Month: February 2017

Oscar Recap 2017

The 89th Academy Awards are over…The show won’t be remembered for the fun things that happened such as Food Parachuting from the ceiling not once, not twice, but three times during the show or the Tour Bus folks who beyond their wildest dreams had a chance to meet Hollywood stars as they made their way through the Auditorium.
This year’s Oscars will be remembered for the horrendous blunder that occurred for the Best Picture Award. After 89 years you would expect that a mistake like what happened last night wouldn’t happen, but it did. “La La Land” believed they had locked up the Best Picture Award to find out they did not actually win. “Moonlight” is the Best Picture Award Winner.
I did not see “Moonlight” but was very much aware of the movie and I knew that it was receiving “Oscar Buzz” as far back as October.

Here is my Oscar Recap for Last night’s awards.

“Moonlight” won the Best Picture Award. I did not see it, but I did see 5 of the nine nominees: “Fences”, “Hidden Figures”, “La La Land”, “Hell or High Water” and “Arrival”. I gave all of these movies 4 or 5 stars.
Casey Affleck won for Best Actor in a leading role for “Manchester by the Sea”. I did not see that movie. I feel that Denzel Washington was more deserving of the Oscar for his role in “Fences”.
Mahershala Ali won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in “Moonlight”

Viola Davis won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in “Fences” in fact Viola Davis won the “Trifecta”. She won the Golden Globe, The SAG Award and topped it off with the Oscar all for her role in “Fences”. Viola Davis deserves every accolade she has received.

Emma Stone won for Best Actress in a Leading Role for “La La Land”.
Damien Chazelle won the Best Director Oscar for “La La Land”
“Zootopia” won the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar. I gave this movie 5 stars.
“Moonlight” – Best Writing Adapted Screenplay Oscar
“Manchester by the Sea” – Best Original Screenplay Oscar
The Best Cinematography Oscar went to “La La Land”
The Best Music Original Score Oscar went to “La La Land”
The Best Costume Design Oscar went to “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”
Best Original Song went to “City of Stars” from “La La Land”
The Production Design Oscar went to “La La Land”
The Sound Editing Oscar went to “Arrival”
The Sound Mixing Oscar went to “Hacksaw Ridge”
The Visual Effects Oscar went to “The Jungle Book”
The Makeup and Hair Oscar went to “Suicide Squad”

If you have not seen “Hidden Figures”, “Arrival”, “Hell or High Water”, “Fences”, “La La Land” or “Zootopia” I suggest catching these movies as soon as you can.

Other Oscar Winners are as follows:

Best Documentary Feature Film – “O.J. Made in America”
Best Documentary Short Film – “The White Helmets”
Best Live Action Short Film – “Sing”
Best Animated Short Film – “Piper”
Best Foreign Film – “The Salesman”

Collide

“Collide” wasn’t on my original “Watch List”, but I decided to check it out.

“Collide” is about a heist that goes terribly wrong. A prominent business tycoon uses his empire as a cover as every 6 months he brings in Cocaine to be distributed in parts of Germany. A regular business man is aware of what’s been going on and wants in on the action from a financial perspective. The two gentlemen meet, but the meeting does not go well. The prominent business tycoon refuses to do business.

This leaves the regular business man to devise a scheme to get what he wants. He recruits a couple of young guys that work for him with the lure of an extremely large payday. The two guys put together what they believe is a fool-proof plan, but the prominent business tycoon is a bit smarter and what appears to be the perfect heist goes awry. The story unfolds from there…

The best thing about “Collide” is there are lots of nasty car chases involving extremely expensive cars.
You would think that a movie containing Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kingsley would be very good. Not so in the case of “Collide”. The story is rich, but it’s not executed very well. The dialog is horrible.

Several people got up and left in the mid of the movie and did not come back! I started to leave, but my curiosity got the best of me, so I stayed.

There is a reason that “Collide” did not get much press. It’s an awful movie, so I am sure they were thinking why bother…

“Collide” is best viewed on Cable. It’s not worth the price of a Blue-Ray or DVD.

This movie does not rate any stars!

The Great Wall in Real 3D

“The Great Wall” is an Action/Fantasy set in 11th century China, two Mercenaries (Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal) from the west find themselves battling for their lives against a Chinese Military. They are soon captured, but once their captors witness their archery and weapons skills, the military command at the Great Wall needs their assistance to battle a super-natural menace who continues to try and scale the wall to get at them and their people. Meanwhile there is a stranded visitor (Willem Dafoe) who has been at the great wall for twenty five years. He states there is a treasure to be had and tries to convince the Mercenaries to help him steal it. The story unfolds from there…

“The Great Wall” is an action epic and visual feast. Matt Damon is the best element in the movie. It’s a shame that the story wasn’t put in proper context so that it was understood how the super-natural menace came to be and why it wishes to attack and destroy an entire nation and where did the supposed treasure come from.

Because the story as a whole is dis-jointed and unclear, it’s boring. If it weren’t for Matt Damon, the movie won’t be worth seeing. The 3D aspects are pretty good.

“The Great Wall” will be a great movie to watch on Blue-Ray, DVD or Cable.

This is a 2 ½ Star Movie!

John Wick: Chapter 2

Welcome to a Special Edition of “Thursday Night at the Movies with The Movie Warrior”

I am often leery about second installments of a movie whose first installment was surprisingly good. I did not think that “John Wick: Chapter 2” could improve on its 2014 debut, but I stand corrected. As action/drama movies go, “John Wick: Chapter 2” is awesome!

“John Wick: Chapter 2” has an excellent lead in and it reminds you of what transpired in the first installment. John (Keanu Reeves) wants desperately to retire, but after only being home for a couple of days a former associate from his past comes knocking at his door. At first John refuses the assignment that is offered, but the associate who visits him refuses to take no for an answer. Since John said “No”, the associate exacts revenge and destroys John’s house which leaves him homeless. Now John has no choice but to find out what the assignment is and go execute it. The story unfolds from there…

The action is awesome and intense. The events are non-stop. There is a ton of suspense and intrigue. Keanu Reeves is in great shape for his role as John Wick. There were many awesome fight scenes. The only draw-back is the dialog. If you are interested in a movie that has a lot of dialog, you will not be happy with “John Wick: Chapter 2”. The dialog is minimal, but is enough to get the job done.

All in all “John Wick: Chapter 2” is definitely worth the ticket.

This is a 4 Star Movie!