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This is my personal blog for reviewing technology, movies, games, and whatever else. I will also be writing about other topics of interest.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Super 8 Review


Let me just say that films like Super 8 are the reason I love movies so much. This movie was absolutely great. The film takes places in the late 1970’s and focuses on a group of kids trying to make a horror movie, however little do they know a real life horror movie is unfolding around them. They witness a train crash while shooting a scene and things go straight to hell from there.

The movie does a good job of keeping you in suspense, wondering what’s coming next, what’s really going on in this small Ohio town. It keeps you waiting in anticipation until the end. I really loved how the camera work was done; giving you small glimpses of the creature but it’s never truly revealed until the end. You may say, well that’s been done before. Yes it has, but this movie did it right in my opinion.

Another aspect of this film that I enjoyed was that the main starring roles were given to kids. You really don’t see that very often. I think the kids in this movie all gave terrific acting performances, some of the best I’ve seen. All of them were well casted for their roles. Watching them trying to make their movie as the action unfolds around them was quite entertaining.

Super 8 really draws you into the story of these kids and their film. A lot of movies made today have a lot of action but lack in their story. This movie limits the action only to when it’s appropriate. Overall it’s just really well done and I hope to see more movies like this in the near future. I highly recommend this movie to everyone.

My score for Super 8 is 5 out of 5.

- Shane

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Review


I just got back from seeing the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie “On Stranger Tides”. I went in knowing it probably would not be as good as its predecessors and unfortunately I was right. This film goes in quite a different direction than the last three. The original trilogy relied heavily on CGI effects to create memorable characters like Davy Jones. On the contrary, Blackbeard in this movie is very forgettable.  

The movie didn’t use too many spectacular special effects at all really. The main focus being on the “mermaids” however don’t let that title fool you, the creatures in this movie are not actually mermaids. They’re more like vampire/piranhas which have the ability to take down entire ships! Unlike any mermaid I’ve ever heard of.

The plot of this movie focuses on finding the fountain of youth. Of course everyone knows a fountain of youth is no good unless you’ve got some mermaid tears to go with it, oh and the tears must be fresh to work. I’d like to know who thought that one up. The whole plot is rather silly and seems rather pointless to me.

The dialogue and soundtrack for this movie both seemed to be lacking. As for dialogue, Jack Sparrow did not have nearly the same amount of witty lines or comebacks that he did in the previous films. Johnny Depp’s performance seemed to be on cruise control throughout the movie. The music in the movie wasn’t really bad; it’s just that there was nothing new. It seemed like the same soundtrack as in the previous movies just re-mixed.

I know they’re planning to yet make two more of these movies in the coming years, I can only hope they look back at their previous more successful works for their future ventures. I personally really loved the very first Pirates movie. I thought it was innovative and a fun ride in general. The second one wasn’t bad either really; I still enjoyed it quite a lot. The third was decent but the plot had some holes. Now the fourth is just rather disappointing to me.

For my score I’ll give this movie 3 out of 5.