DB Reviews- La La Land

Image from Hollywood Elsewhere

Hello and welcome to my review of La La Land, a new, jazzy musical starring Ryan Gosling (The Big Short) and Emma Stone (The Amazing Spider-Man). This review does contain spoilers, so if you don't want to be spoiled, please stop reading, go see the film, then come back to this post to read what I thought about it. 

The story is this: A guy and a girl fall in love in Hollywood. The thing that brought them together? Jazz! A music genre that, according to Gosling's character, is dying. No one wants to hear it anymore, so Gosling goes out to revive it! That's his character's dream. 

He meets a young girl that wants to be a famous movie star someday! She works at a coffee shop in the Warner Bros lot (even though this film was presented by Summit Entertainment). They fall in love, but it didn't work out. They eventually followed their dreams, but they remember each other when they see each other in the last scene of the film. 

So here's what I think: First off, I don't think Gosling can sing at all! However, I do think he can play a mean piano, or should I say his music double Justin Hurwitz! Hurwitz can tickle that ivory! Gosling did a good job making it look like he himself was tickling that ivory! His character when away from the piano was OK. 

Emma Stone's character was good. Her singing voice was better then Gosling's! Her character has had a lot of frustrations throughout her journey to her dream and I think Stone did OK portraying those issues. She wanted to be a star really bad, but she kept getting interrupted during auditions for different roles and I think Stone did OK with those parts of the script as well. 

My favorite song from this musical was Start My Fire from John Legend. That could be his next hit single! The trumpet and trombone players were good too in this film! The song City of Stars was good, but again my pick for top song is Start My Fire. 

Overall, I give this film 3 out of 5 stars. The things that I didn't like from this film were Gosling's singing, a cheesy dance scene and the beginning of this film. Plus, the people who worked on this film didn't need the flashy cuts. Those are meant for endings of films. Basically, this film is about following your dreams and it has ALL THAT JAZZ! 

I hope you all enjoyed this review. Thanks for reading! 

DB Reviews- Passengers

Poster from Pinterest

Hello everyone! It's me, DB, and I'm back with another review! Today, I give you my review of the new film Passengers starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt. This review will contain spoilers, so if you don't want to be spoiled, then please stop reading and go see the film. Then, you can continue to read my review. 

Passengers is a love story that takes place in space. The story tells of a young engineer named Jim (Pratt), who is woken up from hibernation after a ship he travels in hits an asteroid field. He, along with 4,999 passengers, was supposed to go on a 120 year journey to Homecrest II, a planet similar to Earth. However, he wakes up with 90 years to go on the voyage. He then later wakes up a young author named Aurora (Lawrence) and they experience love while trying to figure out why they woke up early. 

I liked the way the story was written. I think that the writers made some memorable lines from the film. It was also easy to follow and to me, that makes a good story. There was drama, a bit of comedy, and some good action in the story. 

I also like the Avalon, the ship where the two main characters were traveling on. The ship itself reminded me of Star Trek, with the automatic doors and the voice recognition (the characters could tell the computer what to do).  I sensed a little bit of Wall-E too in the ship. I say that because the ship was like a cruise liner, offering daily activities, a full bar and even swimming, just like the ship in the Wall-E film. 

I thought Pratt did good as Jim. He did a good job portraying the character in different situations. However, I felt that his character didn't handle the situation where Aurura found out that Jim woke her up.  Other then that, he did fine. 

Michael Sheen's bartender android is probably the wisest of the bunch. I think that some of his lines in the film could be the most memorable. Also, he served coffee in a bar, something that I think is unusual in a bar like scene. Most of the time, you would see people drinking alcohol or throwing fists. I don't like either coffee or alcohol myself. 

Jennifer Lawrence's Aurora was OK. Just don't take away her life, or she will get MAD! I thought Lawrence's anger was good when it was needed. A bit over dramatic, but still good. The same thing could be said for her compassion towards Pratt's character. 

Lawrence Fishburn also had a role in this film, but his character didn't get much screen time. 

Also, I noticed that there weren't many extras in this film, just Jim, Aurura, the bartender and Fishburn. That to me was a bit odd, though I do think the studio did save some money this way. 

Overall, I give this film 3 1/2 stars. I thought the story was well written, the acting was good and the action at the end of the movie was up my alley! My review: A LOVE STORY THAT BLENDS STAR TREK AND WALL-E! 3 1/2 STARS! Thanks for reading! 

DB Reviews- Suicide Squad

Image from comicbook.com

Hello! It's me, DB and I welcome you to my latest movie review! Today, I bring you my review of Suicide Squad, the movie about a group of bad guys that have to save the world that's out on DVD/Blu-Ray now! This review does contain spoilers, so if you don't want to be spoiled, please stop reading and go see it. 

However, I don't recommend that you see this film and for a few good reasons. First, it's a movie about a group of bad guys from the DC Universe. I felt that some of the bad guys here didn't get much screen time, like Killer Croc. That could be a good thing in my opinion. 

Second, this movie contains a lot of swear words! Personally, I don't like swear words at all! I know that people are free to use swear words as a right to free speech, but I don't like them! I would rather use other words to get out what I'm trying to say. 

Third, the lighting. I think the special effects folks need to tone it down. I think there could be some problems for people watching this movie with the lighting. 

Fourth, Jarod Leto's Joker character.  I think Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson still take the cake when it comes to portraying the classic Batman villain. Jarod was crazy, but not Ledger or Jack crazy. 

On the flip side, however, there are some things from this movie that I would like to mention. 

First, I thought that Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn was pretty good. I could see fans flocking into theaters to see her in a solo film. Mrs. Robbie had the Harley lingo down to a tee, saying words that Harley would say, like "puddin". Yes, she even had the classic mallet and the checkerboard outfit, but only for 1 scene each. Would I see a solo Harley Quinn film? Probably not, but I could see it becoming a cult classic with other DC fans. I would put Harley in my Top 10 Infamous Sidekick/Henchperson list. 

Second was the gore. I liked that there was little gore in this film. The comic book Squad that this film was based off of had tons of gore, especially when Captain Boomerang (who came up with that name?) threw his boomerang at people. This film, however, stuck mainly to action without all that blood. I'm not a gore fan at all, which is why I don't like horror movies. This movie is kinda horror, but it's not like a Friday the 13th type of movie. 

Finally, I think Enchantress would make a legit DC Universe villain. To me, she was a crazy version of Voldemort, though I like Voldemort better then I like Enchantress. To me, the scenes with the Enchantress looked more like Ghostbusters then DCU and I like Ghostbusters. 

That's my review of Suicide Squad. Overall, I give it 1 star and I don't give out 1 star ratings all that much. Thanks for reading! 

DB Reviews- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Image from starwars.com

Hello again, everyone! It's me, DB, and It's time for my review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story! This review does contain spoilers, so if you don't want to be spoiled yet, don't read this until you see the movie first, then you can read this! 

This film is basically a set up for Episode 4 of the main series. It focuses on the Death Star, Star Wars (and motion picture's) most famous destroyer of planets! It tells the tale of how a group of Rebels were able to retrieve the Death Star's plans, noting that this planet destroyer has a weakness designed by Galen Erso, the father of Jyn Erso, the main character of this movie. Galen designed the Death Star before he left the Empire, but he was forced to come back and make sure the super weapon was completed. 

I thought the story was good. I liked how the writers were able to bring hints of Episode 4 and future episodes of the franchise into Rogue One. For example, they brought the AT-AT, which are battle droids that we would see in Hoth in Episode 5 (The Empire Strikes Back). It also brought us some cool, but deadly battles. 

The characters were OK in this film. I liked the fact that they brought a character from the Clone Wars animated series to this film. His name is Saw Gerrera, played by Forest Whitaker. Whitaker will revise this role in voice form for an upcoming episode of the latest Star Wars animated series, Rebels. 

Felicity Jones did good as Jyn. Diego Luna was OK as was Whitaker. 

James Earl Jones still rocks the Vader voice! Heck, I think he rocks any character with that voice of his, just ask Mufasa! He has a great, low, deep sound to his voice, which is a nessesary thing for Lord Vader's character. The new guy under the Vader mask did good too on screen. 

The action was amazing! I felt the cliamatic battle between the Rebels and the Empire was the best battle in the Star Wars saga EVER! This battle must've cost a ton of money to make, but they pulled it off without a hitch! BEST BATTLE EVER! The goal during this epic battle was to get the Death Star plans out of the Empire's hands. I'd say goal achieved! 

Plus, C-3PO and R2-D2 made a cameo! You can't have a Star Wars film without 3PO and R2! You just can't! Those two are central to the Star Wars franchise and I think they really cool to have! Kay (the droid in Rogue One) was OK, but no droid beats 3PO and R2! 

So overall, this film is A MUST-SEE FOR ANY STAR WARS FAN! The action was great, the story was good and the characters were good. Since they brought a Clone Wars character on board for this film, I'd like to see a character from Rebels in the next one, mainly Kanan or Ezra or even Jeb! Thanks for reading this post and go see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, now playing as of this post!