Braveheart (1995)

Rating: 90%
Well I've finally come to it at last. Reviewing Braveheart as my 375th review. Nuff said.

Plot: In the 13th century, King Edward I of England (but really known in this film as Longshanks) invades and conquers Scotland. As a result, young William Wallace faces the death of his father and brother who were leading a rebellion and was taken to be educated by his uncle. He comes home years later where he marries his childhood sweetheart Murron. But when he tries to rescue her from a couple of English soldiers that result in her being publicly executed, he kills all of the soldiers in the village and rounds up fellow Scotsmen to start a way for independence against the English.

Straight off the bat, I like this movie. I enjoyed the story, I liked the characters, it was big, dramatic, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and gave us one of the most epic, realistic, and graphic action scenes ever made. Now I have somewhat heard that this movie isn't getting as much praise as it use to, to the point that it's been viewed as the number 1 worst best picture winner as of 2005 according to Empire magazine. Although personally I don't think they really know what they're talking about considering that this is actually a good movie and that as far as their list goes, they don't even put in some of the actual worst like Cimmaron, Out of Africa and Shakespeare In Love. So in my opinion, their argument is invalid. But this film also has a lot of issues with historical inaccuracies. I mean not having some inaccuracies is something that's going to be hard to do anyway since most of what's really known/possibly known about William Wallace is in legend or from the epic poem from 15th century minstrel, Blind Harry. But even I have to admit that some of the inaccuracies make me think "Okay, this is what was actually going on at the time with this character. This movie is pretty misleading that way." But despite that, it's still an enjoyable movie that is still telling us a good story That was well put together.

And that's my review for Braveheart. So I'm getting close to reaching 400 reviews which is exciting. Till then, watch out for some other reviews over the weekend as my family and I are soon to rent a couple of films and take a look at that. So see you then.

The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

Rating: 90%
Okay so today I finally found myself the time to see The Life of Emile Zola. So here's my review for it. Nuff Said.

Plot: Emile Zola is a french writer who eventually starts to become famous when he writes his first bestseller; Nana, based on the stories told from a street prostitute that he rescued from a police raid. Over the years he writes many bestsellers and as he gets older, he starts to retire and enjoy the comforting life of living in his mansion with his wife. But when a secret french agent steals an important document that is meant for a military officer in the German emissary, the top french army staff decide to accuse an innocent captain as the traitor and imprison him in Devil's Island even when they find the real traitor. So when word gets out to Zola, he eventually tries to make a case to set him free.

Surprisingly, I actually liked this movie. I mean I enjoyed it a lot more then what I was hoping I would. The story was very interesting and very well paced particularly with the first half. I mean the first half of the movie is what got me really invested in this main character which made me even more into this film once the main story kicked in. As the movie went on I just became more and more curious as to what was going to happen. And I didn't expect that to happen to me in the slightest. I mean I was hoping for a good film, but I didn't expect for me to practically be on the very edge of my seat (so to speak) before I was probably even 15 minutes into the movie. But the face of the matter is, who can blame me? On top of the story we get some really good acting, - including a really nice monologue from Emile Zola - well written dialogue and really displays the marveling history on how bad things were with the legal system and the view of the main staff of France. And that's what makes Zola a really good character. I mean he was interesting already when we were getting to know the guy, in the beginning of the film, but when he tries to set this captain free that's when you start to root for the guy.

So all around, this best picture winner is easily a really enjoyable movie to watch and one that I would definitely recommend.   

The Legend of the Titanic (1999)

Rating: 0%
*sigh* yes everyone I actually saw this film...well technically. I mean when I say that I saw this film, I mean I really just watched my brother's commentary video on youtube where he plays the entire movie while making fun of it via voiceover. Sadly, however often my brother did commentary throughout the film, i basically saw and heard enough where it basically counts that I actually watched it. And even if watching his commentary doesn't count somehow, it is still more than anyone should ever see of this movie unless you're watching it through Doug Walker's video review for it. Anyway, let's get this over with.

Plot: Conners is an old mouse that lives in New York who is telling his grandchildren the "real" story of the Titanic explaining that no one actually died when it sunk. ( for those of you who don't know about this film at all until now, you have my permission to take as much time as you like to process what I just said...if you can...before reading the rest of the review.) So the rest of the film goes into a flashback were Conners is a young sailor for all of the mice that are sailing the Titanic. Meanwhile, a woman named Elizabeth is sailing on the titanic while her father plans to force her to get married to an evil whaler. But then Elizabeth befriends some dolphins who can talk to her after one of her tears falls on one of them giving her the power to speak to them through moon magic and find out that they are on a crusade against whalers.

Is this completely confusing you everyone who's reading this review and have never heard of this movie? IT SHOULD! I mean the main thing that's wrong with this movie is that in this "version" of the story of the Titanic, the Titanic hits the iceberg because a group of evil sharks who are in league with the evil whaler, trick a giant octopus to throw the iceberg right in front of the ship, and then the octopus realizes what happens and so saves everyone on the ship (yes I mean EVERYONE lives. as in nobody dies. Not even the band or Captain Smith died.) and then it seems that the octopus dies doing this but then he turns out to be alive along with another mouse that was believed to be dead and everybody lives happily ever after with everybody alive. I know! What is wrong with these people!?! And the things is, when you look at this movie as a whole, they didn't even need to say that this is the actual ship or the actual event into this film to begin with. With the kind of stories that they were telling and with the fact that they were trying to tell it as an animated movie with mice that are often talking about protocol, a war against whales, dolphins and moon magic and stuff like that, I think saying that this was on the Titanic was forced. It would've made much more sense if they just made the movie without even really giving the ship the name or say it contains the same event. They could've just made the film more their own thing rather then a loose 'adaption' of the story of the Titanic and just say that they got the concept for the movie from James Cameron's film. I mean if you want to make a movie based on the concept of another film or event, that's fine. But part of the idea to that is that you leave that actual event or film out of your movie. I mean the thing is that nothing really 'says' if you will, that it's the Titanic. I mean at least with the first animated Titanic film they had the animation of the ship and the passengers and stuff like that make it look like it's from that actual era. Here, they don't even really clue in any famous people from the Titanic or make us believe it is. The band is there for three seconds and are playing in a LIFEBOAT when they are shown and Captain Smith just has a mustache instead of a beard. The whole thing is just unnecessary. Of coarse even if they did do that, it's still a horrid movie. The animation is horrible to the point where they don't really even really bother in trying to make anyone's mouths move, the characters are terrible, the whole organization of the way they're telling all these stories is beyond sloppy, the voice acting is bland and out of place, it- it's just a terrible movie to the point that the way they made it was less then amateur.

All around. This is one of the worst 'movies' ever made that was just poorly done whether they brought up the ship or not. But the fact is they did and ended it with such an ending that utterly dishonors and insults not just us, every every single person who died on the Titanic.

How Green Was My Valley (1941)

Rating: 70%
Alright so now I'm touching on the best picture winners from back in the 40's. And to start that off, I have just finished seeing the film that won best picture back in 1941 even thought many believed that it should've been Citizen Kane considering that, that film has become one of the greatest films of all time. So here's my review for How Green Was My Valley.

Plot: The film revolves roughly around a young boy named Hue Morgan who lives in a valley in South Wales coalfield with his welsh family containing his parents and 5 older brothers and his older sister, Angharad. As the movie goes on, Hue and his family witness all sorts of happiness and tragedy that the people of the valley go through as part of telling what everyday life back then was like.

Okay so the obvious thing to point out that I do agree that Citizen Kane should not have lost to this film in any way shape or form. But does that mean it's a bad or so-so film like some of the winners I've recently seen like Cimmaron, The Great, Ziegfield, and The Last Emperor? Actually no this time. While it's not a masterpiece, the film is enjoyable simply because of what it is really about. Telling us what life was like for those people. They used some good actors that gave us characters to care about - most notably, to me was probably Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Donald Crisp, and Sara Allgood as Mr. Gruffydd, Angharad, and Mr. and Mrs. Mogan respectively, and gave us things that they face that altogether made this movie touching and dramatic with all the joys and hardships that these people went though. It was a well made film that might not exactly had a main plot line outside of just showing their lives, but it was still enjoyable with how they did it and what kinds of characters and events they had that didn't make it worthy for winning best picture, but a nice enough film that it's at least a respectable movie to lose to.

And that's basically there is to say for my review for How Green Was My Valley.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012)

Rating: 60%
FINALLY WE REACH THE END OF THIS HORRID FRANCHISE!!!! So with that said, let's get this review out of the way and move on with our lives.

Plot: Alright so to cut to the chase with the plot, Bella is finally a vampire, and things are looking like she and Edward are going to live happily ever after with their new born daughter, Renesmee despite the face that she grows everyday. But when the Cullen's vampire cousin Irina sees Renesmee and thinks that she's an immortal child, she comes to the Volturi claiming that the Cullens made one giving Alice a vision that the Volturi are coming to kill them. So they try to gather a bunch of other vampires all over the world to try to make as stand as witnesses and try to convince the Volturi that Renesmee isn't dangerous.

This movie actually succeeded where Eclipse did not in actually being a decent movie. With Eclipse, they were actually trying to be good with actual action and some nice comedy (especially with the guy that plays Charlie) and stuff like that, but the usual lack of energy and actual acting that Twilight provides kept me from giving it a 60% at least. But with this film, we get some really nice action and comedy and - dare I say it - the acting in some points was better. Well when I say better I mean that with some cases like Robert Patterson and Peter Facinelli, things kind of went a little similar to how Christian Bale was as Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight Rises. Meaning that like Bale in that film, the way they were talking was at least louder and clearer. Except for Michael Sheen, I thought he was kind of weird during some of his acting. But after that the acting was still everyone else being expressionless - especially with Lautner and Stewart with smiling one time while being their expressionless elves the rest of the time. And a lot of the scenes that all go before facing the Volturi dragged a little bit. But what really kills this movie from being anything outside of just decent is the ending. I'm going to write a separate paragraph about it to explain to those who have seen the film, but if you haven't, just know that that what they did just pissed me off and ruined the films chance of actually turning out to be an actually good movie.

Okay so why I hated the ending? Because the thing is, I hated the Volturi. I mean one of the few things the books succeeded in doing when it comes to making you have a certain view to any of the characters, was hating the Volturi. I just hated how they were these evil, cruel, heartless guys that were being the 'police' for the world of these vampires. So when I read the book to Breaking Dawn, I thought it was stupid that they were still around as part of the end of the series. So when all the trailers and some rumors were going around that they were going to change the ending and I was hoping that they would cause... yeah, while it makes sense from them to live because of how they're still the law and everything...it just feels more right to me that they would end it with them destroying the Volturi to me. And they made me think that they actually did right until they made the twist revealing that it's all a vision from Alice. And that pissed me off not entirely because it seemed like they were going to do it so much as how they were supposedly doing it. I mean Aro killing Carlisle was a big moment. And then the fighting starts and they kill Jasper, Lilly and Seth for more drama and they finally kill Aro. That whole thing was really well done. I mean the whole time I felt my heart racing both because of the action and them killing the Volturi but also due to still being in shock with those characters getting killed. But then we find out that it was all in Alice's vision. I mean while everyone else in the theater was sighing in relief, I was just being so. freaking. angry. I mean I went home after the movie grumbling about what happened. I know that if they actually went that way, a lot of fans would be pissed more then I am and all of that, especially with killing all those characters. I get that. I really do. I mean even if they did do that, I would be bummed anyway because of Jasper and Carlisle because those two are one of the few characters I actually really liked from this franchise. But as a film, they could've made it something really worthy to the point were this movie could actually been good in my opinion. I know close to no one's going to agree with me, but that's how I feel. But I digress in any case since it doesn't matter now that we're finally done with this franchise.

And that's my review for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2. We still get the crap that we normally hate about Twilight, but at least the action and comedy was enjoyable and the acting improved VERY slightly in some cases. And I know that there'll probably be some reboots and all that, but until then, this particular film series is over. WE'RE FREE!!!!!! And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head off to the bad and drink all of my memories of Twilight away. 

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Rating: 85%
Well I'm not going to do a video review for this because I've delayed in making one for so long since I say it because I was a little busy over the past couple of weeks. But anyway, here's finally my review for Wreck-It Ralph.

Plot: Wreck-It Ralph is the bad guy in an arcade game called Fix-It Felix, who become tired of his life of being a bad guy and being hated all of the time. So he goes from game to game to try to change who he is by trying to get a medal and become a hero.

Now this film I had little confidence but at the same time really, really, really, really, really, really wanted it to be good. I mean it's basically a video game version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And even then I wanted it to be good because I wanted Disney to keep giving us decent to good movies again that I believe they've managed to do so far ever since Meet The Robinsons. As it turns out, that's just what I got. It's a good enjoyable movie. The structure wasn't too original but even with that, the story was clever, the characters were good (better then I expected at some times.) There's a whole bunch of video games and also candy jokes that were fun to watch. And the animation is just awesome.   I mean with the Sugar Rush and Hero's Duty worlds were just beautifully done and really worked in terms of making these games more like the modern ones we know today. But the real issue is that it's not as big as I thought when it came to giving us actual characters from actual video games. They just weren't there as often as I thought they would be. But it works at the same time because that means that they were going to go more into their own thing. In the end, it's a well done movie that is a lot of fun, fine movie to be among Walt Disney Animation Studios' many theatrical animated films and is likely to be the best animated film of the year. And with that said I say here's hoping that with this film, Disney will finally have an oscar for best full-length animated film that's try got all by themselves and not because of Pixar. Also I just want to say that the short film that they play was really good to. If not for the story, then more the beautiful animation.

Characters:
Wreck-It Ralph: Now as far as the general structure of his journey, Ralph was a little bland. But luckily he did get a little better as the movie went on and he began to really know what he really wants and stuff like that.
Vanellope: This character shouldn't have worked, but she did. When I say this, I refer to how she was annoying in the trailer and she was proving me right at first that she was going to be that way throughout the film, but surprisingly as the film went on, the character was getting developed more and because of it, I started to take her much more seriously and ended up having a little fun watching her and ended up caring for her a lot more then I thought I would. So she may not be perfect since she can still be annoying, but as the film progressed she became a likable character anyway.
Fix-It Felix Jr. and Sergeant Calhoun: They were really fun as the supporting characters. Fix-It Felix Jr. was so happy and optimistic and I'm jealous that he has that golden hammer considering how powerful it is. That hammer has to be every guy's dream to have. I mean is something breaks down, you can just hit it with it and it's fine. I know my dad would love to have that for our van and microwave right about now. Calhoun was just such a bad-a and you have to like how her back story was told.

Music: I enjoyed the soundtrack easily. It was just so deep and creative and just really worked with the whole story being about these whole video game worlds. And the song "When Can I See You Again" from the end credits is fun yet catchy as frick.

And that's my review for Wreck-It Ralph, the structure of the story is not perfect, but it's still a very fun, creative, funny and altogether enjoyable film, easily the best animated film this year, lock, stock and barrel.

The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998)

Rating: 35%
Okay so a few days ago, I was flipping channels to record a TV show when I came across one of the Disney channels that was about to play this movie. Since this was a film I use to watch back when I was growing up, I decided to record it as well and see how it is now that I'm all grown up and have a much clearer knowledge about film and with what's good or bad and all that stuff. So here's my review for The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.

Plot: After the events of the first film, Simba and Nala have a daughter named Kiara, whom Simba becomes over-protective over her by frequently telling her not to go to the Outlands where a group of lions who are loyal to Scar have been banished. Kiara ignores this and goes to the Outlands where she bumps into and befriends a cub named Kovu who is designated to be Scar's heir, and befriends him. But Simba and Kovu's mother, Zira find them and have a face-off. Later Zira comes up with the idea to train Kovu where once he's grown up, he'll use his old friendship with Kiara to kill Simba and become the king of the Pride Lands.

 Okay so what is bad about this movie? Well first of all, the title. I say that because A) considering the title is Simba's PRIDE, people will tend to interpret it the wrong way. Trust me on that. I've experienced it before where me and a group of people are talking about The Lion King and then someone's all "they did make a second movie that was basically their version of Romeo and Juliet" and I say "Yeah I know, The Lion King II: Simba's Pride"...and then most of the people are chuckling and I act all "Don't look at me, that's actually what it's called." And B) I don't think Simba's name should've been in there at all because quite frankly, he wasn't the center of attention in this movie. Other then that, the problems with the film are often mentioned in the reviews for it: it is not as close to as big and majestic as the first movie. And the first...15 minutes or so were structured almost exactly like the beginning of The Lion King from the beginning to after "Be Prepared" (I don't know how much of the first film is that, but the second film was structured almost precisely like those first particular scenes of the first film.) Another problem is that the dialogue is goofy, or at least some of the choices of dialogue sound off and don't make sense. Also the comedy with Timon and Pumbaa is pretty much - as one critic roughly puts it - low humor that the kids at least will enjoy. That point I can especially vouch for because as a kid, I did enjoy their humor. Heck, even though I know now that the comedy isn't really that good, I still sort of enjoyed it in a certain way for old times sake when I saw this movie again . And finally there's a set of plot holes that you can easily notice. My main example, *WARNING SPOILERS* is how they didn't really explain the story of Zira and her family. I mean we understand that Scar was apparently her mate and that Nuka and Vatani are their children but Kovu is Zira's son but not Scar's...but that's not exactly explained how. I mean if Scar did have this family, why was there no Zira and her followers aiding Scar and the Hyenas in the first movie? And more importantly, how is it that Kovu's not Scar's son and yet was appointed BY Scar to be his heir before he died. I mean my best guess is that he didn't know he wasn't his child or something like that, but none of that is explained at all. It's just Zira: Scar's mate, Nuka and Vatiani: their children and Kovu: Zira's son not Scar's but appointed by him to be his heir anyway. *END OF SPOILERS* But all of these issues aside the movie is sort of...okay. I mean the idea is nice, some of the songs like "My Lullaby" and "Not One of Us" - while hardly close to the grandness that the soundtrack in the first film had - were a little enjoyable, and the story altogether had a good way of finishing the story of The Lion King. I guess with that said, at the end of the day, while being among the LEAST awful Disney sequels (aside from The Rescuers Down Under and Winnie the Pooh which were actually good sequels), The Lion King II: Simba's Pride is roughly how I felt about Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas: I grew up with both movies, I know they're bad, but at the same time, I can't help but feel that somewhere there's a good movie buried very, very deep somewhere within the idea or some of the aspects of both movies.

And that's my review for The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. It's more of a film that you're most likely to enjoy only if you're a kid like I was when I was growing up with this movie, but otherwise it's just a poor successor to the first film that deep down I feel could've been so much better.