Focus

MPAA Rating: R for language, some sexual content and brief 

violence.

Run Time: 104 Minutes

My Rating: 2.5/5

So today my wife and I went and saw Warner Bros.' Focus starring Will Smith (Hitch) and Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street).  The film tells the story of Nicky Spurgeon (Will Smith), an extremely talented con-man, who decides to teach an amateur con artist, Jess (Margot Robbie).  After beginning a budding romance, Nicky decides to let Jess go with no explanation whatsoever. However, three years later, the two of them meet up randomly while Nicky is on a job and as feelings begin to reemerge, the whole job could be compromised.  

So personally, I was really excited when I first saw the trailer for this film.  I am a huge fan of Will Smith and this actually looked like an excellent heist movie.  However, when I watched the film, I found that not to be the case.  The first half of the movie was exactly what I was expecting.  It was entertaining and kept me on the edge of my seat.  It was so exciting seeing Will Smith be this great con-man and seeing how exciting that life could be. However, about half way through the movie, the tone completely changed.  It went from this great heist film to a romance film.  Though for most people this wouldn't be a problem, for me I just wasn't expecting it and I thought that the film had lost its great tone that it had at the beginning.  However, in the last scene, the movie finally regains that great tone. 

Other than that, I thought the film was actually pretty good.  It brought some great laughs and overall, the actors did a great job.  This was a typical Will Smith film and I thought for the most part redeemed him from his embarrassing film After Earth which came out just 2 years ago.  This film truly proves that Will Smith can still lead a movie and do it right.

Overall, I thought the film was good.  The film is getting the above rating because I only liked half the film.  I'm not saying that the other half wasn't good, I just personally didn't like it.  It might of been because I wasn't expecting it and now that you know, you might like it more than I did.  I just thought that the film had a lot going for it at the beginning and then it lost the greatness that it had.  If you are a fan of Will Smith, I would recommend this film because he is excellent in it. However, if you are seeing this film because you think it is a heist film, then you might be as disappointed as I was.  

Thanks again for reading!! If you have any questions, comments, or ideas just let me know!!!

McFarland, USA

MPAA Rating: PG for thematic material, some violence and language.
Run Time: 129 Minutes
My Rating: 5/5
So today my wife and I saw Walt Disney Pictures' McFarland, USA starring Kevin Costner (Black or White) and Maria Bello (Prisoners).  The film follows the true story of Jim White, a struggling coach and teacher who has to move to McFarland, California (one of the poorest cities in America) with his family due to several incidents at his previous employments.  While him and his family begin to get settled, Jim discovers potential among many of his high school students.  As he begins training these boys to be cross-country runners, he realizes that these boys and this new community has a lot more to teach him about life than he could have ever expected.
So first off, I must admit that when it comes to sports movies, I can't help but love them.  There is just something about them that reaches into my soul and inspires me.  In fact, for the most part, sports movies are the only movies where I will shed a tear or two. With that being said, I naturally loved this film.  Probably the best thing about this film was the many lessons that this film teaches its audience.  The first lesson that this film teaches is that no matter what background you come from, you can always achieve greatness.  Seeing how these kids grew up and how they made something of themselves is amazing.  They had every reason to just give up due to their circumstances, but they chose not to and to believe in themselves and in each other.  The next lesson that this film teaches is that hard work really can pay off.  These kids woke up every morning at 4:30 to work with their families, then they went to school all day, then worked with their families for another couple of hours and then they would train for their cross country meets.  Talk about hard work and dedication.  Each one of these activities shaped these kids and though we may not be asked to do all of this in our own lives, we should work just as hard as they do in what we do every day. These are just a few of the many wonderful lessons that this film teaches.
Though I thought the film was amazing, that doesn't mean I don't think that the film had its flaws. For one thing, the film was a little long.  However, with that being said, I don't know what I would cut out of it.  Also with such a young, inexperienced cast the acting could have been better at times, but then again I really enjoyed how the film didn't relay heavily on its more experienced actors.
Overall, as if you couldn't tell, I absolutely loved this film.  I would recommend this film to anyone. This film has things in it that all audiences will enjoy.  If you have time this week, definitely go see this film because I promise you that you will not regret doing so.

Thanks again for reading!! If you have any questions,comments, or ideas just let me know!!!

Oscar 2015 Winners

Here are the official winners of the 2015 Academy Awards. There were some winners that I don't agree with, but then again I don't make the decisions.  However though I don't agree with some of the decisions there were some surprises that I am quite happy with.  I hope you get a chance to watch this years nominees.  Most of them were actually quite good!!!

BEST PICTURE

Birdman

BEST DIRECTOR

Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman

BEST ACTOR

Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

BEST ACTRESS

Julianne Moore, Still Alice

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Imitation Game, Graham Moore

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Birdman, Emmanuel Lubezki

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

The Grand Budapest Hotel, Milena Canonero

BEST FILM EDITING

Whiplash, Tom Cross

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Alexandre Desplat)

BEST MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

“Glory” from Selma

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Adam Stockhausen; Anna Pinnock)

BEST SOUND EDITING

American Sniper

BEST SOUND MIXING

Whiplash

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Interstellar

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Big Hero 6

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski; Poland)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM

CITIZENFOUR

BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1

BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

Feast

BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

The Phone Call

Still Alice

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material, and brief language including a sexual reference.
Run Time: 101 Minutes
My Rating: 4/5
So tonight my wife and I saw Sony Classic Pictures' Still Alice starring Julianne Moore (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1), Alec Baldwin (NBC's 30 Rock), Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns), and Kristen Stewart (The Twilight Saga).  The film follows the story of Alice Howland, a happily married, linguistics professor at Columbia University who discovers that she has early onset Alzheimer's.  As Alice begins dealing with the several symptoms of her diagnosis, her and her family have to dig deep within themselves in order to help each other through this very difficult time.
So first off, I want to say that I thought that this film was very well made and had some incredible acting.  The film tackled some very important and sensitive issues and it accomplished this very daunting task in a very tactful and appropriate way.  There is no small amount of emotion in this film and no matter who you are, young or old, this film will touch your heart in more ways than one.  This can only be accomplished by the incredible acting by its very talented cast.  Julianne Moore gives a riveting performance as Alice.  You can see how emotional she gets as the illness slowly takes over Alice. Julianne Moore has been receiving a lot of love for this performance and is the expected winner at the Academy Awards this Sunday and I agree that she gives a very powerful performance.  She is what brings this movie together.
Though the film was really good, there were some things that I yearned for.  One thing is that even though the film had a very talented cast, I was just expecting more from the other cast members.  I felt like there was so much more potential, but with that being said, they still did an excellent job. Another thing that I did not like was how the movie ended.  The film just kind of ended and I was left wanting more.  I wanted some sort of closure and I never got it.  There were so many things that I wanted answers to, but unfortunately I never got them.
Overall, I really liked this film.  It had its flaws, but it was still a pretty great film.  This is a very emotional film and I would recommend this film to anyone.  This film will hit close to home for a lot of people.  This is a very sensitive subject and this film portrays it beautifully.

Thanks again for reading!! If you have any questions, comments, or ideas just let me know!!!

Old Fashioned

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some thematic material.
Run Time: 115 Minutes
My Rating: 3.5/5
So today I went and saw Freestyle Releasing's and Skoche Films' Old Fashioned starring Elizabeth Rogers (Days of Our Lives) and Rik Swartzwelder in his first full-length feature film debut.  Rik Swartzwelder also directed and wrote this film.  The film follows the love story between Clay and Amber.  Clay is a former frat party boy who after a series of events turns his life around and dedicates his life to the Lord.  He has placed very strict rules on himself when it comes to women which has pushed most people out of his life.  Amber is a free-spirited woman who is looking to start a new life and rents the room about Clay's antique shop. When Clay and Amber start to have feelings for each other, she respects Clay's rules and the two of them try to do the impossible: have an actual "old-fashioned" relationship in present-day America.
First off, this film has brought about one of the biggest box-office battles in recent years and the sad part about it is that you haven't even heard of it.  This film came out last weekend against Fifty Shades of Grey.  Where one film shows how disrespecting women and using them as objects rather than human beings, the other one talks about how important it is to respect a woman's body and emotions.  This film is the complete opposite of Fifty Shades of Grey and shows how important it is to be chaste and pure and how the "world" views those people that practice these virtues.  To be honest, this film shows these "world" views perfectly.  I think it is interesting that the film that shows the degradation of women was the one that got all the hype while the one that shows how important it is to treat women with respect is the one that no one has even heard of.  Just that aspect alone shows how much our society has changed.  It is this social commentary that the film excels on.  The whole cast and crew did a spectacular job at showing just much our world has changed.  That was my favorite part of the film and will be yours when you see it.
Though I thought that the film touched on very important issues and I applaud the film for standing up for chastity and morals, there were things in this film that I thought could have been better.  I felt like the film was trying to show the complete opposite end of the chastity spectrum that the entire time it made the Clay unlikable.  However, the film redeems itself in the last 5 minutes.  Also along those lines, this film tries way too hard.  Now I am not saying that it is a bad thing, I am just saying that some of the scenes could have been removed and the meaning would have remained powerful. However, once again, I completely respect and support this film in its morals and its position on respecting women.
Overall, I really liked this film.  I would definitely see this film again.  For those of you that want to see what a real relationship looks like, then this is definitely the film for you.  Even though everyone flocked to see Fifty Shades of Grey when it first opened, this film truly shows the kind of relationship every girl wants.  Though most will deny it, this is the one they truly long for.  Old Fashioned is by far the greatest romantic film out right now and if you have the opportunity to see it, you definitely should.

Copyrights and Film in Real Life

Hey everyone, so this is a follow up to my article Understanding Legal Issues in Film Part 1: Drafting the Script, where I described that one of the major issues that faces young filmmakers today is obtaining the rights to novels, plays, other artistic works.  Well after writing that article, I have noticed many lawsuits that have come out in recent weeks about this very topic.  So I decided to share with you some of these articles so that you can see how copyrights truly affect filmmakers and their films.

The first article deals with how important it is to find out who actually owns the rights to a literary work.  The article describes the lawsuit that Warner Bro.'s is facing for their Oscar-winning film Gravity starring Sandra Bullock. Apparently the lawsuit came about when Warner Bros. bought out New Line Cinema back in 2008.  New Line Cinema had already owned the rights to the material since 2000 and had entered into a contract with the material'a author. However, after the buyout the film was actually made, the author states that her contract had been breached because for one thing Warner Bros. did not own the rights to her material.  She did not have a say in what went on the film and is now suing Warner Bros. for copyright infringement.  The whole article can be read here.

The second article deals with the importance of not only obtaining the rights to a literary work, but also using those rights in the designated contractual period.  Like I said in my last article most authors will usually give the rights to their works of art for a specific amount of time and for a specific paid amount.  However, if the author sees that their work is being used by the company in a way that pleases them, then an author may extend the contract for a longer period.  Also, there are some contracts that authors make that say that after a certain period of time, as long as the company has done something with their work than the contract is extended for a longer period of time.  It is that contract that this second article deals with.
The article focuses on the deal between Red Eagle Entertainment and the rights to the popular fantasy epic The Wheel of Time series written by Robert Jordan.  Back in 2006 Red Eagle Entertainment bought the rights to The Wheel of Time series to be produced into a TV show before February 11, 2015.  Since then however, the company hadn't done anything with the series.  However, the company did not want to lose the rights so instead of going and negotiating a new contract with the wife of the deceased author who was going to get the rights back this week, the studio put together a sloppy, horribly-made episode based on the series and aired it on February 9, 2015 at 1:30 am on FXX.  Yes that is right.  Now with that being done, even though practically no one watched the episode and those that did hated it, this company gets to keep the rights for another couple of years in order to hopefully provide a better product than what they came up with. Now though, the company is in the midst of this major lawsuit against the author's wife, which could have all been avoided by just simple communication.  You can read the full article here.

Well there you go.  There are just a few real life examples of how copyrights can affect studios and movies in general.  What I really want to emphasize with this article is how important communication is in the process of drafting the script and how not communicating and not obtaining the rights to author's work can have a negative impact on the company and the film itself.  I hope that this has been helpful.  If you have any questions or comments for me, just email me or leave a comment below.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

MPAA Rating: R for sequences of strong violence, language and some sexual content.
Run Time: 129 Minutes
My Rating: 4.5/5
Hey y'all, so today my wife and I decided to see Twentieth Century Fox's Kingsman: The Secret Service starring Colin Firth (The King's Speech), Mark Strong (The Imitation Game), Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers), Michael Caine (The Dark Knight Rises), and recent newcomer Taron Egerton.  The film was directed by Matthew Vaughn (X-Men First Class).  The film is based upon the acclaimed comic book series which details the story of Eggsy (Taron Egerton), a troubled kid, who gets recruited by the Kingsmen, a secret spy organization to participate in their ultra-competitive training program.  However, as the world is being attacked by an evil tech genius, Eggsy's training is fast-tracked in order to save his planet.
First off, I was absolutely entertained all 129 minutes.  I actually wish that this film was longer.  This show has so much going for it, that I can't believe that it took so long to make such an excellent film.  I, personally, have never read the comic books of which this film is based on, so I really did not know what to expect.  So for those, like me, who have never read the comic books, expect James Bond, but a lot let serious and a whole lot more fun.  From start to finish the film knows exactly what it is and what it is trying to accomplish and it does not waiver from it.  The cast is absolutely amazing in this film.  They blend so well together.  I would definitely like to see a sequel just so I can see this cast together again.  Also the action sequences were stunning.  Some of the best scenes I have seen in a long time.  They were just so entertaining that I couldn't stop smiling the entire way through.
Now, honestly, for me I can't find a single reason not to like this film.  The only reason this film isn't receiving a perfect score is because of the shock that I had when I was watching this film.  Now I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, but I am just saying this to warn you.  This is a bloody, violent movie.  I was not expecting it to be as bloody as it actually was.  For me, I don't get that queasy, but my wife thought it was disgusting.  So just beware of that before you go.
Overall, I really liked this film.  I was entertained the entire way through.  I would probably see this film again.  It was great.  I would definitely recommend this film to those that can handle a lot of blood.  If you can't handle it, then don't go see this film.  Otherwise, if you go and see it, you will not be disappointed.

Thanks again for reading!! If you have any questions, comments, or ideas just let me know!!