National Treasure

Let's talk about Nicolas Cage. I haven't seen many of his movies but he is known for being over the top and crazy with his performances. One of his movies I have seen is a Disney movie known as National Treasure. In the movie Cage plays a conspiracy theorist. It sounds fun so let's take a look at Nicolas Cage's National Treasure. Also, sorry that this review is shorter than others. There's less to talk about in a movie than a TV show.












Characters: The main character of the movie is a conspiracy theorist named Benjamin Gates. Cage plays him crazy enough so that he seem genuinely insane but just enough so that you think he could be right. Ben's assistant Riley is also a good comic relief character. There's Ben's love interest Abigail Chase. She's a bit boring but she's okay. Ian is the main villain of the movie. He's an entertaining villain and I actually like him. Ben's father Patrick is there to contrast Ben. And he's a good foil to him, And lastly, there's Sadusky, the detecting trying to track down Ben. I actually find his mission rather interesting. So overall a good cast of characters.







Plot: The plot goes that the Founding Fathers of America hid a treasure somewhere and left clues to find it. Ben is one of the only people who believes it exists. Ben finally finds out that there's a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence. But Ian wants to steal it. So Ben decides to steal it before he does. And after that, the mystery keeps building from there. There are a lot of good action sequences in the movie. I like the build up and execution of the Declaration of Independence heist. It's sort of like Indiana Jones or the Goonies with the treasure hunting adventure aspect. I just love a good adventure movie. One of the only complaints I have is that they really don't explain enough.




Conclusion: Nation Treasure is a great adventure movie. Nicolas Cage does a great job of acting like a crazy person (Although I'm not sure how much is acting) and the other characters aren't too bad either. The real best part of the movie is the action sequences and the sense of danger and adventure. So I do recommend National Treasure.

A New Hope vs The Force Awakens

So there's a new Star Wars movie out. Well instead of reviewing it like I would normally I've decided to compare it to the original. Because it actually has some similarities. Sort of like when I compared Jurassic Park and Jurassic World. So without further ado here is A New Hope vs The Force Awakens. Also before I start I would to announce that this review has a lot spoilers in it. So if you've seen the movie or just don't care take a look. If you haven't seen the movie.... Sorry.


Protagonists: The main character in A New Hope is Luke Skywalker. He's a lot more whiny in the first movie than he is than he is in the sequels.  And that's really kind of distracting. The other main characters are Han Solo, Obi Wan Kenobi, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, R2D2, and C3PO. Han is my favourite character in the first movie. Probably due to how cool he plays it. Chebacca doesn't have any actual lines but he's somehow still pretty interesting. Obi Wan is basically every other old mentor character ever. Princess Leia is also a pretty strong character. R2D2 really doesn't have much personality do to only being able to talk through beeping noises. But they're harmless. C3PO is kind of annoying but it's not too noticeable. A lot of the characters from the first movie are in the Force Awakens. They mostly remain unchanged. Han is still overly confident, C3PO worries a lot and so on. The main characters introduced in this movie are Finn, Rey, BB8, and Poe. Finn and Rey are actually pretty likeable and have interesting characters with Finn being and ex-Stormtrooper and Rey being a down on her luck scavenger. BB8 is a droid and he doesn't talk. They're not interesting but harmless. Poe is kind of boring. He's just the generic good looking, talented, nice guy. But he's barely in the movie. There's actually a fake out in the beginning that I thought was pretty funny where they made you think he'd be the main character. Both the movies have a pretty solid cast. But due to Luke whining in the first half of the movie in the original I'll give the point to the Force Awakens.




Antagonists: The main antagonist in A New Hope is Darth Vader. He's a classic antagonist. He's threatening and an interesting character..... He's also Luke's father. It's not a spoiler everyone knows it! Anyway that about does it for the antagonists in the first movie. Emperor Palpatine wasn't introduced until the Empre Strikes back. Don't worry there are many more antagonists in the Force Awakens. First off is Kylo Ren, he's Han Solo's son (Spoiler) and actually a pretty good antagonist. Probably the only complaint I have is that without his helmet on he isn't very intimidating. The other antagonists are General Hux, Captain Phasma, and Supreme Leader Snoke. The only thing I remember about General Hux is that he speaks with a British accent. Not just any British accent an evil British accent.... Trust me there's a difference. The only things I remember about Captain Phasma is that she's a girl and wears a really shiny outfit. Snoke is sort of like..... Um.... He's not very interesting. But he may get more interesting in the next movie. But a New Hope has the  more interesting villain and the Force Awakens has the uninteresting villains weighing it down.





Special Effects: The original was made in the 70's. But surprisingly the effects hold up. A lot of the puppets and models are pretty good. Sometimes you get a really dated effect but for the most part it's pretty good. The second movie came out recently so the effects are of course improved. It integrates the CGI and practical effects like puppets really well. So yeah, I'm going to give the point to the Force Awakens.








Plot: Both these movies have similarities. It starts with a character hiding something inside a droid, a poor character on a desert planet finds the droid, and it ends with a giant evil base blowing up. The main difference is the pacing of the plots. The original movie has a much slower pace than the new one. On one hand a New Hope was better at explaining things but too much explaining started to get tedious at times. On the other hand if the plot moves too fast you might not be able to explain things. But personally I prefer the Force Awakens.





Conclusion: I think the Force Awakens is better. Being made now gives it better effects, and less dated acting. But a New Hope is of course still a classic and is the movie that started it all. But in the end I think the Force Awakens did a better job. I'm glad to have compared these movies and let me know what you think.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Everybody loves Indiana Jones. With a mix of quick action, memorable characters, and practical effects that will haunt your nightmares you can bet it was popular. After the success of The Last Crusade it was only logical to make a fourth movie..... A rough 19 years later. As you may have guessed I am talking about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It's one tranwreck of a movie and I have to review it. Small note there will be some spoilers..... But let's be fair this movie is ruined either way. So without further ado let's get started.










Characters: The main character of this movie is Indiana Jones. He's mostly the same as in the previous movies.... Just older. But don't worry he has an obvious stunt double for the action sequences. The other characters in this movie are Indiana Jones' son he really doesn't do much. Marian from the first movie. She's kind of there for the throwback to the first movie. There's Mac.... He's pointless end of story. There's this crazy guy.... He's only there as a convenient plot device. Finally there's the main villain: a Russian lady with a really over the top accent. She's probably the best part of the movie just with how over the top she is.







Special Effects: The effects in this movie are pretty fake looking. I never once believe that there were gophers, monkeys, or man eating ants in this movie. Some of the stunts are impressive but like said above it's pretty obvious when they're using a stunt double. It's sad that the special effects of a movie in the 90's like Jurassic Park are better than this one.











Plot: Okay so Indiana Jones is returning the skull of an alien to it's resting place...... What? That's the story? When where aliens part of the Indiana Jones series. It's about as silly as it sounds. They spend a lot of time explaining stuff. Seriously, during one exposition scene I got a glass of water and when I got back they were still explaining the plot. It's a very silly premise and doesn't really fit into the universe of Indiana Jones.









Overall Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a laughably bad movie. So if you want a movie with bad effects a silly plot and russians

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze

Wow that title is a mouthfull. Sequels Month is starting off with this film and we will see if it is better or worse then the original. As I stated in my review of the first movie it is based on a popular comic and TV show from the 80's and 90's. Oh and there may be some spoilers for the first movie in here. So let's go to where everyone eats pizza and review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze.

We start with a pizza delivery boy named Keno (Ernie Reyes jr.) who stumbles upon some crooks robbing a mall but then the ninja turtles, Leonardo (Mark Caso), Donatello (Leif Tilden), Rapheal (Kenn Scott), and Michaelangelo (Michalen Sisti) come to the rescue.  Now in the first movie they used their ninja gear in the fight scenes but since that got too many complaints from parents they use random objects that just happen to be lying around. So after defeating the crooks the turtles head back to the apartment of April O'Neil (Paige Turco) where they are staying until they find a better place to live. Later that day April does a report on TV about a local company closing down for unknown reasons. But it turns out this mysterious ooze has caused some nearby dandelions to mutate into bigger dandelions. That night the same pizza deliver boy comes to April's apartment and sees the turtles and gets freaked out. But the turtles explain to him what they are and that it is important to keep a secret.

Meanwhile it turns out the villain from the last movie, The Shredder (François Chau) is still alive and planning his revenge on the ninja turtles. The Shredder and his henchmen invade the lab with the ooze and kidnap one of the scientists and one of the last canisters of ooze. The turtles decide to go into the sewer to find a good place to live. They find an abandoned subway station where they decide to live. Meanwhile Keno and Rapheal go to the Shredder's headquarters where he sees the scientist from before and it turns out the Shredder used the ooze to mutate a turtle and a dog into mutants named Tokka (Kurt Bryant) and Rahzar (Mark Ginther). But Keno and Raph get captured and it's up to the rest of the turtles to save him. But they to get captured but manage to free themselves and once again instead of using their ninja weapons use random objects they find lying around. They escape the Shredder and make a plan to defeat him once and for all.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

They challenge the Shredder's mutants to a battle and end up battling in a club where Vanilla Ice is singing. Oh and then he starts doing a ninja rap.....I don't even know what to say about this scene. They defeat Tokka and Rahzar but then Shredder drinks the last of the ooze and becomes Super Shredder (Kevin Nash) only to have the ceiling collapse on top of him resulting in him being defeated so it's kind of pointless for him to have transformed in the first place. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

Well that was an awful movie. It is extremely dated. Some of the actors aren't that good and the Shredder isn't that much of an interesting villain. But at least the animatronic turtles look pretty good. But I still don't recommend this movie as a good sequel or good movie in general, See you next time. And seriously, why was Vanilla Ice in this?

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Hello everyone it looks like reviewing time. I have decided to review a fun adventure movie that everyone loves that's right Raiders of the Lost Ark. So get your hat and your whip because it's time for Raiders of the Lost Ark.












The movie starts with Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) looking for an ancient idol. He finds it and activates a bunch of traps. He escapes from the traps but is cornered by is arch enemy Belloq (Paul Freeman) who takes the idol away. Indy escapes and goes back to his job as history teacher. Indy's friend Marcus (Denholm Elliott) tells him of another treasure that Belloq and some German soldiers are out to find. The artifact is The Ark of the Covenant which is the chest that The Ten Commandments are carried in. So Indiana sets off to Egypt to find it but not before stopping in Nepal to get an amulet that will point to the resting place of The Ark. The amulet belongs to Indy's old friend Marion (Karen Allen). She refuses to give him the amulet but after a man named Toht (Ronald Lacy) tries to take the amulet she decides to come with Indy and give him the amulet. They make it to Egypt where they stay and the house of a man named Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) while in Egypt they are attacked by a bunch of thugs who kidnap Marion.




They put Marion in  a trcuk but the truck blows up and Indy thinks she is dead. But Indy still has the Amulet so he attaches it to a staff and he and Sallah go to the well of the souls which has a map that will point to where the Ark is. Indy goes to inform Sallah when he discovers that Marion is still alive. Indy doesn't free her because he is afraid the enemy will suspect him. Indy, Sallah, and some other diggers dig their way into a toumb where The Ark lies. Indy and Sallah take The Ark up but it turns out that the enemy has them surrounded. So Belloq takes the Ark and seals Indy and Marion in the toumb. They find a way out and try to get The Ark which is being loaded onto a truck and taken to the docks. They manage to get the Ark back and load it onto a ship going back to America but an enemy submarine isn't to far behind.

****SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED****

Top Men = Creepy Warehouse

Bellog attacks the ship, steals The Ark, and kidnaps Marion but Indy avoids them and sneaks onto their submarine. They go to an Island in order to open the Ark and Indy is caught. They open The Ark but Indy warns Marion not to look at The Ark. Hang on how does Indy know not to look at The Ark? It's a pretty big plot hole in the movie that not many people notice. Nobody ever told him not to look at The Ark so how does he know? But it is a good thing he didn't look as it makes all the enemy soldiers explode. So The Ark is taken back to Washington where it is looked after by "Top Men". The End.

****SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING****

Raiders of the Lost Ark  is a great movie. It is well acted, action packed, and features some really good effects that are a lot more convincing then some of the CGI I see in modern movies. It is also full of homages to serieals of the 40's which is a nice little touch. So in all I recomens Raiders of the Lost Ark as a movie,