Reviews by Jacob S.

A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas is a very enjoyable movie. Or at least I thought it was. I admit this isn't my kind of humor and when I went to go see it with my friends, I went in with really low expectations. I didn't think I'd laugh once or enjoy as much as I did. To my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas.

The humor here is pretty funny but sometimes it went a bit overboard. I did not need to see Kumar's claymation penis pop out in front of my face in 3D. That was a little too much and when you see Harold's penis get stuck to a pole that was a bit much also. Other than that the humor was great though I'm sure some people found the toddler getting high on multiple drugs(Cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy) a bit offensive and too much. I found it funny, so if that isn't your type of humor I'd skip this movie.

The story and plot are stupid but that's to be expected of a Harold & Kumar film but it's stupid-funny so hopefully you won't care as much like me. The acting is pretty good here no complaints in that field everyone gave a nice performance, I thought Neil Patrick Harris was brilliant. His part was just so funny. The dialogue can sometimes be offensive and crude but it was mostly funny. The 3D in this film was actually pretty good..? Yea a lot of stuff pops out at you, but consistently, and they kind of poke fun at the 3D a bit. I was a bit surprised that the 3D in this movie was better than most of the movies that came out in 3D this year.

Overall, a nice surprise. It's stupid but funny, and fun. It's a Harold and Kumar movie what do you expect? The acting is great, and the same can be said for the 3D surprisingly. Just don't walk in this movie with high expectations. I just wish they would have released this film a bit later, I wasn't in much of a Christmas mood when I saw it, If it had been released in December I probably would have enjoyed the nice Christmas/family themes even more.

Just like The Fighter I wasn't too thrilled about seeing this movie. I ended up loving The Fighter and, I ended up loving this movie too. Yes this movie is clichéd but, in this case it uses those clichés in such a way where I didn't really mind them, I still cared about all the characters especially Joel Edgerton's character whose the typical "guy down on his luck" type of person. The acting here is powerful but, the three who stick out the most are Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, and Nick Nolte. These three give such powerful and believable performances, I will be so shocked if not one of them are nominated for an Oscar. The movie does start off slow, but it picks up really fast and once it does those two hours and twenty minutes will feel like thirty minutes which is a shame because I didn't want this movie to end. The score for this movie is great, whoever was the composer for this film kudos to them because the music really adds depth to the scenes. This whole movie was terrifically shot especially the fighting scenes, which is a bit shaky but, I understand why the director went for that sort of approach, it works well here. The action here is violent but gripping. Every time one guy threw a punch to the other or kick or slammed the guy into the ground, it's so well shot and edited that I felt their pain, and the vibrations of the sound whenever someone slammed someone else onto the floor sent chills up my spine. I am not a fan of this sport so I knew nothing about it going into this movie and thanks to this movie I learned a few things about it. The script was great, I sometimes couldn't understand what Tom hardy was saying though. The characters are great and I cared about them. The problem was though when the final battle took place I didn't know who to root for? You have the war hero brother who wants the win so he can give the money to his friend who was like a brother to him who died in combat, to his wife, and then you have the other brother who has to win or else his home will be foreclosed because he hasn't been paying his mortgage due to the fact that his daughter had heart problems and they had to worry about her medical bills. To me is was hard but I'm sure most of you will root for the brother who has to win to keep his house. This movie also has lots of heart, and I'm sure for those of you who haven't seen it, it will capture your heart as it did mine even if you're not into this sport or sports movies like me. I mean hell I even cried during some parts in the last 30 minutes. Don't set your expectations extremely high though. mine weren't that high when I went in which is probably why I loved this movie and this is pretty much one of my favorite movies of 2011.

After playing Tennis in my gym class this movie popped up in my mind. I had seen it years ago on tv but only small parts of it so, I decided oh why not give this movie a chance? I'm so happy I made that decision, this was a wonderful movie.

Blending multiple genres together is a difficult task but here, director Richard Loncraine does a fantastic job fusing these genres together. This is considered to be a romance/comedy/drama/sports movie, I too consider it to be that but it's more so a romance type film than a romantic comedy. That does not mean that there aren't too many funny parts, there's a handful of them but I was mostly invested in the relationship between Bettany and Dunst. The chemistry between them is wonderful, it didn't feel forced, it felt natural. They make such a great couple, you want them to be together, hell I wanted them to be together, I actually cared about what happened to them and their relationship. This reaction took me by surprise, rarely do I ever do that.

The acting here is good, everyone gives a nice performance but I think Bettany rises above everyone else. He just commands the screen and actually over powers some people in certain scenes. He's a great actor and I wish he would do more of these kinds of roles, he really fit his character well. Kirsten Dunst also gives a nice performance, she's cute and sweet like a lollipop. All the actors looked like they worked well together and had fun working with each other which really makes a difference sometimes.

The screenplay is better than you'd expect from this kind of a movie. It's smart and sometimes quirky. The inner monologues of Bettany's character were just brilliant. They really added depth to his character, giving us an insight of what he's thinking in that moment and his reaction on the court during every game. It really made Bettany's character more interesting and actually made us care about him even more. All the characters were nicely developed, the relationship between Bettany's and Dunst's characters was nicely developed which is why I cared about them so much.

The tennis scenes themselves were nicely done and unlike tennis in real life, I wasn't bored watching the tennis games in the movie. They were nicely shot even though I'm sure some shots were digitally edited. Though this is a movie, this didn't feel too unbelievable I'm sure something like this could happen in real life minus a few things here or there but this felt a little bit real to me which is why I think it's better than most romance/sports type of movies.

My only complaint is that this is a bit formulaic and predictable. This uses a well worn formula: Gut meets girl, Guy and Girl start to fall for one another, guy and girl get into a fight, and then I'm sure you can figure out what happens in the end. However, this movie at least uses it well.

Overall, despite being a bit predictable and formulaic, this is a terrific movie, with great acting, a great screenplay, great characters, great chemistry between the leads, great/entertaining tennis game scenes, and a nice blend between genres. If anyone has the time I recommend they see it. This is a great movie, perfect for a Friday night or watching it with your girlfriend I don't know, just see it.

Being the third film in a series, it's good compared to some threequels in the past and it's a heck of a lot better than the second one.

Unlike the second movie this movie doesn't wait till the last twenty minutes to actually be scary. Right from the beginning about ten minutes in the scares start. Now, unlike the previous two films this movie relies on quick "BOO" type of scares whereas the other two films were more psychological. While there were tons of quick "BOO" scares this movie never felt suspenseful, I wasn't on the edge of my seat nor was I squeezing my jacket but the quick scares do work. After leaving the theater I wasn't shaking in fear like I was with the movie Insidious, which came out back in April. However when I went to bed I couldn't sleep. So in a way this movie was effective to me but the first one was better. The acting was good and the little girls were great, they didn't manage to annoy me like some child actors in horror movies do. The story was good but missing a few things. I also loved the camera they put on the fan so that it slowly shifts from left to right. I thought that was very creative and the perfect set up for some nice scares but they didn't take full advantage of it. Which was kind of sad because this had so much potential and they could have done so much.

The story as I said was good but it was missing a few things. I thought the house was suppose to burn down? They mention it in the first film and it was in the trailer. Speaking of the trailer almost 70% of the things in the trailer did not make the final cut which was disappointing. Another problem with this movie is that its formulaic. It's the same type of scenario from the first films even though I do give them props for trying to be creative with the cameras. Speaking of the cameras, gee I never knew that had HD Cameras in 1988? This kind of ruined the film a bit, maybe if they used actual cameras from 1988 I would have bought into this more. My final complaint is the ending. What the hell is with all this cult crap now in these found footage movies? Is this some kind of Fad? This reminded me of The Last Exorcism that came out last summer. It was the same scenario, it was creepy then the cult crap came in the end and ruined it. While the cult crap here in this movie did not completely kill it, it almost did.

Overall, it has some nice scares, good acting, I also forgot to mention that is was actually funny in some parts(it wasn't unintentionally funny, they purposely put in funny parts), and some nice camera work but the ending was disappointing, the cameras were HD cameras even though this is suppose to take place in 1988, they were missing some parts of the story, and this is the same exact thing as the first two films but in a different time period. The first one was still the best in my opinion and compared to Insidious it's not equally as scary, Insidious was definitely the best horror movie of the year or even in the last 5 years but nonetheless this was still good.

Based on the reviews I was expecting a pretty crappy movie but surprisingly it wasn't? Honestly I didn't think it was bad and I actually enjoyed it but that's not to say this movie had problems.

For starters the overall feel of the movie felt a tad dull, I don't know who to point the finger at for that but this movie just felt dull. There was a uneasy blend of genres, it tried to be a horror, mystery, action film but it wasn't. There were maybe really only two "boo" moments nothing really scary, there wasn't a lot of suspense or mystery(The plot twist wasn't all that exciting) but at least they nailed the action parts. The dialogue wasn't too bad but could have used some work. I also wanted more from the characters, sometimes I actually like it when filmmakers don't spoon feed us and actually make us think about the character/story/morals ect. but here some back story or more character development would have been nice especially for Bettany's character because I found his character interesting and throughout the movie I wanted more. That's another thing, this movie felt rushed and was wayyy to short. I know some people were probably happy about this but I think they could have developed the characters more. I wouldn't have minded an extra 15-20 minutes which I know may seem a lot but this movie is only 1 hour and 27 minutes... Like I said I'm sure there are some people out there who were happy about this but I think with an extra 15-20 minutes more it could have been better.

Now the good things about the movie. This movie was stylish and I give props to the director for that. I loved the cool weapons in this movie, the ninja star crosses, the cross that was a dagger, the cool(I don't know what it's called) but the cool cross that was chained and the woman priest used it during the train scene. Though I'm non-religious(I'm catholic but I don't practice it nor do I care about it) I loved the whole idea that priests are these supper humans with god-like powers and none of the religious themes bored me(unlike church school, when I just wanted to bang my head on the desk till it was over). The acting is great and I liked Paul Bettany more here than in Legion. The action sequences were well done and for a PG-13 movie this was pretty violent, the priest woman actually rips a guy into pieces at one point. Funny how this constitutes as PG-13 stuff but when movies that have no violence, nudity, or sex but say the F word once or twice those get R Ratings? Anyways, the visuals were nice too, the city looked great and the vampires didn't look too bad either. I think this movie was better than Legion. The Story and plot this time around wasn't confusing and the story actually felt kind of fresh in a way. It wasn't entirely something new but it's different from most vampire movies.

Overall a decent film, this is the kind of film that would be nice to watch on a Friday night or something if you have nothing to do but don't expect too much. I didn't, and that's probably the reason why I enjoyed this film. So good acting, good action, good visuals, it's stylish, good story/plot but it just felt too rushed, the characters weren't too developed(I wish they were more developed), it felt dull, it was too short(only an hour and 27 minutes), and there was an uneasy blend between the genres. This movie had potential to be a lot better but for what it is, it's not bad.

Given the source material this movie had so much potential but it was squandered here. This could have been such a powerful and inspirational movie but it wasn't. It felt like some Lifetime TV movie. The performances were pretty bland and Carrie Underwood should just stick to singing, she gave the worst performance out of everyone. The dialogue wasn't really that good, I didn't find anything they said to be inspirational or insightful. The shark attack was hilariously awful, it was so poorly done. There were some nice things that I did admire about the movie however. The surfing sequences were great and well shot, I was happy to see the camera not shaking all over the place. The soundtrack was great and went really well with the whole Hawaiian feel. Also, this movie did have some nice and sweet moments. Overall the surfing sequences are great, the soundtrack was great and this movie did have some nice moments but this movie just felt so cheesy. The bland performances and dialogue really brought this movie down and that's a shame because this movie had so much potential. It could have been a moving and inspiring film, but instead settles for a cheesy lifetime movie.

Drive is a movie where you will either love it, or hate it, depending on how well you can tolerate arthouse films. So be prepared(If you ever watch the movie), to see a bunch of scenes where the characters just stare at each other rather than actually talking to one another. Specifically Gosling's character and Mulligan's character. So there's not that much dialogue especially within the first 30 minutes. Even though I'm not a fan of arthouse movies, I loved this one. Though, the title and the way this is being marketed as is very misleading. I expected a movie with tons of action and cool car chasing scenes. That is not this movie. There's little action and really only two car chasing scenes. This movie focuses on the relationship between Gosling's character and Mulligan's character, for about the first hour. Then the last 40 minutes is just a lot of killing, a lot of the killings are graphic and extremely gory. The acting is terrific, the cast does a wonderful job but the two that stuck out the most were Gosling and Mulligan, surprisingly. They were both exceptional, and the chemistry between them was great. I just wish that they could have added another scene or two with Gosling's character and Irene(Mulligan) hanging out together or driving somewhere together to really make the relationship seem even more believable and stronger. I also wish that they would have given Gosling's character a name, he's only referred as "Driver" or "The Driver." I can see why they did that, I suppose it's probably better that they didn't give him a name but it would have been nice of them to give us a name. I admit I was pretty skeptic when I first heard Gosling playing this type of role, he proved me wrong. I actually can't picture anyone else doing this role but him. He ended up replacing Hugh Jackman, that was probably the best decision ever. I could not picture Hugh Jackman pulling off this type of role the way Gosling did. The story is simple and it kind of annoys me that people are saying this movie sucks because there was hardly a story. Sometimes a movie with a simple story can turn out to be an amazing film based on how well it's told and done. Other times a movie with a simple story can turn out to be total crap(Transformers Revenge of The Fallen). I mean no one seemed to care how Avatar hardly had a story, hell I didn't even care and I liked it. I didn't mind the simple story here because the movie was done so well. It was nicely shot especially during the two car chasing scenes. I especially liked the first car chase scene because you never left the car, it was filmed inside the car the whole time so it was nice to feel like you were part of that experience. The soundtrack for this movie was amazing, if the soundtrack for this movie is not nominated for best score I'm going to be upset. I loved the nice 80's like retro songs. Each song fit perfectly with each scene, and set a nice tone throughout the movie. I especially loved the song "A Real Hero" by College. That song just fit so perfectly with Gosling's character and actually added some depth to his character. Though the ending might have been disappointing for some, I liked the way it ended, and let me tell you it's not your normal Clichéd happy ending. It was actually very sad and different. People also seemed to complain about how awkward it was when Gosling and Mulligan stared at each other a lot without saying anything. I can see why people felt that way but it was really only awkward the first time they met and hung out together. Isn't that normal though? They both start to like each other but they're nervous so they stare, smile and laugh at each other. I think it added some realism to this movie. Another thing that seemed to bother people was that Gosling hardly said anything during the movie, especially when he was with Irene(Mulligan). This is true, but they purposely did that. He was originally suppose to talk a lot but they decided to cut away most of his lines, to make him seem more mysterious. I think it was a smart idea of them to do this, it fit well with the movie, and it gives you a chance to try and figure his character out yourself. What was his childhood like? What got him into driving? How did he learn to drive so well? Ect. There's really no wrong answers to those questions and I actually thought about this movie for about a week after I saw it, hell I'm still thinking about it. I think I went overboard with reviewing this movie, I could continue to go on forever talking about this movie and everything that I loved about it but I won't. People who disliked this movie are probably going to think I was on crack while I was watching it but this is a great movie.

Though this movie fails to explore it's interesting premise, this is smarter than your average vampire movie. It's way more entertaining, action-packed and just better than those horrible twilight movies. They don't really go in depth or explain that well how the outbreak started though which was a bit upsetting. Another thing that bothered me was that if everyone is immortal what is their new religion like? Surely they can't practice the same religion that humans do, or how is the government run now? Those were some things that were never explained or explored. This movie does feature great performances from the cast and the dialogue is very clever which makes up for those flaws. The special effects were great, the pacing was nice, and this has enough scares and gore to please horror fans also everyone else with its interesting premise. This movie also scores some points for its originality. Overall a great addition to the vampire genre, though flawed the acting, the special effects, the clever dialogue, the pacing, and it's originality make up for it.

I adored Kate Beckinsale she did a great job in this movie but, her performance sadly wasn't enough to save this movie. The ending was horrible and you probably could have seen the plot twist a mile away. Another thing this movie suffered from was its awful pacing and a lack of suspense. Not once was I at the edge of my seat, curious to find out what would happen next, I was unfortunately laying on my couch yawning and forcing myself to stay awake. The special effects were kind of nice but, sadly the story wasn't, it was pretty bad. Overall a boring thriller with horrible pacing that lacks suspense, surprise, and a well developed story. Even with a great performance from Kate Beckinsale and some nice special effects it just wasn't enough to save this movie.

Who knew 94 minutes in a box with Ryan Reynolds could be entertaining? The whole movie takes place inside the coffin with Ryan Reynolds so for those of you who don't like him maybe this movie isn't for you but he does an amazing job and even if you don't like him you should still give this movie a chance. The atmosphere was great in this film I felt cluster phobic just watching it. The plot is fairly simple but intriguing. I loved how not once did they show flashbacks or anything and when the camera zoomed out of the coffin you saw Ryan in the coffin but there wasn't sand around the coffin just darkness. Which really made this an effective psychological horror and I'm not a fan of psychological horrors I've seen a lot in the past but none of them were effective as this. I also loved how they didn't show the people at the other end of the line that he made calls to you would just hear their voice. The performance Ryan Reynolds gives is outstanding and I feel these types of roles suit him very well and the plot twist at the end was really good, I did not expect it at all! It's the plot twist at the end and the rest of the movie too along with Ryan Reynolds amazing performance, that Buried leaves a lasting impact on you after you see it. I still can't get it out of my mind.