Battle of the Sexes Review (Non Spoilers)

Featured

Review by Josh Avendano

@josh_avendano

Battle of the Sexes is movie based on the true story of a tennis match dubbed “the battle of the sexes” set between rising female tennis player and founder of the WTA Billie Jean-King and retired aging former star and self known male chauvinist pig, Bobby Riggs in 1973.

The story closely follows King (Stone) as she starts the Women’s Tennis Association tour after the Tennis Association wanted to pay the women eight times less than the men when they one a championship.

Through the start of the WTA, King struggles to identify with her sexuality. The match was set after Riggs’ won a similar match against Margaret Court.

Now, this was a well acted out movie. Emma Stone as Billie Jean-King was fantastic, she was great, no doubt that she will get another Oscar nomination come February.

Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs was also great. He shined, it’s hard to think that the guy who played Michael Scott can switch it up and nail a dramatic role as he does. I don’t think his performance was Oscar worthy, but I am sure he will get some sort of recognition come award season.

My only real gripe about this movie was that I wished that the movie spent a little more time focused on the actual match than on King’s life. The movie felt more like a biopic of King, which was fine, but I wanted more of the match.

Besides the acting to this film, the directors did a great job directing, the cast all around were great. I loved how the mixed together footage of the actually match and the movie match to blend together so perfectly.

Battle of the Sexes is a must see movie, especially if you’re like me and like the Oscar contender movies. I highly recommend this movie, should pull in a few nominations come award season. I give this movie a 9/10, one of the better movies of the year and definitely cracked my top ten of the year.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle Review (Spoiler Free)

Featured

Review by Josh Avendaño/ @josh_avendano

The first Kingsman movie came out of nowhere in 2014, surprising everyone including myself. With the release of the first trailer for The Golden Circle set to Frank Sinatra’s My Way, I knew we all were in for something special.

I enjoyed The Golden Circle, I thought it was a fun movie. There were laughs and most importantly the action sequences were spectacular. Director Matthew Vaughn did a great job in that aspect really capturing the action moments.

There were a few parts I did not like about this movie. One of the parts was the “music video” action scenes. In the first movie we had the excellently directed “Church Scene” set to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird. It was great, it was amazingly done. In The Golden Circle, I felt like there were too many of these “music video” action scenes, about three or four. It was way too many, I enjoyed them, but felt as though the movie could have used two less of those scenes.

Another aspect I did not like about the movie was Julianne Moore’s character Poppy. She was isolated for much of the movie and really didn’t do much besides send her henchmen to do her work. I felt like her character was a little over the top in a few scenes that was rather unnecessary. She’s a great actress but she just wasn’t a right fit for the villain role, she could have done more.

Last few things I didn’t like about the movie was the fact that they brought back Edward Holcroft to play Charlie. He was a henchmen for Poppy throughout the movie and I felt like they could have gotten literally anyone else to pay her main henchmen, it was unnecessary for his character to be brought back. Final thing was that the marketing for the movie made it seem as though Channing Tatum was a main character, although he was only in the movie for eight minutes or so. A celebrity cameo had more screen time than Tatum’s character.

For the things I liked about this movie were the action scenes. They were directed great, Vaughn never has a problem directing those scenes. The cast was great. Colin Firth returning as Harry was a great choice, loved the way on how they brought his character back, it made sense in a graphic novel adaptation. Taron Egerton returning as Eggys was great, he really fits the role, I feel like this is one of those roles where the actor was born to play because he does such a good job.

Overall the movie was good, it has its flaws but I would still recommend this movie to go see. It’s a lot of fun with great actions sequences and good humor. Overall I would give this movie a 7/10.

Ready Player One Review (no spoilers)

The movie Ready Player One is based off of the book written by Ernest Cline and directed by Steven Spielberg and is set in the dystopian Ohio set in 2044. The movie follows Wade Watts played by Tye Sheridan as he tries to find James Halliday’s (Mark Rylance) three easter eggs in the virtual reality world known as the OASIS before Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) the CEO of IOI can.

Let me  first of all say that this movie is great. It has that 80’s nostalgia that we all love, from the DeLorean from Back to the Future, King Kong, the T-Rex from Jurassic Park and the list goes on and on. Spielberg did a great job of creating a virtual world where 80’s pop culture lives while creating an amazing story to go with it. This movie isn’t all just pop culture, the characters are all great, we meet their virtual characters as well as in person. One thing I was a little afraid of before watching this movie was that we were going to spend too much time in the virtual world and not get the chance to see much live action. I was wrong. I wanted more of the Oasis and I give full credit to Spielberg for creating a virtual world that I wanted more of, which is saying something because a majority of this movie is set in that world.

A few things that stood out for me were the actions sequences throughout. Most notably the car race, the whole about five minute scene was glorious and well directed. It had me at the edge of my seat watching as all of the drivers try to navigate their way to the finish line. Another scene was the final battle, which I won’t give away too much, but it was great. All of the fighting sequences in that battle, all of the characters that popped up was truly one of the highlights of the movie.

I did not have any problems with this film, my only minor complaint is that I wanted more time in the OASIS. I know, selfish of me, but it was truly amazing to witness this virtual world that Spielberg created.

I didn’t feel like this movie dragged on, it was quite the opposite. It had a steady flow with great character building. Tye Sheridan as Wade and Olivia Cooke as Sam were great together. Their chemistry was great, their interactions both inside and outside of the OASIS was great, as well as their interactions with side characters. Another character that stood out was Ben Mendelsohn’s villain Nolan Sorrento. Mendelsohn just does a great job being a villain and he really shows it in this movie.

All I can say without giving away too much of this movie is that it is great. I enjoyed it throughout. I’m not going to lie, I geeked out a lot, I love the 80’s and all of the references that were made. It made sense that Spielberg directed this movie, one because he owns a lot of the rights to the characters that were used and another reason is because Spielberg lives for the 80’s. All of his best movies came from that decade, it’s where he made a name for himself and was able to create arguably some of the best movies ever made. From the moment I first heard he was directing I knew this was going to be the movie to bring him back, now he hasn’t directed a bad movie but it was just a lack of that Spielberg magic that was missing, the same magic that made me love a lot of his earlier work.

In the end guys Ready Player One is a great movie, the pop culture references, the nostalgia of the 80’s is what made this movie most memorable for me. This is movie so far is my number one movie of the year. I loved it, from beginning to end. I highly recommend this movie to anyone, it relates to teens of today and teens of the 80’s. I give this movie the highest of praise and give it a 10/10.

Star Wars The Last Jedi Review (spoilers)

Star Wars The Last Jedi has been in theaters for almost a week now and I have now seen it twice and let the movie really digest inside me. It would have been unfair to give a review after only seeing it once, with emotions still high and confusion still there, this is my unbiased review.

This movie is great. It’s amazing, it takes risks, risks that no other Star Wars movie has seen before and I can see how fans are angry in the direction that Rian Johnson took this movie, but for me it works and it pays off.

First I’ll take about what I disliked about this movie since I had few dislikes. One major dislike is the side adventure that new character Rose played by Kelly Marie Tran and Finn played by John Boyega take to a ridiculous casino planet. What really bothered me was that this entire mission meant nothing, their plan doesn’t even work. It wasted time with these two characters who are trying to save the day even though their plan was doomed. Let me put this into context, the two go to this planet to get a master code breaker in order to deactivated the First Order’s tracker senors. The two get arrested and find another guy DJ portrayed by Benicio Del Toro. They end up getting captured by the First Order meaning that their entire time spent on this casino planter was for nothing. This scene took up 20 minutes of the film, 20 minutes that I would have much seen spent elsewhere like on Ahch-To with Luke and Rey.

Another dislike about this movie is that 20 minutes that was wasted on Rose and Finn would have been better spent on Rey and Luke. Luke only gives Rey three lessons in training, well not really training it was more of lessons on why the Jedi should end. The trailers made it seem like Luke was going to be training Rey in the ways of the force, which he somewhat did, but I wanted more time on the island, more training like how Yoda trained Luke on Dagobah. Throughout the movie Rey seems to become more powerful even though she wasn’t really trained and I just wish they showed that, it would have been better served for Rey’s character arch as she goes to becoming a Jedi.

Minor issues with this movie was that Rian Johnson didn’t give a lot for Poe Dameron to do, he was just reckless which seemed like a major 360 spin on his character from The Force Awakens. I wanted more from Carrie Fisher, she spent a good majority of the movie in a coma and didn’t have much to do, I wanted General Leia to take control and lead the resistance into something great.

One thing this movie does that bothers me is leave a lot of answers that fans had unanswered. One is who is Snoke? The past two films have been building up Snoke to be this big bad like how the Emperor was in the original trilogy. Everyone wanted to know who he is including myself and before we can even get that answer Kylo Ren just kills him without answering that question and I doubt we will get to know the answer know, it just wasn’t the pay off I wanted for this movie. Another is the question of who are Rey’s parents, which again goes unanswered, well not unanswered, Kylo Ren tells that Rey’s parents were nobodies, they were scavengers who were drunks and traded her for booze money. It was disappointing knowing that this big question we all had after watching TFA was just basically thrown away.

Now onto the good parts about this movie and let me say, there are a whole lot of good parts.

First the space battles, so beautifully directed and show and we all got to see the action that took place, all of the explosions all of the flying through tight spaces was just breathe taking. Probably some of the greatest space battles in all of the series, you actually got to witness the stakes everyone took while in space and I just cannot give enough credit to Rian Johnson and the cinematographer Steve Yedlin for making it look so beautiful and breathe taking.

The island scenes were great, Rian Johnson really went into why Luke became this hermit and wanted nothing to do with the Jedi ways. All of Rey’s training was great, we got to see how powerful she can be and it was just great to see now that Luke has become the master. My one regret is that to me not enough time was spent with just Luke and Rey as he trained her, it would have been nicer to see more of it. Other then that, the entire island sequences were great, the two of them played so well off of one another it was truly great to see, and Mark Hamill was at his absolute best, this by far my favorite version of Luke Skywalker, better then Luke in Return of the Jedi. Daisy Ridley was great too, throughout the whole movie, she is really getting into this character and giving us more reasons why she is the new face of this franchise.

One scene and let me say is probably my favorite scene in this whole movie just because of the reaction it gives everyone in the theater.  Towards the end of the movie when the First Order starts shooting at the resistance escaping fleets, Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo played by Laura Dern scarifies herself and goes into lightspeed directly into the First Order’s main ship. Once the ships collide it lets out this big beautiful explosion and the two times I have seen this movie the same exact reaction from audience is given, a big gasp as the whole theater is left speechless and in awe as all we see is the explosion with no sound. It was just great and I loved seeing it twice just for the reactions.

Now lets talk about the final battle. We get Luke Skywalker verses Kylo Ren.  And this part mirrors A New Hope as Luke holds off the First Order as the last remaining of the resistance is able to flee with Rey. This scene was done great as it comes with a twist, Luke is shown still to be on his island as his is using all of his power to project himself long enough to help in the only was possible. Then what also mirrors A New Hope, Luke looks out into the sky watching as the two suns set and the iconic Luke Skywalker theme plays and he becomes one with the force. It was a beautiful scene and I just loved how it mirrored NH in the best possible way.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie, it was great, it took risks with old characters that we have grown to love and took risks with new characters some of which I believe play off others not so much. It has great actions scenes throughout and even thought there is just one slow part throughout the whole movie this film is still good and it baffles me that fans are criticizing this movie, they say TFA was too similar to the original trilogy and this movie was too different. But I am here to say that this movie was great, amazing and I give it a 9/10 and I highly recommend that everyone see this movie more than once because it’s so different people need to see it a second time to really understand it.

Stronger Movie Review (Spoiler Free)

The movie Stronger, based on the true story and auto biography of the Boston Marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman and his struggles to cope in the after math of the bombing and losing his legs.

The movie was great, I enjoyed it very much. Jake Gyllenhaal gave one of his best performances I have ever seen him give. I’ll say it, he deserves an Oscar nomination come award season.

The movie had humor and drama. The drama scenes were exceptional.  Even the supporting actors did their best in these scenes. Without giving anything away, my favorite scene involves Jeff (Gyllenhall) and his girlfriend Erin played by Tatiana Maslany, in a car after Jeff forgets to meet her for a dinner reservation. In this scene the two really shine, especially Gyllenhall, I felt the emotion that he gave and it touched me and the audience got to see what Jeff was going through during this time.

Another great thing about this movie was the fact that it really showcases how hard it is for Jeff living his life after the terrorist attacks. You as an audience members gets to see the saw emotion and struggles that he is living.

There really wasn’t much that I didn’t care for about this movie. One part and this is really nip-picking is that I would have loved to see more of his recovery time. I just felt like a few scenes were shown then 15 minutes later he was able to walk, he struggled, but he still was able to walk.

One crazy fact about this movie that really surprised me was that the director, David Gordon Green, was also the director of Pineapple Express and Your Highness. At least one of these movies I enjoyed and liked very much while the other was just bad. It shocked me that the director of these two movies (the latter being bad) was able to make such a great empowering emotional Oscar worthy movie. He did a fantastic job and I hope he gets more chances to make more movies like this.

This movie has heart, it was emotion, it even has humor when it needs to. I would highly recommend this movie, Gyllenhaal really shines and he deserves to be recognized during award season for his performance.

I give this movie a 9.5 out of 10. It was great, it was funny, it was sad, and it’s one of those movies to where you believe in humanity, that it’s good and people inspire other people to do good and strive when facing difficulties.