on the bottom of your foot" or even when Mike repeatedly says something Wonka doesn't like and he constantly tells Mike not to mumble. I loved those moments from the book and was glad to see them used in the movie. Side note: My brother was in a local theater production of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and they incorporated both the veruca joke and the mumbling comment in the script. If a local theater is smart enough to use these jokes, you know they're good.
I also thought that he handled the eccentric, mischievous, and sometimes even asshole side of Wonka from the book very well. Many people probably had a problem with the fact that he didn't even bother to learn the kids' names or that he seemed kind of nasty towards the 4 bratty kids (but at the same time I also felt was the proper level of polite to Charlie). As far as I'm concerned, though, I just associated that with his godlike omniscience that I remembered from the book. Additionally, people condemn Depp's Wonka for his lack of concern for the children's safety. Oh yeah. Because Gene Wilder's Wonka from the first movie wasn't in any way like that at all. Uneducated dumbasses!
I found it kind of interesting when they decided to give Wonka more of a backstory to sort of explain how he ended up becoming this eccentric, reclusive shut-in. It was certainly interesting seeing the late great Sir Christopher Lee playing Wonka's dad, a dentist who was completely opposed to Willy becoming a chocolatier.
Now, if you'll allow me to diverge slightly off topic, I'm a huge fan of the Nostalgia Critic, but there's one particular video of his that I don't like: his Old VS. New of Willy Wonka VS. Charlie. For those of you unfamiliar with Old VS. New, it's a series he does where he compares 2 similar movies from different periods (King Kong 1933 VS. 2005, Batman (1989) VS. The Dark Knight (2008), True Grit 1969 VS. 2010, Ten Commandments VS. Prince Of Egypt, etc.) that he views as being pretty equal to each other.
The only problem is he doesn't view Charlie as being equal to Willy Wonka so his arguments are completely biased from the get go. He's soo blinded by nostalgia that he praises the aspects of Willy Wonka that stray from the source material and yet he criticizes the aspects of Charlie that remain the most faithful to it. In fact, I'm wondering if he's even read the damn book!
Now there was an episode of Old VS. New where he compared Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy to Marc Webb's Spider-Man movies and he was pretty biased towards the latter, but even then he had someone there to argue for the Raimi movies so that it was a fair fight. In addition to that, they actually referenced the source material (in this case the Spider-Man comics) when making their arguments, something that the NC didn't even bother doing with the Willy Wonka VS. Charlie battle. I have the feeling that if I was in a redone Willy Wonka VS. Charlie fight, I could definitely give the Critic a run for his money. I don't necessarily know if I'd win, but I'd certainly give Charlie more of a fighting chance than he ever did.
When I was doing research on this movie, I actually came across an article where Gene Wilder was quoted as calling Charlie And The Chocolate Factory "an insult", more specifically "Warner Bros.' insult". This got me particularly pissed off because Dahl's estate, particularly his widow and daughter, fully approved of Burton's vision for the movie. So if that's the case, who is this movie really an insult to? Is it an insult to Dahl himself or is it an insult to Wilder?
It then occurred to me that Wilder himself is a bit of an egotist here. He apparently can't stand the idea of there being another adaptation of the book other than the one he was the star of. I don't care if people hate me for this or if it's too controversial of an opinion (being a Brony, controversial opinions are nothing new as, to state a few examples, I didn't mind Twilight becoming an Alicorn Princess in the Season 3 Finale, I didn't hate Equestria Girls like everyone else did, and I thought Flash Sentry was a pretty decent character, not deserving of all the hate he's been getting lately, but I digress) this is just how I saw all of this.
Personally, I'm also of the very controversial opinion that neither Gene Wilder nor Johnny Depp properly portrayed the Wonka that I remembered from the book. Wilder seemed to focus more on the charming whimsical side of Wonka while Depp focused more on the eccentric mischievous side of Wonka. Both actors cranked their portrayals up to 11 where with Wilder it felt very pedo and uncomfortable at times and with Depp it felt very grating and awkward at other times (and why I don't see Depp's portrayal as being pedo was because he couldn't stand kids except for Charlie who, like I said earlier, he was the proper level of polite around).
In my opinion, the proper Wonka would have to be a combination of both Wilder and Depp's portrayals in equal amounts. All I can say is if you like Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, maybe we can be close friends. If you like Willy Wonka, that's perfectly fine only as long as you don't bash Charlie in favor of it, in which case there will be a pretty nasty bloodbath to follow. But if by some miracle of God you're someone who happens to like both Willy Wonka and Charlie equally, then you're clearly a far better person than I am.
So that was my list of the Top 12 Movies I Like, But Everyone Else Hates and I'd like to know what's a movie that you really enjoy but everyone else seems to hate? Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this list (and my last list) and I hope I didn't piss off too many people with my opinions (I probably did anyways). In the meantime I hope you guys have a great week and I'll see you on the next blog post. Take care.
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