A Jurassic Universe

    In the early 1990s the world was introduced to a gorgeous lush theme park that had one special feature most other places don't, dinosaurs. Jurassic Park and it's sequels are classic films and fan favorites amongst most audiences. Over a decade later, the series tacked on another installment to it's dinosaur filled series with Jurassic World, which premiered in 2015. This film had been teased for many years and had gone under several re-writes and complete do-overs by different people and it was a nice treat to fans of the series to revive our relationship with the beauty that is Jurassic Park.

     During 2015, Jurassic World premiered and did terrific at the box office with mixed reviews from critics and overall the fans. The films stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jake Johnson, Nick Robinson, Ty Simpkins and even brings back Irrfan Khan from the original film to reprise his role. Colin Trevorrow also made his large big budget directing debut and has a few more films lines up in the near future that will hopefully show his growth as a director and improvement in his work.
      This film's plot is very interesting in that it involves a genetically modified dinosaur that has gone rogue and escaped it's enclosure. The interesting catch is that Jurassic Park is now a full hotel/resort so when all animals break lose and their are dinosaurs roaming the resort all hell breaks lose. It's up to Chris Pratt and his team of trained raptors to find the dinosaur and apprehend it before it does any serious damage. To me, this film was great as it has extremely updated graphics from using animatronics to CGI so a lot of things look much clearer, plus I am a huge Chris Pratt fan. Overall, this movie was an interesting venture back into the series and I'm excited to see what happens next with it!

Deadpool

    As written about in my past blogs, comic book movies are currently a huge success at both the box office and with the critics, and with that, the production of these films has ramped up a substantial amount. The only problem, for some people, is that most comic book movies, especially those made by Marvel and DC, are rated merely PG-13. As there has been a few other R rated comic book movies that were all very well received, it comes as no surprise that one made it's way into theaters in 2016. The film in reference is Deadpool, the latest and greatest comic book character to hit the big screen.

    Deadpool is an undead mercenary who was brought back to life by the man he is trying to kill during the entire film. The character Deadpool is portrayed by Ryan Reynolds, and the rest of the cast features the likes of T.J. Miller, Ed Skrein and Karan Soni, as well as many other. Not only all of that but Tim Miller, director of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (another comic book movie adaptation), also directed Deadpool and he created one incredible film off the otherwise unknown source material.
 

    The film is a classic revenge story of Wade, a mercenary, after he is held hostage by the man who murdered him and experimented on in order to come back to life and be nearly invincible. That man is the main villain throughout the entire film and eventually he steals Deadpool's love interest and the main conflict of the film is getting her back. It's a very compelling plot and between the acting, the action and the hilarious ad libs by Ryan Reynolds, most viewers will be pleased and entertained upon first viewing.

Perfect Puppers

   Over the course of the past ten years, animated films have become huge in the world and have started to draw in such a large audience that these films are at an all time high of technological advancements and popularity currently. The Secret Life of Pets is one of the most recent animated films on the big screen and it's a box office smash and sure fan favorite of anything minion related, as the same animation team created both films.
    The Secret Life of Pets takes place in an alternate reality where once all humans leave their pets at home alone, they are suddenly human-like and can speak to one another. The two main pups are Max and Duke, who are voiced by Louis C.K. and Eric Stonestreet, and features voice acting from many others such as Kevin Hart, Bobby Moynihan and Hannibal Buress. After seeing it in theaters I was absolutely blown away at how beautiful and crystal clear all of the animation in the film was, it's really nice to see the artists hard work finally come to life on the big screen and just be able to take in all it's greatness.
This movie is loads of cuteness and great humor from talking dogs, which is something I think most people can get behind. The story and script are truly compelling enough for the audience to be engaged the whole time and never be bored. The Secret Life of Pets is an overall extremely solid film and is currently my favorite animated film.

In a Galaxy far, far Away...

    Two years ago, Marvel Studios released a film based upon a very low-key and relatively unknown comic book series titled, "Guardians of the Galaxy". In 2014, no one knew Guardians of the Galaxy would be such a sleeper hit at the box office and no one realized the eventual incline to huge popularity for these before unknown characters. James Gunn directed this box office underdog and boy could he not be happier now, especially because GOTG is now viewed as one of the best marvel films to date and helped many filthy casuals get more into obscure comic book characters.
     The cast of this comedic action packed intergalactic adventure features many star studded names such as the rising star Christ Pratt, Vin Diesel as the voice of the tree creature Groot, Bradley Cooper as the voice as the wise-cracking space raccoon, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax and many others including Benicio Del Toro, Michael Rooker and John C. Reilly. This film tells the tale of young Peter Quill, Chris Pratt, after his mother dies he gets abducted by a spacecraft and suddenly ends up in space, where 30 years later he would become one of the biggest space pirates in the galaxy. This is a very unique idea for an origin story of a superhero and was actually one of my favorites.
     This film quickly ranked it's way to the top of most Marvel fans film lists, as it has almost the perfect blend of action, comedic relief and romantic or other drama, all thanks to director James Gunn and his lovely cast. From the acting to the colors to the cinematography to the story Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the best Marvel films to date!

A Modern Civil War

    Back in 2006 a comic book story known as Civil War slipped into the comic book world relatively unknown to the masses and years later that very story inspired one of the biggest box office opener's ever. In 2016, Marvel Studios released the highly coveted Captain America: Civil War starring Chris Evans with a backing ensemble cast consisting of Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie plus many more. This film was directed by Anthony and Joe Russo who have directed other Marvel Cinematic Films as well as other films and TV shows.
     Seeing as this is the thirteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe this film had a lot leading up to it and carried a lot of weight on it's shoulders in terms of world building through the story in order to set up the next few years of movies. This film pits apart Captain America and Iron Man against one another when a United Nations signed document titled the Sokovia Accords is introduced to the world in order to put some sort of governing control over super powered people. This makes for an awesome conflict leading to a disassembling of the Avengers super team and a civil war that sparks between the side of heroes who are pro-government vs those who are on the run from authority. This film once again proves the power house that is Marvel Studios with all of it's A listers as the famous superheroes. I believe this to be the best Marvel film to date and can't wait to see what else they bring from comic book pages onto the big screen,

Apocalypse Forever

   During the 1970s, Hollywood made the transition from small time films to completely blowing up and producing some of the most iconic, and rather spectacular films of all time. One of the most prestigious directors of all time, especially during the 1970s, was Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola, whose most famously known for the classic Godfather series, directed a Vietnam war film that premiered in 1979. The name of this classic war film is Apocalypse Now, and will go down as one of the most beautifully shot and directed war films of all time.

   Apocalypse Now stars the father of Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, as well as features the likes of a young Harrison Ford, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall and Laurence Fishburne. The film opens with a PTSD-struck soldier, portrayed by Martin Sheen, who is both metaphorically and physically "stuck" in the jungle and is tasked with going up river in Vietnam in order to assassinate a rogue American soldier. As Sheen's character travels upstream with a ragtag group of soldiers, they not only discover the "horrors" and tragedy of war, but of humanity as well.
    What this film does so well is show the slow mental, physical and emotional deterioration of soldiers during this horrific war and how the bloodbath that was Vietnam tore them apart both inside and out. If anything, this was very much an anti-Vietnam war film which is interesting because many Americans would agree it was one of the most unnecessary wars we have partaken in as a united nation. Apocalypse Now is my personal favorite war movie for it's use of spectacular special and practical effects and it's unique outlook on war.

Kingsman: A New School Twist on Espionage

    Two years ago, my perception of the spy genre changed completely solely based off of one film in particular. This film that really caught my attention is Kingsman: The Secret Service, and it was written as well as directed by Matthew Vaughn, who is known for his work on Snatch, Kick-Ass, and X-Men: First Class. The film's star-studded cast consists of Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Samuel L. Jackson, and newcomer Taron Egerton. This film's witty humour and spin on the spy genre makes for an extremely refreshing and surprisingly hilarious crude James Bond movie.

    As the film begins, we are introduced to a modern world where a secret organization called the Kingsmen exist. This group of extremely skilled and highly trained spies carries out missions unregulated by any form of government and is a completely top secret society. When one of our spies is killed off in the very beginning of the film, we are then transported to his home where his wife and young son live. Just after he passes, one of the leaders of the group stops by to visit the wife and child of his colleague to let them know of the unfortunate news, and while doing so gives the young boy a token that he says he may use once to get him out of anything that he needs. Flash forward fifteen years and that little boy is now a twenty-something hailing from a poor neighborhood and it seems as though life won't stop beating down on him. That is until he gets caught back up with the Kingsmen when we uses his token to get out of jail. 

    The story then takes on the new life of training and becoming a Kingsman in the tryouts with several other people. After he officially becomes a Kingsman he is taken on missions with the other spies as they try to stop the villain from taking over the world with his mind-controlling phone and internet services. This film does justice to not only the action and comedy genres, but has many great callbacks and references to older James Bond and other spy movies. Kingsmen completely changed my outlook on the espionage genre as a whole and allowed me to appreciate them much more!