Bully (2012) review

(8/10)

I've been looking forward to seeing this for a long time, and now that I have seen it, I have to say that it is a very good documentary and proves its point to its audience with little to no effort.

SUBJECT:The subject of this documentary is based on five different families that have kids that are being bullied in school. They focus on the family of a girl being persecuted because she's lesbian, the family of a son who hung himself at 17 because of his classmates' pressure, the family of a daughter who brought a gun to school to scare her bullies, the family of a son who's picked on everyday because of how he looks, and the family of a boy who also committed suicide and is dedicated to the stopping bullying all over the world. It's very good subject matter executed and explored brilliantly.



PEOPLE:The dedication and heart of the people in and behind this documentary is very strong and touching to the purpose of it all. I appreciate their journey to stop bullying, for I've been in that place before. There are some really good kids out there getting abused.

SCORE:The soundtrack is mainly made up of alternative rock and pop, but is used very well.



OTHER CONTENT:This documentary really sheds light on the world of bullying and the effect it has on students and entire towns. I appreciate the goal behind it all, but I have a questionable problem with the documentary. The documentary has caught kids bullying other kids on camera via the camera crew, but I believe that had an impact on the kids on tape. What if the kids only acted up this way because they were on camera? What if they never did it until now? I find that questionable.

OVERALL,a great documentary with a brilliantly explored subject matter, very strong dedication and heart, score used very well, and a needed light shed on the world of bullying, but I wonder if the camera had an impression on how the kids acted or not and how accurate it all actually was.

She's All That (1999) review

(6/10)

It's probably disagreeable to most that I liked this as much as I did, but it brought back some fond memories of my childhood and is actually just pretty funny.

PLOT:Laney Boggs (Rachel Leigh Cook) is an unpopular girl at her school. She's very artistic and smart, and the preps despise her for it. Zack Siler (Freddie Prinze Jr.) is the most popular guy in school and thinks he can get any girl he wants. He makes this bet with his best friend, Brock Hudson (Matthew Lillard), after his girlfriend, Taylor Vaughan (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe), breaks up with him. Now, Zack is striving to take Laney and make her the most popular girl in school, even though she's wise and persistent to his tricks. All the while, Taylor is becoming jealous and trying to put Laney back in her place. It's a decent plot executed very well.



ACTING:The acting in here is actually very good. Rachel Leigh Cook plays a pretty good part as the wise and artistic Laney Boggs, and Freddie Prinze Jr. plays a very good part as the popular Zack Siler. They play off each other very well and also have some pretty great chemistry. The other performances were just okay, including the likes of Matthew Lillard as Brock and Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as Taylor.

SCORE:The score was pretty okay. It was mainly made up of popular and original songs from the 90s, but it was still pretty good.



OTHER CONTENT:This movie is actually better than I expected it to be. It's very funny and entertaining, and it brings back some fond memories I remember from my childhood in the 90s. However, it's still pretty generic and shallow along with the okay supporing actors. I liked it, but it did have its flaws.

OVERALL,an okay comedy with a well-executed plot, very good acting, pretty okay score, lots of fun, and a lot of memories from the 90s, but it is still pretty generic and shallow with only okay supporting actors.

The Ramen Girl (2008) review

(5/10)

This movie is charming and inspiring, but that isn't enough to cover up the cheesiness and shallow acting.

PLOT:After following him to Tokyo to start a new life, Abby (Brittany Murphy) is heartbroken when her boyfriend decides to leave her for a new job. Now reduced to no more than an American slacker in a foreign land, Abby seeks comfort and finds it in a ramen shop across the street. After a few days of watching, she decides she wants to be trained to be a ramen chef. However, the owner (Toshiyuki Nishida) doesn't get along with her very well, and this is all because neither of them can understand each other's language! So, Abby has to strive to learn to cook ramen from a mean owner, all the while dealing with heartbreak and learning Japanese. It's a good plot executed decently.



ACTING:The acting in here is also pretty decent. Brittany Murphy plays a pretty cool part as the heartbroken Abby, as does Toshiyuki Nishida as Maezumi, the mean ramen chef. These two play off each other very well and have great on-screen chemistry. The other performances are pretty good, but no one's really spectacular.

SCORE:The score in here is pretty good. It's done in an inspiring, foreign feel.



OTHER CONTENT:This was pretty good. This movie's full of charm with a fairly inspiring feel to it. It really glorifies the act of making ramen in Tokyo, and I find that interesting. However, there is a handful of scenes in here that are just very cheesy, and though there are chemistry among the actors and actresses, the acting is pretty shallow and one-track. It's like they only have one real personality trait per character. It's not too bad, but it's not too good either.

OVERALL,a neutral movie with a good plot, decent acting, pretty good score, lots of charm, an inspiring feel, and an interesting view, but it gets pretty cheesy at times, and the acting can be found as pretty one-track and shallow.

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) review

(4/10)

With this being one of Jim Carrey's titular roles, you would expet this to be pretty funny. However, this was actually fairly a dumb movie.

PLOT:Ace Ventura (Jim Carrey) is a local, well-know pet detective that is said to catch any lost animal. The test of his abilities comes when Snowflake, he mascot of the Miami Dolphins, goes missing. The team representative, Melissa (Courtney Cox), puts Ace on te case of finding him. Things get more fishy, though, when other key players on the team start to go missing as well. It's an okay plot executed near-decently.



ACTING:The acting in here was okay. Jim Carrey played a fairly good role as the goofy detective, Ace Ventura. He had some good moments and some bad moments. Courtney Cox played a decent part as Melissa. The only other roles I can really mention are Dan Morino as himself, Sean Young as Lois Einhorn, and Tone-Loc as Emilio. Except for Carrey and Cox, no performance was truly good.

SCORE:The score in here wasn't anything special. It got the job done.



OTHER CONTENT:This is a weird movie. I love Jim Carrey, but this movie was just pretty stupid. Though Carrey used his typical over-acting plan to get by, some moments just didn't work for him. I had moments where I laughed out loud and I had moments that I shook my head. This movie really isn't anything special unless you really like Jim Carrey.

OVERALL,a mediocre comedy with a near-decent plot, okay acting, unimportant score, and a lot of stupidity, but some scenes made me laugh, and I love Jim Carrey.

Ted (2012) review

(7/10)

I finally decided to check out this movie from all the hype I've heard about it, but I realized that it was moslty just hype. This movie is pretty funny and cool, but it isn't as fresh as it wants to be.

PLOT:When he was a little boy, John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) wished that his teddy bear could talk. That next morning, John woke up to find out that his wish came true. Fast forward to 27 years later, and we see that John and Ted (Seth MacFarlene) are still the best of friends. However, things start getting complicated when John's girlfriend of four years, Lori (Mila Kunis), starts wanting John to grow up and move away from Ted. Ted must now get a job and find his own place or sacrifice John and Lori's relationship for his friendship. It's a good plot executed very well.



ACTING:The acting in here is alright. The performances weren't excellent, but they got the job done failry well. Mark Wahlberg played a respectable part as John Bennett, but it wasn't terribly good. Mila Kunis played a pretty good part as Lori as well; however, the best performance would have to be of Seth MacFarlene as Ted. He uses a familiar voice to play the part of the trash-mouthed, pot-smoking teddy bear in a very funny and comedic way. The other shiners would be Patrick Warburton as Guy, Patrick Stewart as the narrator, Alex Borstein as John's mom, and Giovanni Ribisi as Donny.

SCORE:The score was okay and used in a comedic tone, but it wasn't the best and it didn't fit a whole lot.

EFFECTS:The effects in here were pretty good and pretty cool. The effects used to make the live, moving teddy bear were cool and fairly realistic. The scene that really wowed me in here was the part where Ted and John started fighting. That was pretty awesome effects-wise.



OTHER CONTENT:This movie wasn't as good as some people make it out to be, but it was pretty cool. This movie was funny with a unique twist and an entertaining storyline, but it had several problems. The main idea of this movie (romance or bromance) has been overdone and is a bit generic, some of the jokes are hit-and-miss, and the tonal shifts often throw everything off balance. It is supposed to be a rowdy comedy, but it could have been much better than it really was if it wanted to.

OVERALL,a good comedy with a good plot, alright acting, comedic score, cool effects, lots of funny humor, a unique twist, and an entertaining storyline, but the main idea is generic, some of the jokes don't hit right, and the tone shifts too much to feel comfortable.

Wages of Sin (2006) review

(1/10)

Why I even bothered with this puzzles me. This is like one of the worst horror movies out there, but I just love to hate it.

PLOT:Sue Walker (Ashlie Clark) inherits a house deep in the country which her family used to own. She has no memory of the place after the time she spent in therapy. So, to check out the house, she takes her boyfriend, Ron (Brandon Michael), and a couple other friends of hers for the weekend. However, this house seems to have a bad reputation in the town she's in. When they arrive at the old house, memories start slowly coming back to Sue about what happened there: memories of a mentally-disturbed priest she used to be related to. Strange things happen to accompany that and disturb her and her friends. It's a decent plot executed horribly.



ACTING:The performances in this movie suck pretty horribly. No one really did a good job, but Ashlie Clark and Brandon Michael did a nearly-decent job of Sue and Ron. The other two sucked, especially Prentice Reedy. He was the worst actor in the whole movie. Billy St. John tried to play a reasonable part as the evil priest, but it ended up falling flat after a while.

SCORE:The score was interesting. It was repetative, but it wasn't horrible and fit the mood half of the time.

EFFECTS:The effects in here were terrible. They would have been better off with a tube of fake blood and Halloween decorations, which they may have used anyway.



OTHER CONTENT:This movie I only watched because it was given to me in a 4-pack as a gift. I didn't like it at all. The execution is lame along with everything else and the ending is terrible, too. However, I love to hate it. I can sit back and laugh at all of the flaws and treat it more as a comedy instead of a horror. It's like a Troll 2 or Plan 9 type of movie, where it's loved to be hated. I laugh at it rather than get scared.

OVERALL,a horrible horror movie with a horribly executed plot, sucky performances, interesting score, terrible effects, lame execution, and a terrible ending, but I love to hate it so much that I laugh at it.

Constantine (2005) review

(6/10)

This one always has intrigued me, but I never really took any liking to it until recently. It's actually not too bad, but very much strange and gimmick-like.

PLOT:Constantine (Keanu Reeves) is a priest like no other. He was born with the power to see spirits of both good and evil on earth and tried to kill himself because of it. Now, he's trying to buy himself into Heaven by exorcising as many demons from people as he can. However, things get interesting when a cop, Angela (Rachel Weisz), visits him telling about how her twin sister unexpectedly committed suicide. Little does Constantine know that this little issue may lead to him having to save the world from Satan's son. It's a great and interesting plot executed fairly well.



ACTING:The performances in here are okay. None of them are particularly excellent, but they get the job done well. Keanu Reeves plays the role of exorcist Constantine fairly well, as Rachel Weisz does as Angela and Isabelle. Theo ther shiners are Shia LeBouf as Chas, Djimon Hounsou as Midnite, Gavin Rossdale as Balthazar, Tilda Swinton as Gabriel, and Peter Stormare as Satan. It's a pretty star-studded cast, but you can tell that the actors aren't putting their full potential into their characters.

SCORE:The score in here is pretty well done. It fits the mood rather well, but isn't anything too special.

EFFECTS:The effects in here are really good. They're early CG, but they look rather cool. The effects used to make Hell, Heaven, the demons, and the possessions are really cool and wild. They could freak somebody out, not to mention the effects of Heaven and Hell look reasonabley surreal.



OTHER CONTENT:This is an interesting movie. I don't really know where to start. The whole idea behind this movie is just interesting and unique, but it is more of a paranormal action than just a horror. A lot of parts can scare, but it has more of an action feel. This movie could anger some people and entertain others; some Christians could hate the film while some horror buffs could love it. I'm caught in the middle because I liked the horror of it, but I don't necessarily agree with the idea of another angel turning against God to release the son of the Devil. It's too out there for me. This also seems very gimmicky and complicated to the point that it could gain followers or spin off into a cheesy series. It's an okay movie, but it's nothing to freak out about really.

OVERALL,an ok movie with an interesting plot, okay acting, well done score, really good CG effects, unique ideas, and good horror parts, but the actors don't live up to their potential, some anger for my belief, a cheesy and gimmicky feel to it, and complicated plot twists.