Throwback Thursday - Halloween

I have never been a huge fan of horror movies, and have tended to avoid them throughout my life. I appreciate a good scary movie every once in awhile, but I have found more often than not, horror movies are simply just bad films in general – typically with weak acting, a shoddy story and not very often are they as terrifying as advertised. However, I decided to use this week’s Throwback Thursday to review one of the classic horror films, Halloween. Because of my general avoidance of horror films, I have missed many iconic films from the genre, including Halloween. After my review of Carrie a couple weeks ago, I was not looking forward to seeing this film.

The film starts out good enough, with a surprise twist right off the bat. I certainly did not expect the killer in the first scene to be a child, and that alone helped elevate the movie for me, simply because they were able to catch me completely unaware. As the film went on, a number of bright spots appeared. The decision to film scenes from the Michael Myers’ point of view was interesting, as it gave the film another way to tell the story. The soundtrack was a huge strength, and fit perfectly with the film. Not only the main theme, but the underlying score during much of the film also helped enhance the climactic scenes.

The horror within Halloween wasn’t what was going to happen – you knew exactly who the killer was going for, and what he was going to do. The truly terrifying part of the film was when things would happen. Michael almost always managed to pop up right when it was least suspected. He would never appear right when it was expected, but would wait until the audience believed the danger was gone, and then would appear. Unfortunately Michael was not written as an exceptionally smart killer. The scene that jumps out in my mind is his attack on Annie in the car. Annie sits in the front seat, and Michael is conveniently waiting in the back seat for his prey. He has a knife, yet for some reason decides to try to half-heartedly strangle her, giving her time to sound the car horn a number of times before finally being stabbed. Was I the only one who thought it was odd that NO ONE in the neighbourhood full of trick-or-treating kids heard the horn so many times and thought to check it out? Maybe Laurie and the jumpy kid she was babysitting just three doors down? Just a thought.

The film still does have some truly frightening moments. Michael’s face at the window when Laurie drops off the keys definitely caught me off guard. After pinning Bob’s body up on the wall like a poster, he continues to stare at it like a curious dog. While not a scary moment, it was extremely creepy and showed how twisted Michael truly was. While the film was not as scary as it was built up to be, I did find Halloween to be a surprisingly decent movie, and a definite must-watch on Halloween.

Cody- 7/10

Scooby-Doo

I have never been to into scary movies, so for Halloween this year I decided to look at the 2002 live-action Scooby-Doo. This film stars the Scooby Gang in their first live action feature film and stars Freddie Prinze Jr as Fred Jones, Sarah Michelle Geller as Daphne Blake, Linda Cardellini as Velma Dinkley, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy Rogers, and Neil Fanning as the voice of Scooby-Doo.

Scooby and the gang

Now it would be easy for me to say what is wrong with this movie after watching it as an adult, but that wouldn’t be fair because this movie is obviously geared towards a younger audience. One thing that I have noticed is that as I have revisited this film again and again over the years more subtle jokes or messages geared towards an older audience. This makes Scooby-Doo a great family movie because it is tailored towards kids, but it is still fun for adults. It also helps that Scooby-Doo has such a long history so adults who watch this with their kids most likely have their own childhood memories of Scooby-Doo.

I appreciate how this movie did not try to start Scooby-Doo as something new but instead opened the film with the Scooby Gang at the height of their popularity. But in this popularity it appears that tensions have grown high between the other gang members and despite Shaggy and Scooby’s best efforts the gang breaks up. The movie then picks up two years later, but the thing that I liked about this opening is that it almost acknowledges all of the past Scooby-Doo adventures (minus every ones ages) well opening the doors for a new generation to enjoy these stories.

I remember watching this movie plenty of times as a child, but even watching it this time I still found it enjoyable. Although there were many points that you could tell were tailored towards children all and all I still enjoy this movie and all of the nostalgia that came with it.

Chris- 8/10

X-Men: Days of Future Past trailer

With the first full length trailer of X-Men Days of Future Past being released today and having just look over the previous X-Men movies I thought I would take a few minutes today and take a look at the trailer. 

Keep in mind that this is a 2 minute trailer for a potentially very long film so it is hard to do anything other then just speculate on what might happen in this film. So instead of breaking down every second of the trailer and looking at what it could or could not mean I am just going to note a few things that I liked and a few things I am worried about.

I will start with the few things I liked 

• It shows a much older group from the trilogy suggesting that this is based many years after the latest Wolverine movie.
• A lot of the cast has return to fill their roles, nice not to see too many recasts
• Did not give away any of the action, ie the Sentinals 
• It shows how they are planning on combining the two films and it appears to be somewhat on track with the story line

What worries me

• This movie seems to surround itself around Wolverine again, even with all of the other cast members 
• Its trying to combine two movies all with a lot of loose ends 
• There is a lot on inconsistencies between the two films

What this movie could potentially lead to. After seeing the preview there are two things that I noticed 

1. In the future portion of the trailer there appears to be a temple, this could potentially end up leading to an Age of Apocalypse story line
2. Perhapes by them changing the past the new future will have Cyclops and Jean Grey be able to come into the franchise. 

I guess we will see as more comes out leading to the movie, but this has renewed my hopes 

Chris 

Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters is a 1984 comedy about a team of scientists who form a paranormal extermination company. The flick stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson as the titular Ghostbusters. Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis also play supporting roles as two possessed apartment residents.

In a film possessing a great comedic cast, Bill Murray stands out as Peter Venkman, the self-imposed leader of the team. His role as the sarcastic ladies man works perfectly with both Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis’ straight-edged characters, and it is his interactions with the team that drive much of the comedy of the film.

The film really hits its comedic stride during the first ghost call. The banter between Bill Murray and his companions during their attempted capture of Slimer, the green slimy ghost, really transitions the film from simply an odd silly movie to a great comedy. After re-watching the movie, there are a number of jokes that simply would have flown over my head as a kid, but now I find make the movie experience that much more enjoyable. From Dan Aykroyd’s surprise “nighttime encounter” with a ghost, to Bill Murray’s classic “Are you menstruating right now?”, the film does a great job at being a family flick while still appealing to adults.

For a film from the 80s, Ghostbusters does a surprisingly good job with the special effects. While they in no way compare to some of the effects that can be produced today, they still get their message across. Scenes such as Sigourney Weaver’s possession add a good dose of horror to the film, and the special effects play a large role. The special effects are good enough to not completely take over the movie, but help to enhance an already strong film. In addition, the soundtrack is outstanding, from the underlying background tunes to the catchy theme song.

The one grievance I do have about the film is the ending – it just seems to take too long to get to the climax of the movie. The arrest of the Ghostbusters seemed to slow down the film considerably and appeared to be somewhat unnecessary, with their subsequent release 5 minutes later. The Ghostbusters team also somehow has time to actually greet and mingle with the crowd that has gathered to watch them take on the big bad Gozer, instead of rushing to meet the god of destruction who can potentially destroy the city. However, these are very minor flaws in a film that doesn’t need to be overanalyzed to be something it isn’t. Ghostbusters is a wonderful choice for a light-hearted comedy that will get you in the mood for Halloween.

Cody- 8/10

Disney Fun Day- The Watcher in the Woods

Last week I reviewed a funny Disney movie with Hocus Pocus, but with Halloween less than a week away I decided to look back on a movie that was a little more in line with traditional Halloween movies. I will be looking at a movie that seriously freaked me out as a kid. I was very young when I first watched this movie and so I did not remember the details of the story very well. Instead I had been left with a vague impression of the plot and very lasting impression of unease. The movie I will be reviewing today is The Watcher in the Woods.

Doesn't sound familiar? That's not a surprise. This movie had a bit of a hard go from production right through to theatrical release- it was even pulled from theatres and had the ending changed! To date there are three different endings for this movie, some which are definitely better than the others. Click here to read a great article from Retro Junk on The Watcher in the Woods.

The Watcher in the Woods is based on the 1976 novel by Florence Engel Randall. The movie tells the story of a teenage girl named Jan and her little sister, Ellie, after their family moves into a new home in the English countryside. The young girls start to experience strange happenings and become involved in a supernatural mystery regarding the daughter of Mrs. Aylwood (Bette Davis), the owner of the residence. Jan bears a striking resemblance to Mrs. Aylwood's daughter, Karen, who disappeared inside a chapel near the village 30 years ago.

Jan, Mrs. Aylwood, and Ellie

Though I did not remember the exact plot of The Watcher in the Woods, it is a movie I have thought of from time to time over the years and my heart still started racing a bit whenever I thought about it. This week was my first time watching it since all those years ago. Though it is admittedly tame by today's standards, The Watcher in the Woods is still spooky enough that I really wished I hadn't watched it alone and at night!

Director John Hough established a very creepy atmosphere through music and point-of-view camera angles which left me feeling like the watcher was looking for me and not the Curtis sisters. Perhaps the most fitting element though was the beautiful and yet haunting setting. The house and the woods surrounding it were beautiful, except when paired with the soundtrack and that made it even more unnerving. As I have said before, I am a scaredy cat! And even though I was still freaked out by this movie, it was not nearly as bad as I had thought it would be. Yet the movie did contain a series of chilling moments.

One moment in particular occurred while the girls were moving the family's belongings into the house. Jan was carrying an ornate mirror into the living room and even as she was setting it down I knew what was coming. I sat with a blanket clutched to my chest murmuring "She's not going to be in the mirror. She's not going to have a reflection. Don't look in the mirror!", which is of course when she looked in the mirror and we see that she has no reflection. As Jan reaches out to touch the mirror I started seriously freaking out and again started muttering, "Don't touch the mirror! It will grab you! YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!!" Now I admit I may have gotten a little carried away, particularly considering it was so early on in the movie. But it is the moments like this that, when combined, make The Watcher in the Woods still a spine-tingling experience regardless of the predictability of scares such as this.

Unfortunately, between the moments like these I found several aspects of the movie and the actors a little irritating. I found Jan to be a less a determined heroine and more a whining bystander. She spends the majority of the film either screeching about the watcher or flirting with the neighbour without a care in the world. And then there is Jan's little sister, Ellie, who never seems to be even slightly worried about the fact that she's hearing voices or that there is obviously some sort of creepy unknown entity that is able to control her.

This may not be a truly terrifying movie by many viewers’ standards today. However, I would say Watcher in the Woods is still a film that can still provide a thoroughly chilling 80 minutes of entertainment.

Ellie- 7/10

Week 6 Films

Halloween is quickly approaching! In expectation of the holiday, we at The Old and New Movie Review Club have decided to review some Halloween movies to get everyone in the mood. This week, we will be reviewing Ghostbusters, Scooby Doo, and Halloween.

Ghostbusters was released in 1984, and stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson. This comedic film features the Ghostbusters, a team of paranormal ghost hunters who attempt to cure New York City of it’s affliction with the supernatural. The film also features Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis in supporting roles as two possessed citizens who become the key to solving the ghost problem.

Scooby Doo is a live-action film released in 2002 based on the cartoon series of the same name. It stars Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini as the human members of Mystery Incorporated, along with their loveable Great Dane, Scooby Doo. The gang is known for revealing fake ghosts and monsters in the cartoon series, but the film takes a different turn when its discovered that these monsters are real!

Halloween is a 1978 flick credited for helping begin the slasher craze. It stars Jamie Lee Curtis in a break-out role as a babysitter who becomes the stalking victim of crazed killer Michael Myers.

Tweet us your favourite Halloween movie @moviereviewclub!

13 Top Family Friendly Halloween Movies

As the resident scaredy cat I decided to put together a list of Halloween movies that are less terrifying than the typical Halloween lineup and can be enjoyed by the whole family. Though they are in no particular order, here are my 13 Top Family Friendly Halloween Movies.

Hocus Pocus

The Sanderson Sisters are a must watch every Halloween. They are hilarious and entertaining. Hocus Pocus is filled with so much Halloween goodness that it is the perfect start to any Halloween movie list.

Casper

Casper the friendly ghost is a thoroughly charming companion for the whole family. This is also the film where we get to see Casper as a human and if you say you didn't have a crush on him as a girl I don’t think you’re being honest with yourself.

Tower of Terror

Based on the Walt Disney World attraction, Tower of Terror is one of my family’s favourite Halloween movies. It is appropriately spooky between the curse and the ghosts, while still maintain the Disney charm.

Halloweentown

Another Disney movie, Halloweentown is fun twist on the traditional depiction of all the things that go bump in the night. I really love the feel of Halloween-town, from silly Benny to some of the creepier creatures.

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island

I've pretty much grown up on Scooby-Doo movies and this was the first one that actually freaked me out. Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was the first time the monsters were real and that was a terrifying idea. My favourite part of this movie though was the song “It’s Terror Time Again”, appropriately creepy and yet totally awesome!

Beetlejuice

Though I personally preferred the animated series that followed, Beetlejuice is an entertaining movie. Directed by Tim Burton this is visually creative and a great oddball film that is perfectly suited to the Halloween season.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Though it is not a feature length film Disney’s Legend of Sleepy Hallow, based on a short story of the same name, is a perfect Halloween story for the whole family. Short and to the point it is appropriate for your family members that want to watch something scary without being too scared. It is also a great length for the youngest members of the family.

The Witches

Based on the Roald Dahl book, The Witches is an inventive story with a truly horrifying villain. This is also the final film that Jim Henson personally worked on before his death. The Grand High Witch (Anjelica Houston) is as amazing as she is horrifying and this makes The Witches one of my favourite Halloween gems.

The Addams Family

The wonderfully macabre Addams family are the best because they are completely happy to be themselves. Amongst the darkness that the Addams family love is a truly funny film that is great fun for the whole family.  

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Another Tim Burton film, The Nightmare Before Christmas creates a truly unique world filled with terrific and terrifying characters. Though I didn't see this movie until I was a teenager it is both beautiful and entertaining and has seen become one of my classic Halloween-must-sees.

Corpse Bride

A sweet and yet creepy tale of lost love, Corpse Bride is a fun and beautiful film. Yet another Tim Burton film, I love the visual differentiation between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Though Emily’s eyeball did substantially gross me out, this is another movie well suited to entertain the entire family this Halloween.

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

This is one movie that actually did terrify me as a child, though I loved every second of it. This is a movie that can touch your heart, despite its extremely scary moments. This is the most serious movie on my list, but I believe it is great movie for everyone to see.

Monster Mash

Rounding off my list is Monster Mash. This is a completely sentimental addition but I think it’s still worth a slot on your Halloween movie list. This movie is one my brothers and I watch every year and it never fails to entertain. It is a silly take on some of the traditional Halloween monsters and it will keep you singing for hours after the movie is done!

With my Halloween favourites picked out it’s time for me to glue myself to the TV and watch them all again!

What are your favourite family friendly Halloween films?  Tweet to @moviereviewclub

What's New?

Released on DVD this Tuesday

Tuesday, October 29

Monsters University

In the prequel to Monsters Inc., Mike and Sulley are scare majors at Monster University and though they start off as rivals they slowly become best friends while working towards their dream of being top scarers.

R.I.P.D

A recently slain cop joins a team of undead police officers working for the Rest in Peace Department and tries to find the man who murdered him.

Coming to Theatres Next Friday

Friday, November 1

Ender’s Game

The International Military seek out a leader who can save the human race from an alien attack. Ender Wiggin, a brilliant young mind, is recruited and trained to lead his fellow soldiers into a battle that will determine the future of Earth.

Free Birds

Two birds from opposite sides of the tracks must put aside their differences and team up to travel back in time to change the course of history- and get turkeys off the menu for good.

Last Vegas

Three sixty-something friends take a break from their day‑to‑day lives to throw a bachelor party in Las Vegas for their last remaining single pal.

Dallas Buyers Club

The story of Texas electrician Ron Woodroof and his battle with the medical establishment and pharmaceutical companies after being diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1986, and his search for alternative treatments that helped establish a way in which fellow HIV-positive people could join for access to his supplies.

Throwback Thursday - Vanilla Sky

Vanilla Sky is a drama-thriller starring Tom Cruise as David Aames, a successful owner of a publishing firm. David’s life is perfect – he is wealthy, attractive, and has women throwing themselves at him. He even has a stalker-girlfriend Julie, played by Cameron Diaz. David soon meets Sofia, played by Penelope Cruz, a friend of a friend who he instantly falls in love with, much to the chagrin of Julie. Julie goes into crazy stalker mode and attempts to kill both herself and David in a car accident – however, David survives, albeit with terrible injuries. The rest of the film narrates his recovery from the traumatic incident and how it affects his personal life.

One of the major themes in the film is David’s vanity. He was handed his successful company and his wealth by his late father, and so David feels that the only thing he is responsible for in his life is his appearance. He is extremely concerned about his vanity because he believes that it is the only part of him that he can control. With it, he is able to get almost any woman he wants. After the accident, David is left facially disfigured along with a mangled arm – however, David cares very little about his arm. Most people would be distraught over their injuries overall, but David is only concerned with his facial appearance. Before the accident, David was meticulous when it came to his face, always examining himself in the mirror and plucking out grey hairs. After the accident he removes the mirror from his bathroom because he cannot stand the sight of his face, leading him towards using the mask to cover his face.

One of the aspects I loved most about the film was the changing evolution of David and his best friend Brian, played by Jason Lee. At the beginning of the film, the two friends are almost identical – the only difference between them is that David is full of confidence, mainly due to his vanity, whereas Brian is not. David is the one pushing Brian to succeed, but after the crash these roles are reversed. Brian becomes the one supporting David, and this is no better shown than the bar scenes after the accident. These scenes mirror the ones from David’s party before the crash, and focus on Brian and then David’s actions when one or the other is drunk. After David's accident he loses much of his confidence in comparison to Brian, who has gained his back through his pursuit of Sofia.

David experiences severe mental breakdowns after the accident, leading to his apparent murder of Sofia. However, the end of the film presents a variety of possible endings to the viewer, leaving it up to them how they wish to interpret the film. Some of the more popular theories include the events of the film being the plot of Brian’s novel he is writing, while another involves everything after the crash is a dream experienced while David is in a coma. The theory I like the most is the one acknowledged most by the film – David is in a lucid dream under the care of Life Extension. This theory consist of David going to Life Extension after discovering Brian and Sofia’s relationship, and cryogenically freezing his body so he can be with Sofia in a lucid dream until technology had become advanced enough to repair his face. I love films like this that present a variety of ending to the viewer, because then it is up to each viewer to decide how they want the film to end.

Cody- 8/10

X-Men

With the future release of X-Men Days of Future Past I thought I would take this opportunity to take a look at the X-Men film franchise from Fox as a whole. Before I get into my thoughts and opinions on the franchise I would just like to note that I am a huge Marvel fan and was raised with X-Men comics as bedtime stories, but with this being said the more Fox produces this franchise the less I like it. The thing that made the X-Men and Marvel heroes so unique when they were first being written was that they did not have a perfect life, they experienced real life problems. So to make a successful Marvel movie you cannot just focus on the superhero part of it, you have to develop the characters and make them relatable. This leads into one of my biggest problems with the original trilogy and that was the casting. Some of the casting was great such as Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Shawn Ashmore as Iceman, Halle Berry as Storm, and even Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde. However this fantastic casting is ruined by poor choices for key characters to the X-Men such as Famke Janssen as Jean Grey, James Marsden as Scott Summers, and my lest favorite Anna Paquin and Rouge. 

(For a break down of any of the characters mention in this post feel free to click here to be brought to the Marvel Universe wiki, specifically the section pertaining to characters in theses films)

Of course this dislike in the casting could be partially related to my own personal feelings but I do feel that these three characters were wrongly cast. First you have Famke Janssen as Jean Grey who she portrays as a whinny "poor me" character that I see no appeal in, which does not help the story line of Cyclops and Wolverine fighting over her. Yes, Jean Grey is a character who experiences struggles from her powers, however they should have cast someone who could have portrayed those struggles in a way where the viewer feels sorry for her, instead of just annoyed. Second you have James Marsden as Cyclops who is portrayed as a jealous whinny team leader. The character rarely ever shows any strength or leadership. Also his whole story line through the trilogy essentially just wrote him off to make room for Wolverine. Finally you have Anna Paquin playing Rouge who to me has always been a strong independent southern bell, but in the trilogy she is portrayed as another helpless whinny character. Of course I do understand it is not just the actors who affected the characters but also the director and script, however I still strongly feel that they were cast all wrong.

Another problem I have found with this franchise is that it has always been about Wolverine, which is understandable in a marketing and business sense, however as a fan it is frustrating to see Fox maintain the rights to the X-Men and just use such a unique team to carry one character. With all of the success Marvel has been having lately with their films it would be amazing if the rights to the X-Men reverted to Marvel and they rebooted the series. But that was all just a rant that has been building for some time, and that is not what this is about, we are suppose to be looking at the next film in the series “Days of Future Past”.

Now I do not expect them to stick with the original story line, although with the previews of sentinals and the focus on Kitty Pryde in Last Stand I assume that they will be basing the story on that. We have seen this with X-Men First Class, where they essentially just used the name from the comic series and wrote a completely different story. The Premise of Days of Future Past in the original 2 part comic series was that in a dystopian alternative future mutants are incarcerated in internment camps after the assassination of Senator Kelly by Mystique and the brotherhood. A future Kitty Pryde transfers her mind into her younger self and then tries to get the X-Men to stop the assassination and stop this future from ever happening. The X-Men eventually succeed and change the course of their timeline, however the original future still exists but in an alternate dimension. Now this story line could fit perfectly with the trilogy, however they are saying that this film will act as both a prequel and a sequel to the trilogy and First Class. 

This is what confuses me the most, because there are so many contradictions between First Class and the trilogy that I have no idea how they will tie the two together. Obviously they have a plan in mind for this and probably have for some time now, but other then calling them different dimensions and trying to bring the two together I have no idea how they could logically say that First Class actually leads into the trilogy. Some of these inconsistencies include:

• ·         At the end of First Class, we see the incident that paralyzes Professor X from the waist down. Mind you, this movie takes place in the 60s. In the movie, The Last Stand, the opening scene shows Professor X walking, which is set to be 80s.

• ·         In the same opening scene in The Last Stand, Xavier and Magneto are still friends. In First Class, they have already went their separate ways.

• ·         In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, we also see Professor X standing at the end of the film.

• ·         Back to the Wolverine movie, during the escape of Three Mile Island, we see Emma Frost as a teenager. In First Class (which happens years before), she is an adult. Of course, they never mentioned her name in the movie, but the actress was credited as "Emma Frost."

• ·         In the first X-Men movie, Xavier states that his first meeting with Magneto was when they were teenagers. In First Class, they are grown men the first time they meet.

• ·         In X2, we see Beast in human form. In First Class, we see him transform from human to blue mutant. Unless he was able to transform himself back to human, and decided to turn himself blue again in The Last Stand, that just wouldn't make any sense.

• ·         First Class establishes that Hank McCoy (Beast) was the one who built Cerebro. In the first movie, Professor X explains that he built it with the help of Magneto.

• ·         Because it was stated that Magneto helped Professor X construct Cerebro, Magneto was able to build a helmet that was impervious to telepathy. While in First Class, Magneto merely takes the helmet from Sebastian Shaw.

• ·         In First Class, during the scene when Xavier uses Cerebro for the first time, we see a young Storm cameo. That would mean Storm in the trilogy should be about 50 years old. I'm sure this was made clearly for fan service, but I'm just sayin'.

• ·         In The Last Stand, Mystique becomes cured from her mutation, where we see her revert into a brunette. In First Class, she's a blonde. First Class also establishes that her blue form is her "true" form, which means she was born blue. If being "cured" in The Last Stand means she gains a human appearance, I'm going to assume that she had normal skin before her blueish scales. So which one came first?

• ·         Moira Mactaggert seems to look about the same age in both First Class and The Last Stand, which is set decades apart.

She looks good for a 30 year difference

Of course for things like Xavier walking and beast being blue or not one could say that this has happened in the comics plenty of times, but the comics have had 50 plus years of story lines, we are only going into our fifth X-Men movie, it would be ridiculous if this is how they planned to explain it from the beginning. And there are some more inconsistencies and who knows, maybe Days of Future Past will find the perfect way to meld the two together and I will look like an idiot, it wouldn't be the first time.

I could honestly go on and on about this film franchise and talk about how I wish Marvel could receive their rights back to their characters so we could watch one big Marvel Universe develop, oh and don’t even get me started on Spider-man.

Since I did not actually review these films I will not be giving them a rating however I will finish with this. I do generally enjoy the X-Men movies, although the casting, story lines and inconsistencies do bother me as an X-Men fan. Out of all of the X-Men movies my lest favorite by far is First Class just because it is such a mess of the X-Men story-line  I enjoyed both Wolverine Origins and the new Wolverine although I am not sure how I feel about his claws being cut and the Silver Samurai in general. As for Spider-man which I just mentioned, he is my favorite superhero, and watching the original three movies hurts. I understand that it brought popularity to the Superhero film genre however it was such a misrepresentation of Peter Parker and Spider-man, also why Toby Maquire....... The most recent Spider-man however was a big step forward.

That’s it, I’m sorry, I’ll stop

Chris  

Moneyball

Moneyball stars Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, the general manager of the baseball team the Oakland Athletics. After the club loses three key players, Beane is forced to craft a winning team with a limited budget and resources. He turns to Peter Brand, played by Jonah Hill, who introduces him to advanced statistics and a new unconventional way to build a winning team. The film is based off the real-life Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics during the 2002 MLB season, as well as the book written in 2003 under the title Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.

The reason Moneyball is so enjoyable is because it is a baseball film that isn’t entirely about baseball. At times a non-baseball fan can be confused with some of the dialogue dealing with the statistical intricacies of the game, but Moneyball manages to keep the story engaging even for non-baseball fans. The film is primarily a drama, but adds good doses of comedy to help keep the pace of the film on track. The film is not only about Billy Beane’s attempt at creating a successful baseball team, but also his personal challenge for redemption. As someone who had previously failed to make it as a baseball player, he needs to show he can contribute something positive to the game he loves.

As a baseball fan, one of the more interesting scenes came earlier in the film, where Billy and Peter meet with the Oakland Athletics scouting team. The meeting turns into a clash of scouting styles, as the old-school scouts look to simply fill out positions with players they believe are good enough to replace the ones they lost. In contrast, Billy and Peter attempt to completely revamp the team, and instead of replacing the players they lost, they instead look to build the team in a different way. The scene really helps illustrate the change that occurred in real-life baseball during the team, as advanced statistics began to play heavily into scouting, and teams no longer needed to consist of simply the best players at their positions, but rather a group of individuals who work well together and can contribute in different ways.

If I could offer a criticism to the film, it would be towards the ending of the movie, which seemed very ill-placed. I was certainly not expecting the film to end at the point it did, and considering the emotional journey it had taken, it was unexpected to end it on such a low note. However, it is based around a true story, and it is difficult to end the film in a way that does not stay true to the true course of events.

All in all, Moneyball is a terrific film, enjoyable primarily for fans of baseball, but not alienating for those who have little familiarity with the sport.

Cody- 9/10