On The Job

On The Job IMDb

Man, this is a decent crime thriller from the Philippines.  It's a hitman/detective movie based on true stuff.  It's about an organized crime group who use prisoners as contract killers.  They work out the system so that these prisoners can be free for a day or so to do their job.  Meanwhile, a detective is on the case trying catch this group.  There is an intense chase scene here that takes place inside the subway and on the streets.  There's also a cinematic moment that I just love:  one of our contract killers shoots the female target in the head in the kitchen and then they move to the dining area to make their escape, at that moment, there's a family gathering going on.  It's a christening with friendly music.  That's why I love movies, because of awesome moments like this one.  There's also a bad ass one long shot takes place in the prison.  The ending was so and so.  Overall, I enjoyed it.  

I usually don't blind buy but this blu-ray was on sale at Fry's for 5 bucks and I been wanting to see it for months now, so, I am a proud owner of this movie.  Another great Filipino thriller is a movie called, Graceland.  Both of these together would make a great double feature.  Worth buying.

Robot Friday: X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

X-Men: Days of Future Past IMDb

Very awesome.  I think this is my favorite movie so far this year.  Before I write more comments on this just wanted to say that I was debating if this was considered a robot movie or not for my Robot Friday.  My rule is that either the main protagonist or antagonist is a robot or the main plot has to do with robots.  This movie has to do with Sentinels, these futuristic robots that are meant to destroy all mutants.  The main plot is for Wolverine to go back in time and change a few events to prevent the future of these Sentinels.  There, this is my Robot Friday. I was entertained. Nice balanced movie.  I wasn't very excited to see this movie cause I had my ups and downs with the franchise.  My favorite X-Men movie is X-Men: First Class. This one is up there.  My favorite scene that made the whole movie for me was the Pentagon break in scene.  All I can say is that Quicksilver owns that scene. I think he's my favorite X-Men character now.  Too bad he's only in a few scenes. Lots of good dialogue in this movie. Some of it is inspirational. 

A must see movie this year.  Glad I decided to watch it. Made me appreciate the franchise a whole lot more.

Good times with my Sci-Fi movie crew.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The Secret of Walter Mitty IMDb

I was kind of worried about seeing this movie. Thought it was going to be a Charlie Kauffman/Michel Gondry ripofff.  It wasn't.  It was better than expected.  Yeah, it was a little preachy. "Go travel the world and live life to the fullest otherwise you're boring" kind of message. After a while, I didn't mind it.  It was inspirational actually.  If I had some money to spare, I would travel all over this damn world.  Maybe one day.  But, in no way do I want to be one of them traveling snobs.  I'll shoot myself first.   Ben Stiller stars and directs this sweet traveling movie. He plays this lonely single guy who has a big crush on the beautiful Kristen Wiig.  He gets on eHarmony and his profile seems lame.  He uses his imagination to create a world where he's this big adventure guy.  Well, after a few conflicts at work, he finally decides to take a risk and travel and do adventures in reality. His main goal is to find Sean Penn's character and get a photograph negative that he needs in order to save his job.  Little by little he starts figuring out life and happiness. 

Overall,  a little sappy at first but not too bad.  Good inspirational movie for the heart and soul.

The Great Beauty

The Great Beauty IMDb

This Italian Artsy Drama was boring.  This movie won Best Foreign at the Oscars this year.  So, it had a lot going for it.  I just didn't feel it after 30 minutes in.  The first half reminded me of The Great Gatsby.  All one big orgy of a party.  It just gets tiring after a while.  It was also too artsy for me.  I knew that was going to happen.  This whole movie is a piece of art.  I did love the cinematography and lots of the exteriors they used on this.  Italy looks like a beautiful country.  I wouldn't mind visiting someday.  I also liked some of the erotic scenes on this.  Not bad at all.

Overall, the story wasn't for me.  Just found it uninteresting.  No strings attached here.
As a fan of Foreign Cinema, I had to see this eventually.
Glad to get it out of the way.

 

Made Italian Sausage Penne Pasta this day.

 

Godzilla (2014)

Godzilla IMDb

Saw my first summer blockbuster movie.  I thought it was alright.  I actually wanted more out of this.  I didn't mind not much Godzilla time but whenever they do have Godzilla on there, they should have made those scenes a lot better (most of those scenes, Godzilla is swimming in the ocean).  They focused more on those other creatures.  I did like the payoff, though.  Great last 20 minutes of the film.  If the rest of the film would have had more monster battles, then this would have been awesome.  The characters were okay.  But, whenever I see a big blockbuster special effects movie, I know not to take the characters seriously.  For example, Pacific Rim totally blew me away.  The characters were okay but it was all about those amazing big monster fights that made the movie good in my opinion.  Godzilla, well, it had a lot of good moments, but overall nothing special. 

Kudos for the Mothra reference.  After watching Pacific Rim last year, I was considering having a Godzilla Movie Night.  Maybe I'll do that in the near future: Godzilla Mondays or something. 

This one is okay to see.  No big deal, though.

French Cinema Night: Le Samourai

Le Samourai IMDb

Wow! Great French hitman movie.  Seriously, I think this is my favorite French movie from all the French Cinema Nights this year so far.  It has a good slick style.  I caught myself smiling at a few great cinematic moments like all the moments where our hitman puts on his hat.  He does it in a certain way.  Love it.  It's a basic story.  A hitman goes out to get his target but before doing so he covers his ground and alibis.  Bang! Our hitman kills his target but moments later he gets caught by the police.  Our main detective tries hard to charge him but after a long while, he gets released because of his alibis.  The detective and his team monitors him.  At the same time, he gets betrayed by the person that hired him for the job.  Now, our cool hitman goes around the city finding a way to not get caught by the police or his other enemies.  The subway scenes are awesome.  I enjoyed the hell out of this movie.  

I'm for sure buying this for my Foreign section.  It's a good thing I didn't cancel French Cinema Night whenever me and my ex girlfriend broke up. I wouldn't have discovered this great film. So I should be thanking her.  Nah, forget her.  I'll be watching a modern French thriller in the next French Cinema Night.

Western Wednesday: The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven

Decent Western.  I love the set up to this movie.  Eli Wallach in his younger days.  Cool to see Charles Bronson and Yul Brynner in cowboy action.  A poor Mexican village are being bullied and robbed by a ruthless gang led by Wallach's character.  Three Mexicans head out to a village to seek help.  They meet Yul Brynner's character, a bad ass brave good guy who decides to help them.  He gets together a team of 7 and they head back to the Mexican village to do their job.  Good shootout sequences towards the end.  It dragged on a bit in the second half but I still enjoyed it.

I might have to add this to my Western section.  This movie made me want to smoke a cigar.  Haven't smoked one in a while.  I think it's about time.

Mr. Peabody and Sherman (2014)

Mr. Peabody and Sherman IMDb

Took my son to see this awesome time travel Animation.  Not as awesome as The Lego Movie but cool for a father and son movie.  It's like another version of Bill and Ted Excellent Adventures.  This time with a smart dog named Mr. Peabody and his adopted son, Sherman.  They use a time machine called The Way Back to go to any period of time and learn more about the history.  Beats history class.   Sherman takes his knowledge to his first day of school and then gets himself in trouble with a bully girl.  The little sub-romance begins.  Mr. Peabody invites the girl's parents over to make peace.  Sherman disobeys his dad's orders and shows the girl "The Way Back" and boom here comes trouble.  Funny moments.  Had me and my son giggling a few times.

I would recommend this movie especially for a father and son.  Good bonding moments.

 

My son Nathan enjoying his popcorn before showtime.

 

A Beginner's Guide To Endings

A Beginner's Guide to Endings IMDb

Decided to watch this dark comedy at the last minute from my netflix list.  It was alright.  There was some good dark comedic moments but most of it wasn't interesting to me.  We got Harvey Keitel as a deadbeat dad who commits suicide in the beginning.  He leaves five sons.  In his will, he informs them that he used three of the sons for this pill experimentation and apparently they don't have much time to live.  So the three dying sons start living life to the fullest before the lights go out.  It's got that one kid from I Declare War.  He was pretty cool.  The movie gets tiring after a while.  There's a boxing sub plot and I don't really care much about boxing.  Anyways, if I had short time to live, I would probably go out with a bang.  Maybe finally go to Asia and be with an Asian girl and die while eating raw fish and sake without caring about my debt.  Just a thought.

This movie is not recommended.

Philomena

Philomena IMDb

I decided to watch this movie today for Mother's Day and what a perfect movie it was for the occasion.  This was the only movie left to see that was nominated for Best Picture at this year's Oscars.  It was pretty good.  Emotional drama with a few comedic moments.  I had no idea what the whole plot was about so I was in for a surprise.  Philomena is the true story of this old Irish lady who teams up with a writer to look for her long lost son.  When she was younger, she was a slave to this church run by evil nuns.  One night of curiosity, she got pregnant.  The nuns all disowned her and took her baby away at birth.  She was allowed to see her son for one hour each day.  Then one dreadful day, her son was sold to an American couple and she never saw him again.  50 years later, she's on the search.  Great story.  Made me angry towards the end. 

Definitely a good movie to see on Mother's Day and I would recommend to those looking for

a decent drama.

Made my mom's favorite dish in her honor: Chile Relleno Plate. 

Private Eye

Private Eye IMDb

Wow!  I finally got to enjoy a movie all the way through without thinking of life and other stuff.  And it had to be a Korean film.  Awesome.  Tonight was a good night. This fits in the detective/serial killer genre.  Love the two main characters.  It's like the Korean Sherlock Holmes.  First of all, this came out at Fantastic Fest in 2009.  Second, I been watching lots of films lately (a lot of films I've seen before) that go with a serial killer/detective story I'm working on.  This film fits the bill.  Excellent scenes.  They reveal the killer early on but there's a twist.  There's always a twist.  The private eye investigator here is a cool slick guy who tries to be on top of his game.  Good character.  There were a few crazy scenes.  This thriller also had lots of comedic moments.  So basically, there's this medical student who finds a body and experiments with it.  Then he realizes that the body is the governor's son.  Everyone is looking for him.  So the student gets scared because he's obviously not the murderer.  He hires a private eye and together they search for the killer.  Good set up.

I would recommend this movie.  Hell, I'm buying this for my Korean section. 

Zatoichi Monday: Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold

Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold IMDb

Another Zatoichi movie bites the dust.  This one is a simple straight up movie.  A few cool fighting scenes in the beginning.  Zatoichi's goal is to clear his name because he is being accused of stealing gold from the people.  So he goes on to find the real bad guys and get the gold back.  A few struggles and fighting scenes later, Zatoichi does what Zatoichi does best, kick ass.  I think the last Zatoichi movie is still my favorite besides the original.

Kudos for this one for some good bloody battle scenes.  

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band IMDb

Okay, so I decided to watch this cheesy movie I heard nothing but bad things about.  Me and my son just came back watching a Beatles cover band so I figured why not.  This actually wasn't all that bad.  Yeah, the story sucked big time.  The acting and most of the stuff was ridiculous but as far as the songs and musical acts themselves, I thought that was okay.  There were a few songs I enjoyed.  I think my favorite is Aerosmith doing "Come Together.'  I'm a big fan of the musical "Across The Univers."  I saw that at the Dobie Theater in Austin before they closed.  To me, that musical did justice to the Beatles music and style.  This movie right here doesn't do quite justice because of the stupid story and random stuff that's thrown in.  But, kudos for the weird Steve Martin part where he sings:  Maxwell's Silver Hammer.  

If you haven't seen Across The Universe and you're a Beatles fan, you're missing out.  This one is okay as long as you have low expectations.