The Muppet’s

Now I’ve been a big Muppet’s fan for a long time so this review is a little bias. I do feel like some of the Muppet’s should have had more screen time then they did, but otherwise it was a really good movie. I loved how there wasn’t a single scene without a celebrity cameo. 10 out of 10.

Hugo

Not quite what I was expecting at all. Very good though. I did have a problem with Hugo’s acting in a few scenes though, and some of the scenes themselves were just stupid. Specifically when Chloe was chasing Hugo and fell down in the crowd and had to be saved by Hugo. It was just cheesy and out of place, there had to be a better way for Hugo to find out she had the heart key. But anyway I mostly liked it, 7 out of 10.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

I had high hopes for this movie, I mean Brad Bird directing, Simon Pegg. But sadly the story sucked. Some guy wants to launch a nuke. Why? Cause he’s evil or something? I dunno, the movie never really got into it. Also the acting was unbelievably bad. It had so cool action scenes and all, and it made very good use of the IMAX format. But I personally think that Brad Bird should stick with animation, and anyone that wants to see a good action packed movie should stick with Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. 6 out of 10.

About a half hour into protesting someone shouted “Mic check!”, and I responded almost instinctively with the rest of the crowd. I was glad I saw all those videos explaining the human mic process before hand. Anyway, it was announced that there was going to be a general assembly. I was very excited, I was finally going to see how these meetings worked in person. I won’t go into everything the meeting covered here, I’m sure they’ll put the minutes of it up on their site anyway.

I will say that it was very organized, and I was impressed how easily we were all able to come to consensus on all the proposals. We didn’t all agree, that much was clear from the hand signs. But we didn’t let that stop us from making decisions the way it seems to stop Congress.

It was a little weird being a human mic at first, but I quickly got used to it. I actually think it helped my compression by forcing me to listen to every word that was said. A few were very averse to using the People’s Mic, but we could still hear them fine thanks to the acoustics of the meeting place.

All in all I give the Occupy Revolution a 10 out of 10. This movement is for everyone, join us.

About a week ago I started hearing about the arrests, and the growing number of occupations across the nation. I started taking a closer look at it after that, eventually coming around full circle in support of the movement. I still didn’t really know what it was about when I heard about the arrests, but it didn’t matter what they were protesting, it mattered that they were being arrested for protesting. I’ve always considered the first amendment to be the most important one in our Constitution, and it really disturbed me to see people’s rights being violated.

I started with clips from various news channels, and they painted the picture of a bunch of misguided hippies that didn’t know what they were talking about. So now I had a negative opinion of the occupiers again, but I wanted to know more than what the media gave me so I turned to YouTube.

I was back on their side after seeing blatant police brutality. Protesters were thrown down by their necks, run over by police scooters, maced, and beaten by batons. This was just as much about their right to free speech as it was about the unjust corporate takeover of America. The more I saw the less free I felt. Above all else it was this video featuring Sgt. Shamar Thomas that really got me to start listening to what the movement was really all about. I’ve never seen someone so passionate about something, and I’m not afraid to admit that I cried when I saw this.

Once I started listening to the message I got it right away. I mean I knew the economy was in bad shape, I knew corporations were getting more and more powerful everyday while myself and my family have been stuck on the same level my whole life. I have a minimum wage part-time job that took me six months of extreme job hunting to find and in the end I got it with the help of someone I knew. I had all the pieces, but It took a huge movement like this to really get me to see the whole picture.

As I saw more and more videos I quickly learned that nearly everything I heard about these protests on the mainstream news was wrong. Sure there was a fair amount of hippies in every shot, but they were not the majority by far. I saw old people, young people, white people, black people, men, woman. It was a very diverse group, holding true to their 99% chant. As far as claims of disorganization and filthy camp sites, I found neither to be true.

As of yet there is no leader of the movement, in fact they seem to be against the whole idea of a leader. You might think this makes them disorganized, but that is surprisingly untrue. The videos I saw were all from the Wall Street protest, but Occupy Wall Street seems to be the template for every other occupation so I can assume they all adopted a similar format. The camp was split into different sections for sleeping, a clinic, general supplies like toilet paper ect, a kitchen, and even a People’s Library. It’s almost like they created a whole new society right in the middle of New York.

So how did they become so organized without any leadership? Direct democracy. They hold general assembly’s, everyone gets a turn to talk, everyone gets a vote, people are assigned jobs such as cooking or cleaning. A direct democracy is what I’ve always dreamed about, and I believe we can achieve it now with the help of the internet. I can’t say that that’s where this movement is heading, but it’s very exciting none the less.

Yesterday I found myself in Curtis Hixon Park, the location of my local Occupy Tampa movement. After seeing the occupations in New York, Seattle, and Chicago not to mention Europe; I was more than a little disappointed by the turn out in Tampa. Granted it was Sunday and they’ve been occupying for a month now, I was just hoping for more than 20 to 30 people. They will be having a general assembly this Saturday which I would like to go to, hopefully I’ll get a better idea about the size and scope of Occupy Tampa.

The age of the Tampa occupiers had a much older slant then I imagined which was also surprising. I met two gentlemen in their mid to late 40′s who told me about www.ProjectVoteCount.com It honestly sounded a lot like a conspiracy theory to me, but it was interesting mainly because I haven’t heard about it before. The media thinks that because they don’t have a leader or a unified message there just stupid hippies, but it’s their anger with the government that unifies them. Whatever their reasons, they feel like the Government has wronged them.

I was excited walking up to the park. I instantly recognized it from the videos of the Tampa arrests. Their seemed to be two small groups of occupiers. One closer to the road holding signs and cheering for every supportive honk. The other group lounged under some nearby trees, they seemed to be on break. I was greeted by a younger guy in his 30′s “Welcome to Occupy Tampa” he said. I was glad I came.

Judging by their camp it was clear that they too a lot of cues from Occupy Wall Street, just on a smaller scale. They had a small food table set up with bread, apples, and water. A stack of protest signs available to use, and a small mountain of sleeping bags that said they were ready to hold out through the winter.

I can’t pretend to know where this movement is going, but I do know that I’m going to start calling it a revolution from now on.

Killer Elite:

All in all, Killer Elite was exactly what I expected it to be. A pretty awesome action movie. My only real complaint is their insistence on saying that it’s based on a true story. At the end of the movie it said that it was actually based on a book that the author claims to be based on true events. True events that the British government denies ever happened. Anyway controversy aside, I give it an 8 out of 10.

50/50 was a great movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt pulled out all the stops for this movie, going through the spectrum of human emotions. and his supporting cast couldn’t have been better. Will Reiser probably had the most to do with the greatness of this movie. He wrote the script and borrowed heavily from his own experiences during his battle with cancer. You defiantly want to catch this one in theaters. 10 out of 10.

Colombiana didn’t do much better I’m afraid. I was a lot more enjoyable then 30 Minutes or less, but it suffered from bad co-stars and an unoriginal plot. I mean it was basically the same plot Conan the Barbarian, just modernized and with a girl. 6 out of 10.

Finally there was The Debt. Fairly good spy thriller with great performances by the entire cast. I took some issue with the directing and the rather lame climax though. I know they were both pretty old, but there had to be something else they could have done to make that last confrontation more watchable. 7 out of 10.

I saw Conan the Barbarian just a few hours ago and I must saw it is supremely manly. From the opening scene to the final fight, it was brutal and awesome. I must confess that I’ve never seen the original, but for what it’s worth I liked this one. 8 out of 10.

I have also seen Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which was surprisingly amazing. It’s sorta a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, but with all the changes it might as well be considered it’s own movie. I loved this movie, it’s amazing how they got me to care more about the apes then the humans. Perfect end to the summer movie season, 9 out of 10.

Finally I saw The Help. I thought it was just gonna be another period piece about racism, but it was much better then I expected. Well directed and perfectly cast this movie has a moment for everyone, even a very unexpected joke that seemed to translate to all age groups, in my theater anyway. 10 out of 10.

I’m a little torn about how the effects turned out. On one hand skinny Chris Evans and Red Skull looked fantastic. They had me believing that he was skinny. But all the effects used in the fighting scenes looked off, fake and jarring. I did like how they captured Captain America’s fighting style exactly how I imagined it would but based on the comics. But there were a few shield throws that just looked wrong to me.

As far as acting goes I think Chris Evans made an excellent Cap. Hugo Weaving Was also an amazing Red Skull, he’s a very stereotypical villain but Weaving really sells it. Tommy Lee Jones made a perfect general who stole nearly every scene he was in. I think my only problem with the cast is Dum Dum Dogan not having an Irish accent.

What really hurt this movie for me was the directing. The first half of the movie was really good, but once the action kicked in everything became muddled. The montage of action scenes starts up outta nowhere and just flies through all these battles stopping just in time to kill Bucky off and launch a final attack on Red Skull. I mean the way it plays out I feel like I just fast forwarded to the end of the movie. Like all attempt at character building stopped once the action started. I guess I just wanted to see a better dynamic between the hero and villain. I also generally don’t like how it was cut together. It just didn’t flow very well.

I really liked the story. It had everything that the comics had. I really liked the cleaver way they snuck the classic costume into it. I still think there should have been more Red Skull and Cap encounters the script was nearly perfect otherwise.

The score did a great job getting me into the 1940‘s mind set. It fit very well with the film. I especially liked the propaganda song they had him preform.

So overall not a bad movie, but sadly it’s my least favorite of the Avenger films. I give it a 6 out of 10.

The special effects were of course some of the best around. The fight scenes were easier to follow as well, so that was nice. Aside from the effects though, it wasn’t much of a movie.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is about as talented as Megan Fox is in the acting department, but I found her a little more tolorable due to her british accent. I have a thing for accents. Shia and the rest of the returning cast were decent, no better or worse then the previous installments anyway. My personal favorites were the new characters, Ken Jeong as Sam’s strange new coworker, John Malkovich as his new boss, and Frances McDormand as the new National Intelligence Director.

The directing was exactly what you’d expect from Michale Bay. The first half of the film seemed dedicated to Rosie’s backside and cheesy humor, while the second half was all robots and explosions.

The story wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t already seen the same thing in the first two movies. A long time ago something from Cybertron lands on Earth (Moon in this one, big difference) and then the Decepticons and Autobots have a big fight about it, destroying many famous land marks in the process. I think the biggest difference in this one is Sam. In the second movie all he wanted to do was to live a normal robot free life, but for whatever reason  in this one all he does is complain about not being able to help and wine about his boring normal life. For a guy with a robot car and two super hot girlfriends in a row, he sure does complain a lot.

Anyway I’m only giving it a 5 out of 10, and I’m being generous. Check it out if you’re a fan of graphics and special effects, but don’t expect much else.

I was a little disappointed coming out of Thor, but I think that’s mostly because I was expecting the greatest movie ever. That being said Thor was pretty good, though not without it’s faults.

The CGI was pretty awesome. The battle with the frost giants in the beginning was spectacular, and did a great job showing off all of Thor’s powers. Unfortunately the rest of the fight scenes in the film felt rushed and unsatisfying. I remember when Thor battled the Destroyer in the comics, it was always nearly unstoppable. Thor always won by the skin of his teeth in the comics, but in the movie Thor took it out without even breaking a sweat.

The acting was surprisingly great. This being Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston’s first big movie, I didn’t really know what to expect. They were perfectly cast though. I can’t wait to see what Loki does in the Avengers movie when he doesn’t have to be so sneaky with his evil plotting.

The story did a great job of bringing Thor into the real world without making it really cheesy. I totally agree with the decision to cut the Donald Blake alter ego, but I got a real kick out of all the references to him.

It may not have been as good as I hoped, but overall I liked it. I give Thor and 8 out of 10. On an unrelated note, this movie helped me come the the realization that I have been mispronouncing Mjöllnir my whole life. Who knew?

There also seems to be a conspiracy theory theme running through the whole album. Firewall the first track opens with an old guy kinda rambling on about time, reptilian aliens inbreeding with early humans, alternate universes, and Hitler. You know, the usual. He comes back near the end of Jejune Stars and at the end of One For You, One For Me the last track. He’s hard to follow but it sounds like a love conquers all kinda message at the end.

Despite the weird intro Firewall is really one of the best tracks on the album. That guitar that opens it has such a simple yet addicting melody. Every time I listen to this I never expect the funky keyboard to jump in, but I love it anyway. The guitar gives the whole song a sinister feel that builds up until it explodes in this chaotic almost war like sound. Marching drums and all.

Shell Games has in my opinion has the best lyrics of the album. It’s also has the best balance of digital and analog instruments. Probably my favorite part about this song is the piano intro, it doesn’t give any hint to what’s coming.

Overall I think this is a pretty good album, maybe not what I wanted from Bright Eyes but definitely good. I give it an 8 outta 10.