Fact Friday

  Today's movie fact is about another favourite of mine.The remake of a 2001 German film called Das Experiment.The 2010 movie The Experiment is about a psychological study in which the participants are divided into groups either acting as prison guards or as inmates.The movie is very emotional and very powerful and is starring Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace and Cam Gigandet.
  Both, the original and the remake, are based on a real life experiment which was conducted at Stanford University in 1971.Twenty-four male students were selected to take on randomly assigned roles of guards and prisoners in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building.
  The experiment, however, took a dark turn when the guards started psychologically torturing prisoners.Many of the prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse and ,at the request of the guards, harassed other prisoners who attempted to prevent it.Two of the prisoners quit the experiment early and the entire experiment was abruptly stopped after only six days.
  Certain portions of the experiment were filmed and excerpts of the footage are publicly available.

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Courtesy

Stage 6 films

Columbia Pictures

Now you see me movie review

Cast: Isla Fisher, Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Morgan Freeman, Melanie Laurent
Director: Louis Leterrier
Running time: 1 hour and 56 minutes
  The movie starts out with introducing us to four magicians,played by Eisenberge, Fisher, Harrelson and Franco. Those magicians are brought together by an anonymous source,who helps them gain fame and success. One year later we meet again with our magicians only this time they are performing in Las Vegas and they are called "The Four Horsemen".Their magic show has become infamous and it now consists of ... robbing a bank while on stage performing. This robbery gets the Horsemen into trouble when FBI agent, Mark Ruffalo, and Interpol agent, Melanie Laurent, try to prove the heist and arrest them.There to help them get proof is a former magician who is now revealing the secrets behind other magicians' tricks portrayed by Morgan Freeman.
  Magic tricks are pretty cool.And this movie has a lot of them.The fact that there is "magic"  in the film makes it instantly more  interesting.So people are intrigued from the begging.I,also, liked that, even though the horsemen claimed that the bank robbery was done with magic, we actually learn how it was done fairly quickly.There was a logical explanation,that was actually pretty smart,and if it wasn't revealed early on it would have driven me crazy.
  On the other hand,i found many faults with this movie,which i didn't expect.First of all who were the lead roles?Was it the horsemen?Was it the FBI guy?Was it both of them?I'm not sure and it doesn't really matter to me,which brings me to my second point: I didn't really like anyone in this movie.The horsemen were arrogant jerks,the agent was losing all the time and the ex-magician was average for me.I couldn't route for anyone since i didn't like anyone and that pissed me off because i ended up not caring about the movie.I was really disappointed.Moreover, i though that we didn't see a lot of the horsemen.We learn nothing about them and we don't get much personality out of them except that they are kind of full of themselves.That contributed to the "i didn't like anyone" argument even more.Furthermore,the police or FBI or whatever it was is depicted as totally incompetent.They are 100 steps behind at all times with no clue.It gets annoying at some point.And i didn't expect that the horsemen would be caught but the FBI didn't even come close (and the revelation at the end doesn't excuse this for me).Also,i felt that the magic tricks were getting a little bit too "magic-y" as we were getting near the end.They were too perfect and too unbelievable for me.But i think that wasn't an issue for many people so it could be just me.I don't know.Maybe i am too much of a sceptic.Finally, i feel that the "eye" was underexplained,if that's even a word.I would have liked for it to be explained further and more deeply so we could've understood it better.
  In conclusion, i was really disappointed with this movie.I expected much more but it's definitely not in my "worst movies" list.Watch it of you like extravagant magic performances.
Score:49%

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Courtesy

Summit Entertainment

Casual Monday

  One more of the changes i decided to do to my blog posts is create Casual Monday.Casual Monday is the day i will post anything new or anything that i though was interesting a movies.Today i wanted to show you and talk a little about a trailer i watched today.The trailer was for the movie Divergent that will be opening on the 21st of March in 2014.
  Kate Winslet, Shailene Woodley and Maggie Q are some of the leads in the movie.Woodley plays a Divergent (hens the title) in a futuristic Chicago. Divergent is a does not fit in any of the factions that people are divided at that time. Winsnlet portrays some sort of leader in the community and Q is,from what i gathered from the trailer, someone that will help Woodley's character break free.
  The movie is based on a novel of the same name written by Veronica Roth.The book is the first installation in a trilogy. And even though this genre of movies is not my favourite,the cast made me really look forward to the film.Woodley , previously in The Descendants and The Spectacular Now (which i have not seen yet), show great promise and is one of my favourite young actresses at the moment.Maggie Q, who i know from the TV show Nikita, is one of my favourites anyway.And you can't go wrong with Kate Winslet.
  So, i can't wait to watch Divergent and review it for you guys. Hope you like the new schedule and look for more changes soon.
  Here is the trailer: 

Courtesy

Summit Entertainment

Lionsgate

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Fact Friday

  Hi, guys.I decided to start a new schedule for my blog posts and i am excited to share my first change with you. So from now on every Friday there will be a new movie fact waiting for you.

  My first ,ever, movie fact is about one of my favourite movies (expect a review soon) "fight club".

  So here you go:

  On the DVD of the movie after the copyright warning there is another warning.This warning is from Tyler Durden (character played by Brad Pitt and one of the protagonists of the movie).The warning reads 

"If you are reading this then this warning is for you.Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all who claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think everything you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told you should want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You've been warned ........ Tyler"

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Courtesy

20th Century FOX

Savages movie review

Cast: Taylor Kitsch, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Toro, Blake Lively, John Travolta
Director: Oliver Stone
Running time: 2 hours and 9 minutes
  We meet two guys,Kitsch and Johnson. They are in the a marijuana business.Johnson is the romantic, nature-loving grad from Berkeley and Kitsch is the tough, ex-navy SEAL,ex-mercenary guy.We, also, meet their girlfriend (yes they share a girlfriend) rich girl, played by Lively.Their home-grown weed is so good that the Baja cartel wants to do business with them.And when they refuse the cartel finds another way to persuade them, they kidnap their girlfriend.So in order to save Lively, they must go above and beyond.
  The movie is mostly interesting throughout.The cast is well picked,the plot is entertaining and the acting is pretty good.So it is a good movie for the most of it.It could,very well be a total disaster but i have to admit, up until the end i was into it.The storyline was intriguing, so i was never bored,the cast is talented,which i appreciated and it was generally kind of good.Benicio Del Toro was excellent as an abusive,cruel drug dealer from the Baja cartel.I loved his performance and i totally bought it.But,his character was, also, very realistic.He behaved , exactly, like someone like him would behave both in his personal life and in his business at the cartel.
  On the other hand, the movie had some inconsistencies,in my opinion. During the movie we are presented with many details about each character and their past.Like how Lively's parents were never there for her or how Travolta's wife has cancer...And even though these details are supposed to make us understand the character and his or her behavior better, we end up only knowing the character superficially.The film doesn't help us get further into their lives so we don't really get to understand Lively's relationship with her parents or Travolta's with his wife, for example.One other thing i noticed is that during the movie everyone kept saying the word savages,which since it was the title of the movie became kind of obvious after a while.If it was mentioned one time it would have been a bit clever but the ended up taking it too far.Moreover,the voice over by Lively's character was a little annoying and too much.She kept saying things that didn't need to be said, and even if they did, there were other ways to let us know.Furthermore, the relationship between the three protagonists didn't feel real to me.And because it was such a big part of the movie i think it should have been shown and explained more in depth.Finally,the fact that the film had two "alternative" endings made me like the movie a million times less than i would have otherwise.I didn't understand why it happened.Why did Lively said that's how she imagined it.At one point i  thought maybe that was what people said it happened after years had past but it couldn't be since it was on the news.I didn't understand it at all and i actually liked the first ending better.If anyone got what happened comment below because i would really like to know.
  In conclusion,the movie was pretty interesting and i recommend it but i must warn you there is not much depth to it.It is just a fun way to pass the time.
Score: 65%


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Courtesy

Universal Pictures

Movie poll

As it was voted by you, guys, in the near future i will be watching and reviewing:

• Only God forgives (2013)
• What Maisie knew (2013)
• Upside Down (2013)

Thank you guys for voting on what i should watch and a new poll will be up shortly.So be sure to vote.Have a great day.

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Courtesy

                                                                                                                  Millennium Entertainment                
                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                              

The wolverine movie review

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Rila Fukushima, Tao Okamoto, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Famke Janssen
Director: James Mangold
Running time: 2 hours and 16 minutes
  The movie is the return of the wolverine,a mutant with metal claws or something ,who goes to say goodbye to an old friend who is now dying and ends up protecting the dying man's grand-daughter from the people who are trying to kill her.But everything is not as it seems.
  The wolverine had a lot of action and the action was actually good.I ,usually, don't like action movies and i wasn't thrilled about this one,I'm still not thrilled about it but i have to admit that i was never bored.I've seen many action films that made me want sleep right then and there,most recently Olympus has fallen and the numbers station, but here i was kind of into it.The action scenes were well done and a bit exciting.I , also, liked Rila Fukushima's character and i would have liked to have seen more of her in the movie.She brought a youthfulness and an excitement to the whole thing.
  Now, on to my problems with "The Wolverine".Firstly, the movie had a lot of cheesy moments.I couldn't help but roll my eyes and it was my biggest problem.These type of moments in the film were a lot and excruciating.Moreover, the brief romance that took place between Jackman and Okamoto's characters was out of the blue, didn't felt genuine and seemed forced.They didn't have much chemistry and the fact that they ended up together was a real turn off about the movie.Finally, the flash backs with Jackman and Famke Janssen tried to make wolverine experience the catharsis that he needed to move on from the death of Janssen and his guilt but they felt out of place for me.There was not much insight about the journey that Jackman's character had to take emotionally in order to get free from blammimg himself about the death of his loved one. 
  In conclusion, you will definitely like this movie if you are a wolverine fan and you may ,also, like it if you're not.
Score: 49%

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Courtesy

20th Century FOX