The World of Vikes | Reviews Galore

[Mit]

Tropic Thunder​

Directed by Ben Stiller; Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Brandon T. Jackson

The Plot
Tropic Thunder is a comedy of a group of prima donna actors that are attempting to make a Vietnam War film. These actors are Tugg Speedman (Stiller), Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr.), and Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black). They are dropped off in the middle of the jungle after the writer and the director take a different approach to filming the movie. Speedman, Lazarus, and Portnoy try to dodge real perils and threats to try and make the movie a success.

Why It Was Good
Tropic Thunder had quite a bit of good things in it. First of all is the acting. Ben Stiller and Jack Black are notorious for their comedic roles in movies. Stiller has played a ripped gym owner in Dodgeball, while Jack Black has played a masked luchador in Nacho Libre. Downey Jr. has not played many comedic roles, as far as I know, but he is extremely funny in Tropic Thunder. The goal of director of Ben Stiller was to produce a comedy. To me, Ben Stiller met that goal and went above and beyond. I was truly laughing through 3/4 of this movie. It wasn't just the dialogue, but also the actions of the characters. You truly will be laughing through this movie and this isn't one that you will be bored in. It keeps you interested through its humor.

Why It Was Bad
This movie really wasn't bad, but it had a few weak areas. I've noticed that many comedies don't have strong plots. This comedy is one of them. The overall plot is just the attempt to make a Vietnam War film. There isn't too much development of the characters and there are too many sudden things that happen. I'm not going to go in detail on that because I don't want to ruin the movie.

Why I Liked It
In general, I very much did enjoy the movie. I liked it because it had a lot of humor. "I'm a lead farmer, mothafucka". That was my favorite quote from the entire movie. That final fight scene, I rewinded the movie and watched it atleast three times because it was just too funny. In general, a lot of the dialogue in the movie is very funny and because of that I liked the movie. It just keeps you interested throughout and never gets you bored, which is good because I hate when movies have certain parts that are boring.

My Rating

(7/10)

​

 

[Mit]

17 Again​

Directed by Burr Steers; Starring: Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon, Matthew Perry

The Plot
Mike O'Donnell (Perry) returns to his senior year of high school after he is fed up with job and his separation from his high school sweetheart, Scarlet. Mysteriously, O'Donnell is taken back to his senior year of high school ad tries to make things right.

The Breakdown
I really wasn't expecting much from this movie beforehand. After watching the movie, I had a different aftertaste of the movie. It definitely wasn't what I expected. I expected another bad acting performance by Zac Efron, like in the High School Musical movies. Efron did do his part as the 17-year old Mike O'Donnell. He had great chemistry with the other characters, as he was able to make friends with Alex O'Donnell and many other kids at the high school. This was probably Efron's best performance to date. There were many supporting actors that made this film good. Thomas Lennon, who is from Reno 911, played a nerdy character named Ned Gold. Lennon's character provided a lot of humor such as with his date with the high school principal. Although there were good things I had to say about the movie, there were also quite a bit of bad things. The plot, I thought, was absolutely terrible. It didn't seem original to me. It seemed a bit too cliched. Many movies have characters that are struggling to make ends meet and have a sudden change of luck. 17 Again is a movie that has that. A good thing of the plot is that it is developed quite well. Even though the plot seemed to cliched, it sort of kept me off balance as I didn't know what was going to happen next. Although, I did not like how the movie ended. It was just too much of a story-book ending that I have seen before many times. I just did not like it. One more thing I'd like to add is how I felt disgusted at a certain kissing scene, but I will not say what it is.

My Rating

(5.5/10)

​

 

[Mit]

Anyone got any ideas of movies to watch and review?

 

[Mit]

Since you watched 17 Again I would recommend all High School Musicals.

Seen the first 2. Not going to see anything past that.

 

[MvP]

If you can watch Memento and present a solid review I will be impressed.

 

[Rylo]

You should review older movies too.

2 suggestions:
Bullit
Tora! Tora! Tora!

 

[Deviant]

Battle Royale.

 

[dell71]

Apocalypse Now
The Natural
Goodfellas
Cool Hand Luke
The Outsiders
Clash of the Titans(relevant because they are making a remake)
Chinatown
Glengarry Glenross
Wallstreet
The Conversation
Malcolm X
The Godfather
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

That should take you a while. Good luck and enjoy.

Impressive list, some of my all time faves on there. Yup, if he hasn't seen them it will definitely take him a while.

 

[Whatupdoe44]

Running Scared

you wont regret it

 

[dell71]

Running Scared

you wont regret it

That depends on which one you're referring to. (I'm about to show my age again) The Billy Crystal-Gregory Hines buddy cop comedy? Or the Paul Walker gangster flick?

I prefer the latter, enjoyed it immensely.

 

[spidey12293]

watch green street hooligans. you can find the movie on google

 

[Mit]

Reupping this. Can this also be placed in the correct forum?

 

[Mit]

The Last King of Scotland​

Directed by Kevin Macdonald; Starring: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington
Rated: R; 123 Minutes

The Last King of Scotland is about a Scottish doctor's (played by James McAvoy) stay in Uganda during the reign of military dictator, Idi Amin (played by Forest Whitaker).

Before I watched this movie, I watched a documentary on Idi Amin where there was footage from 1974. The documentary showed Amin as being a very peaceful, joking, and admirable person. The times where he speaks in English, it is broken English that he is speaking that is grammatically flawed.

So, when I sat down and watched Last King of Scotland, I thought that director, Kevin Macdonald, would sort of implement his real life personality into the movie. Alas, he did not, which is one thing I was frustrated about with this movie. Forest Whitaker did not play a very plausible Idi Amin and everytime Whitaker appeared on the screen, I had to grit my teeth and keep watching. Whitaker did not inhabit the sort of bipolar personality that Amin has. It's a shame.

On another note, I did not particularly enjoy how the plot unfolded. There were times that it was just unfolding too slowly and that's probably how the movie reached the 123 minute mark. I wanted to see more of the stuff that Amin did such as having people murdered off. There was one scene where they showed dead bodies and you would hear about it, but you would never see Amin actually tell anybody to execute a person.

On a slightly better note, there is a lot of suspense throughout the movie, which really keeps you on the edge of the seat. You never know when Amin will lash out in anger after a comment or if he will simply smile and joke about it.

Overall, I thought this movie was a huge disappointment. There have been very, very few historical movies that I have enjoyed and this is not one of them. It appalls me that Whitaker won the Best Actor award for this because I just did not think he was that great.

Oh by the way, Rotten Tomatoes gave this movie an 87%.

My Rating: 6/10​

 

[Buzzman]

I love Last King of Scotland. The English language was just put in for Americans. Most cant stand subtitles. But the main thing is your seeing the film from the doctors point of view, not Amin's. The way he portrayed himself in front of McAvoy and then behind locked doors was presented in the best way possible.

 

[Maynard]

That depends on which one you're referring to. (I'm about to show my age again) The Billy Crystal-Gregory Hines buddy cop comedy? Or the Paul Walker gangster flick?

I prefer the latter, enjoyed it immensely.

i never saw the walker film. It always bugged me they used the title from the hines film which i just watched again recently and still enjoy it.

elevated train track car chase FTW!

 

[Mit]

I love Last King of Scotland. The English language was just put in for Americans. Most cant stand subtitles. But the main thing is your seeing the film from the doctors point of view, not Amin's. The way he portrayed himself in front of McAvoy and then behind locked doors was presented in the best way possible.

I respect your opinion, but I just did not enjoy how it was set up. I think that Whitaker did not play a plausible Amin, but obviously we are both on different pages right now.

Got any movies you want to see reviewed though?

 

[Mit]

The Goonies be reviewed please. An all time great in my books.

haha. def a good movie, but haven't seen it in a long time. gonna try to watch it some time then i'll review it.

 

[Buzzman]

I respect your opinion, but I just did not enjoy how it was set up. I think that Whitaker did not play a plausible Amin, but obviously we are both on different pages right now.

Got any movies you want to see reviewed though?

Watch In the company of men and tell me what you think.

 

[Mit]

Watch In the company of men and tell me what you think.

I'll try to get to this and The Goonies sometime this week.

 

[Mit]

The Man Who Wasn't There​

Directed by Ethan & Joel Coen; Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Frances McDormand, James Gandolfini, Scarlett Johansson
Rated: R; 118 Minutes

A simple barber (Thornton) blackmails his wife's boss for money, so that he can invest the money in a dry cleaning business, but the plan goes astray.

Billy Bob Thornton plays a quiet, simple, and always-smoking barber, Ed Crane, in this neo-noir flick. Thornton's character is driven mostly by actions rather than dialogue. In fact, most of this movie is driven by actions. Thornton's character, Crane, also embodies the key characteristics of a character in a neo-noir film. He is not really the good guy, as there are times in the movie where he makes decisions that a good-guy wouldn't. One in specific is regarding Big Dave, but I won't go into detail there. Crane also goes through a sort of identity crisis where he cannot really identify himself as being a part of this world, which makes him seem that he is not at peace with the world.

Some of the things that I liked about this movie were the characters and how the movie is more action-driven than dialogue-driven. While watching this movie, I thought that the characters were meshed really well with the plot, as they genuinely developed as the plot did. This made the characters seem plausible and real. Also, the fact that this movie is more action-driven was a plus for me. Instead of having the characters talk, the Coen brothers essentially were able to tell the plot through mere actions. It was an effective way of doing things in this particular movie. Although, there have been movies that I watched that did not do a very good job of developing the plot and characters without a lot of dialogue.

The plot, at times, seems a little flat and bland. It moves along pretty slowly at the beginning, but it starts to pick up as consequences of Crane's actions unfold. There were times in the movie where I thought that some parts were random and was wondering where they came from. Also, I thought that Crane's talk with his wife at the end of the movie was kind of confusing.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed this movie. Billy Bob Thornton did not fail to impress me in this movie and neither did the Coen brothers. If you like action-driven plots, then check this movie out.

My Rating: 8.5/10​