A view from the Master.

The Rock
Directed By: Michael Bay





A group of U.S. marines, under command of a renegade general, take over Alcatraz and threaten San Francisco Bay with biological weapons. A chemical weapons specialist and the only man to have ever escaped from the Rock are the only ones who can prevent this chaos from happening..

We all know Michael Bay's movies are loud, noisy, and big. I mean sometimes it can feel abit to much when your sitting in the cinema and your ears feel like someone is hitting them with a stick, and Michael Bay is well known for throwing his stick about (insert Joke). Looking back through his filmography I wanted to pick up on a movie I think he deserves a little bit of credit for. Don't get me wrong i enjoy his movies, there big dumb fun, there entertaining and there sh**, but this is a movie that is actually a really good film, and a movie worth writing a review on.

The Rock is a movie I have always enjoyed, it has everything you would expect from an action movie, gun fights, fist fights, car chases, and explosions, well everything you would expect from a Bay movie really. The difference between The Rock and every other Michael Bay movie is.... this movie actually has a good story, it actually has a good cast, and it doesn't have Shia LaBeouf, seriously! although I love Transformers --- I just can't cope with Shia LaBeouf and his screaming. With a running time of over 2 hours this movie is long, but it's not a problem with its pacing, it's non stop from the word go and there's always something going on without a dull moment in sight. Ime not saying this movie is a masterpiece, ime not saying it's brilliant, but it is an enjoyable movie. Ed Harris and Connery are fantastic, it has a pretty interesting story (not really original) and its always fun to watch with alot happening.

Overall Michael Bay can actually make an enjoyable movie, he can actually come up with a story for his movies, and he can actually make a movie without giant robots.....he isn't all that bad.

JayDee's Movie Musings (Reviews - Frailty / Total Recall / Lone Ranger / Nightcrawler / Whiplash / Imitation Game / Birdman / Avengers: Age of Ultron / Mad Max: Fury Road)

From Dusk Till Dawn
Directed By: Robert Rodriguez





Plot summary: The Gecko brothers are fugitives, and are on the run after a very interesting bank robbery. They kidnap the Fuller family, and drive to a Mexican bar to meet with other on-the-run criminals. It turns out the crooks in the bar are vampires, and if the Gecko brothers and the Fuller family can survive from dusk until dawn, the "crooks"" will let em' go.

From Dusk Till Dawn is a movie I've always enjoyed, it's a movie that made my top 100 favourites, and it's a movie I hope will make the Mofo nineties list. This is a movie that has everything to offer, Comedy, horror, action, and one damn hot babe. Seriously, this is one of the most entertaining movies ever made, you can switch your brain of ( you need to ) and enjoy. I dont really know what to think off Robert Rodriguez as a director, I enjoyed Sin City and Dusk Till Dawn, but everything else has been.... Lets put it nicely Sh**. Edit: The Faculty is quite enjoyable aswell.

From Dusk Till Dawn is one of the strangest movies I've even seen. The movie is split into two half's.... it would simply be like going into a dvd store and putting two completely different movies together..... sounds strange, but it works. The first half is pretty calm, pretty interesting. The second half is crazy, entertaining, and madness, that's really fun to watch. Don't get me wrong it's a pretty bad movie, but it doesn't take itself serious, and it does what it's intended to do.

Dusk Till Dawn is certainly a very cool movie, you can see Tarantino has had a hand in it, and he even pulls of his role as one of the Gecko brothers very well.... Ime lying, it was terrible!!, but he was still a pretty enjoyable character so who cares. George Clooney is a badass, Harvey Keitel is a preacher, and the Sex Machine is pretty damn cool character. The star of the movie has to go to Salma Hayek. The lapdance scene is one of the sexiest movie scenes ever, if she put her foot in my mouth I'd suck her toenail right off.

Overall From Dusk Till Dawn is a very entertaining movie, it has lots of cool characters, cool scenes and crazy moments. It's not a great movie, but it's certainly one of my favourites. If you havn't seen this movie you should really check it out.

Warrior
Directed By: Gavin O'Connor


My Favourite Movie Ever



Plot: An ex-Marine haunted by a tragic past, Tommy Riordan returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh and enlists his father, a recovered alcoholic and his former coach, to train him for an MMA tournament awarding the biggest purse in the history of the sport. As Tommy blazes a violent path towards the title prize, his brother, Brendan, a former MMA fighter unable to make ends meet as a public school teacher, returns to the amateur ring to provide for his family. Even though years have passed, recriminations and past betrayals keep Brendan bitterly estranged from both Tommy and his father. But when Brendan's unlikely rise as an underdog sets him on a collision course with Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront the forces that tore them apart, all the while waging the most intense, winner-takes-all battle of their lives..

I've done a review on Warrior before in a different thread, it wasn't a great review, it was just a few things I wanted to write about the movie. After completing my top 100 favourites, and placing Warrior as my number 1 favourite movie of all time, I thought it was only right I write a review of why I love this movie so much, and why I placed the movie at number 1 on my list. For me Warrior was the best movie of 2011, it's a very underrated movie and got overlooked because of the buzz, and hype surrounding... Drive. Don't get me wrong Drive is a great movie, you could go as far as to say both Drive and Warrior are the best movies to have came along over the past couple of years. But for me Warrior is the stronger movie, it's more emotional, more powerful, and more meaningful.

The first time I seen the trailer to this movie I got pretty excited, ime a big mma fan, and ime a big Tom Hardy fan, so I was pretty pumped up for this film. After seeing the movie it was not what I expected at all, I left the cinema shocked at how much I enjoyed this film. Solid story, strong cast, great performances, emotional performances, it really was a fantastic movie. If you havnt seen this movie don't let the mma aspect put you off, it's really just the back setting to the story in front of us. Don't get me wrong there are some cool fights scenes, but the the whole point of the movie is how the characters fight as a family, something alot of people can relate to.

One of the strong points of this movie is the cast. Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, and Nick Nolte are all on fine form. Nolte actually delivers one of the best performances of his career ( well best in a long while). Tom Hardy is sensational, and this movie proves why he is considered one of the best actors around today. I can't really fault any of the cast, they where all fantastic, and all there performances are convincingly real that the movie achieves so much emotion, and so much power. As I said earlier the movie focuses on it's characters rather than the mma theme, it's truly well made, and although it's not original it doesn't matter at all.

Overall Warrior is my number 1 favourite movie ever, sure it's cliched.. It has it's Rocky moments, it's sports movie moments, but it is head and shoulders above the rest. I really hope alot of people check this movie out after my review, and if you do please give me your feedback.