My Review of Why Him?

        So I recently watched Why Him? and I'm here to bring you my review. So without further ado.....







        During the holidays, loving but overprotective Ned (played by Bryan Cranston) travels to California to visit his daughter Stephanie (played by Zoey Deutch) at Stanford University. While there, he meets his biggest nightmare: her well-meaning but socially awkward boyfriend Laird (played by James Franco). Even though Laird is a billionaire, Ned disapproves of his freewheeling attitude and unfiltered language. His panic level escalates even further when he learns that Laird plans to ask for Stephanie's hand in marriage.

       

        This is a really terrible film. The old adage in Hollywood is that they make nothing new and original anymore and everything just feels the same. Now while that isn't always the case (more original films come out than remakes and sequels), it is however the case for this film. If you've ever seen the film Son-in-Law starring Pauly Shore then this film will be very recognizable as Franco plays the same type of character as Shore, but this film has a twist in the sense that it focuses on the parents and them going to visit their daughter and potential Son-in-Law. One thing that this film has over that one is the fact that there is no Pauly Shore and this cast is pretty talented with the likes of Oscar nominated actors James Franco and Bryan Cranston. Both do have some pretty great chemistry between each other and the comedic timing between them is perfect. Outside of those two this film really has nothing going for it. Overall it's basically like a lot of other father/son-in law films which just makes this film lazy, careless and predictable that overshadows some pretty great comedic scenes as well as some really great performances from Bryan Cranston and James Franco. I give Why Him? a 2 out of 10.

        So ladies and gentlemen what did you think of Why Him?, what would you rate it and what did you think of my review? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.

                                                                                                                           Jonah Sparks

Director Spotlight of Stanley Kubrick

        Continuing the Director Spotlight segment we'll spotlight the man who has brought us some of the greatest films of all-time while mixing suspense and storytelling, Mr. Stanley Kubrick. I'm going to give you his filmography, my top 3 favorite films of his and his future projects. So without further ado...

Stanley Kubrick's Filmography

Year	Film	Rottentomatoes.com Score
1951	Day of the Fight	NA
1951	Flying Padre	NA
1953	Fear and Desire	83%
1953	The Seafarers	NA
1955	Killer’s Kiss	84%
1956	The Killing	97%
1957	Paths of Glory	94%
1960	Spartacus	96%
1962	Lolita	95%
1964	Dr. Strangelove	99%
1968	2001: A Space Odyssey	94%
1971	A Clockwork Orange	90%
1975	Barry Lyndon	97%
1980	The Shining	87%
1987	Full Metal Jacket	95%
1999	Eyes Wide Shut	74%

Top 3 Favorite Films

1. Dr. Strangelove

2. The Shining

3. 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick's Awards & Nominations

Year	Award Type	Film	Win/Nomination
1965	Academy Award for Best Director	Dr. Strangelove	Nominated
1969	Academy Award for Best Director	2001: A Space Odyssey	Nominated
1972	Academy Award for Best Director	A Clockwork Orange	Nominated
1976	Academy Award for Best Director	Barry Lyndon	Nominated

Future Films

Tragically Mr. Kubrick passed away in 2000. The last film Kubrick worked on was A.I. Artificial Intelligence as it was finished and directed by good friend Stephen Spielberg. 

     
        So ladies and gentlemen what do you think of Stanley Kubrick's career and who would you like to see me spotlight next? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.

                                                                                                                                         Jonah Sparks

My Review of Assassin's Creed

        So I recently watched Assassin's Creed and I'm here to bring you my review. So without further ado...

 

        Through a revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories, Callum Lynch (played by Michael Fassbender) experiences the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain. Callum discovers he is descended from a mysterious secret society, the Assassins, and amasses incredible knowledge and skills to take on the oppressive and powerful Templar organization in the present day. 

        This is a rather disappointing film. The Assassin's Creed video game franchise is one of the most successful franchises of all-time and it's a no-brainer to build off of it's success by making a film based on the game. While the concept is a great idea and with better execution, this film could've bucked the trend of video game films being terrible. Instead the film is a mess and the trend of video game films being terrible continues. The plot of this film involves an item that was featured in the first video game "The Apple of Eden" and it was a great MacGuffin that worked well and while it was a great nod to the games, it no build up whatsoever in why it was such an important artifact. With no build up, it makes the ambitions of the villains seem odd and just really stupid. It changes a lot of things from the games and that can be a good thing simply because you don't want to cater to just the video gamers mainly due to alienating a lot of the people you want to see this film and some of them work to perfection, but others not so much. The big change was the Animus and it just look really weird and the way Michael Fassbender's character was forced into it was dumb and didn't make a lot of sense. As mentioned before there are a lot of great nods to games and it really shows how much the filmmakers appreciated the gamers on that level. Visually the  film looks really gorgeous and the way they were able to capture 15th century Spain so perfectly just makes for a very appealing scenery. Within in the film the one thing that really stood out as bothersome was when there were fight scenes within the Animus and it would constantly flip back and forth between the past and the present and it just got to be really annoying and the awesome choreography couldn't be appreciated due to that. Performance wise , there is a great performance by Fassbender in the film, but everyone else just seemed like a waste and you can't have a successful film based off of one single performance. Overall this film is a mess from the beginning and it's a film that never found it's identity and it overshadows some great visuals, fight choreography and a really great lead performance. I Give Assassin's Creed a 4.5 out of 10. 

        So ladies and gentlemen what did you think of Assassin's Creed, what would you rate it and what did you think of my review? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard. 

                                                                                                                           Jonah Sparks

Weekend Box Office Review 12-23-16 to 12-25-16/ Weekend Preview

        Here are the weekend domestic box office results for the weekend of 12-23-16 to 12-25-16 as well as my 5 key takeaways, as well as my predictions for the top 5 films at the box office this weekend. So without further ado...

Box Office Totals courtesy of boxofficemojo.com

TW	LW	Film	Studio	Weekend	# of Theaters	Total Domestic Gross	Weeks
1	1	Rogue One: A Star Wars Story	Lucasfilm/ Walt Disney Pictures	$64,033,768	4,157	$286,033,442	2
2	-	Sing	Universal Pictures	$35,258,145	4,022	$55,870,785	1
3	-	Passengers	Sony Pictures	$15,055,000	3,478	$22,380,201	1
4	-	Why Him?	20th Century Fox	$11,002,986	2,917	$11,002,986	1
5	-	Assassin’s Creed	20th Century Fox	$10,278,225	2,970	$17,770,623	1
6	2	Moana	Walt Disney Pictures	$7,713,267	2,687	$180,745,458	5
7	25	Fences	Paramount Pictures	$6,688,105	2,233	$6,879,620	2
8	7	La La Land	Lionsgate	$5,751,708	734	$13,634,419	3
9	3	Office Christmas Party	Paramount Pictures	$5,138,070	2,441	$42,177,672	3
10	4	Collateral Beauty	Paramount Pictures	$4,275,000	3,028	$15,276,500	2

1. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story continues to hold onto the number one spot and it looks to hold onto it for the foreseeable future.

2. As mentioned Moana continues to hang on in the top 10 and it will stay there for the next couple of weeks.

3. Overall this was a really solid Christmas weekend at the box office. 

4. The biggest loser of the weekend was Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as it made 58.7% less than it did last weekend and the biggest winner of the weekend was Fences as it made 5,066.1% more than it did last weekend.

5. I went 3 for 5 on my predictions. 

Predictions
1. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story $33 Million
2. Sing $18 Million
3. Passengers $11 Million

4. Why Him? $9,5 Million
5. Moana $8 Million

        So ladies and gentlemen what do you think of this weekend's box office totals and what are some of your takeaways? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.

                                                                                                                           Jonah Sparks

My Review of Sing

        So I recently watched Sing and I'm here to bring you my review. So without further ado...............







        Dapper Koala Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) presides over a once-grand theater that has fallen on hard times. An eternal optimist, and a bit of a scoundrel, he loves his theater above all and will do anything to preserve it. Facing the crumbling of his life's ambition, he takes one final chance to restore his fading jewel to its former glory by producing the world's greatest singing competition. Five contestants emerge: a mouse (voiced by Seth McFarlane), a timid elephant (voiced by Tori Kelly), a pig (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), a gorilla (voiced by Taron Egerton) and a punk-rock porcupine (voiced by Scarlett Johansson).

       

        This is a really heartwarming and charming film. while 2016 has been an up and down year for films and a lot of you highly anticipated films didn't live up to the hype, one thing that has lived up to the hype are animated films and this film adds to the impressive year for animation. As with all animated films, there are great voice ensembles and most of the time they really make the characters come to life and often lose focus on who is voice the character and this film does a nice job of doing that and you don't see past the characters to find the voice actors and that's a credit to both the actors and the director. Illumination animation (the studio who did this film) often doesn't receive the attention it deserves simply because you have studios like Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks virtually running the show and to be quite honest they've only had one really terrible film and they are quietly becoming a major player in the animation world. As with all film, it really boils down to the story and this isn't the most original film we've ever seen, but it does a few nice little things that make it unique and stand out, but it is pretty predictable in that sense and to go along with that is the comedy  which isn't really a strength of this film, but there are a few really solid jokes that can keep you entertained. One thing that is a strength is the music and has a nice little mix of both modern songs as well as some classics which really help you get in the groove to go along with the solid comedic parts. Overall this is a fun film with some great music, voicework and animation all the while not having a great story of the greatest jokes. I give Sing an 8 out of 10.

        So ladies and gentlemen what did you think of Sing, what would you rate it and what did you think of my review? So without further ado...

                                                                                                                           Jonah Sparks

My Review of Passengers

        So I recently watched Passengers and I'm here to bring you my review. So without further ado.....







       Two passengers are on a 120-year journey to another planet when their hibernation pods wake them 90 years too early. Jim (played by Chris Pratt) and Aurora (played by Jennifer Lawrence) are forced to unravel the mystery behind the malfunction as the ship teeters on the brink of collapse, with the lives of thousands of passengers in jeopardy.

       

        This film is just an absolute disaster. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are both really great actors and are very well known by the general movie going audience, so putting them in a film together is a brilliant idea to help sell tickets and to be honest they are the only really good thing about the film. They have tremendous chemistry together and who knows, maybe Chris Pratt replaces Bradley Cooper as Lawrence's go to co-star. Other than their performances, this film is just a steaming pile of garbage. The story while interesting just isn't executed well at all and it falls back to director Morten Tyldum who is a phenomenal director, but it feels as if he bit a little more off than he could chew and this was too big of a film for him. The script for this particular film had been floating around the Black List (which is a great place to read scripts that could be potential films) and if you read the script while it was on the site, you knew about the major twist that happens and when it happens (which is towards the end of the film) and that particular twist was placed in the first 30 minutes of this film and it actually ruins it. You're not given anytime to really grow with these characters and connect with them enough to fully appreciate it and plus after it's revealed it almost seemingly ignores it and moves on to the next segment of the film. The visuals are nice both inside and outside of the ship and they can keep your interest for a little bit, but you can't fully appreciate it because it just keeps cutting back to the main characters talking about the most random things that never lead to anywhere and end awkwardly mainly because they went on for too long. Overall this film is just a massive disappointment with some great performances and great visuals, but the poor execution in storytelling just dooms the film from the start and you don't gain any interest in what is happening. I give Passengers a 3 out of 10.

        So ladies and gentlemen what did you think of Passengers, what would you rate it and what did you think of my review? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.

                                                                                                                           Jonah Sparks