Flyboys Review

I've been very busy lately with school, so I haven't really had time for a review. Solution? Review a movie we watched in school. I have a history teacher who shows us these historically inaccurate movies because.. Well I'm not sure why. But for ancient China we watched Mulan, for the Middle Ages we watched A Knights Tale, for WWII we're gonna be watching the over exaggerated Pearl Harbor and the sugarcoated Devil's Arithmetic. For WWI we watched this.

Flyboys is the story of a bunch of American pilots who go and blow stuff up and do barrel rolls and date random cross-eyed French women.

And let me just go ahead and say, there's nothing really wrong with Flyboys. Maybe it was the fact that it was so much more enjoyable than schoolwork and it lasted two and a half whole class periods, but I didn't really hate it. While extremely unrealistic, the dog fights were interesting and creative and a lot cooler than like.. a lot of other exaggerated action flicks I've watched like, say, Red Tails.

The cast was interesting but the characters felt really unrealistic. The main character was your typical bad boy who doesn't play by the rules but sticks up for the little guy, has a heart of gold, and naturally excels at whatever he does. You have the seasoned pro who takes a liking to the macho kid and helps him become better. Then you have a jambalaya of characters who could be summed up in two or three word titles (like "the rich kid,""the religious dude," etc).

And the movie is very cliche, but I've seen worse. If you're okay with some so-so writing and some nifty special effects and cinematography, give it a watch next time it's on TV. As for me, I'll leave the historical inaccuracies back in history class.

4.5/10

Big Fish Review

Tim Burton.

We all know the guy. He's married to Bellatrix Thernadier. He probably knows Johnny Depp better than the dude's own mother. He really likes play-doh.

I for one am a Burton ignoramus. I have not witness singing stitched mouths of Nightmare Before Christmas, I definitely haven't strolled Fleet Street with murderous lunatic Sweeney Todd (because that's violent yo), and I don't even know what the heck Beetlejuice is. In fact, my Burton film knowledge includes the inferior remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and that's about it.

So I was excited to give this movie a chance. It sounded interesting and looked kinda cool. However, I wasn't super impressed.

This movie is good, but it's just not nearly as good as I wanted it to be. It feels more like Tim Burton's interpretation of Forrest Gump than anything else.

So before I throw anymore stones at Big Fish, let's talk about the story. It's about this writer who's dad is dying. He feels like he never really got to know his father because his dad would only tell him elaborate stories and tall tales about his life. And that's where most of the story takes place. We get to watch Ewan McGregor acting out this dad's stories and I have to say, these flashbacks are the best part of the film. The stories his dad tells are delightful and peculiar and fun to watch.

Where the movie struggles is the reality sequences. Burton creates such a strange colorful flashback world that the boring melodramatic real world looks dull in comparison.

Another area the movie struggles in is humor. The movie tries a lot, but it really only got one or two good chuckles out of me. And with such serious subject matter, some more humor in the stories really would have helped.

I will say, however, that the ending surpassed my expectations. It was kinda strange but it was handled in a way that was pretty different from what I expected. It left a happy taste in my mouth, and to be honest I'd rather watch a decent film with a great ending than a great film with a mediocre ending.

All in all, I have to give this one a 6.5/10. If you're an avid Tim Burton fan I'd recommend it. Then again, if you're an avid Tim Burton fan you've probably already seen it. The movie is PG-13 for some s-words and also for all the butts our friend Tim feels compelled to show us.

Do you disagree with me? Is this your favorite film ever? Then tell me all about how much you disagree and want to wring my neck in the comments. I'd love to hear from you.

Movies and Junk

So I feel like starting a blog. I mean why not? I have enough free time to update it every so often.

I had one where I reviewed cartoons but then lazy happened. Now lazy has stopped happening but I feel more like reviewing movies. I mean, I watch more movies than cartoons, and I'm probably gonna get the same exact crowd of friends and family to read my blog regardless so... yeah. I plan on reviewing some random movie on Netflix tonight. Either The Artist or that one Tim Burton movie about the fish. I haven't decided yet. See y'all later. Click subscribe or follow or like or comment or whatever. That'd be nice.