The Rating System:

Filet Mignon=Excellent, fresh, and a memorable piece of art.

T Bone= Good helping, but not worth trading for a Filet.

Pork chop= In the middle, barely recommended.

Hotdog= Nearly complete garbage.

Cat Food= The slums of the food/movie franchises

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Contagion-(PG-13)

I would not go see a movie about a pandemic unless it got great reviews. Why? Because it can be easily made, but it won’t always deliver. Finally, Contagion is released, and it gets great reviews. That’s a green light for me to go and see it. After just walking out of the film, I think that they gave this movie its stars by the amount of celebrities in it….not how good the movie was. In other words, there were a lot of stars, but it sucked, to say the least. Contagion is about a deadly disease that has spread around the globe, and humanity’s struggle to fight against it. The three key points to this movie are characters, dialogue, and thrill. The characters are all displayed so that the scenes switch between them to show what is happening. I thought that this would acually be cool. I thought that they would alternate between the Health Department and a few families. No. It alternates between many Health Department doctors and such, and shows the struggle of only one family. Oh, and the characters go nowhere. You don’t feel sympathy for anyone but Damon and his child. These characters feel disposable, and you could care less if they are eaten by the disease. Honestly. Plus, they were awkward. This is where the dialogue comes in. It was messed up. It didn’t sound natural, sometimes even unscripted, and it ruined the whole feel for me. This is shown since the first word spoken in the beginning. It didn’t feel right. I think that whoever wrote the script should have taken some more English in Junior High. It could have helped him a ton. Oh, and the thrill….yeah, there was none. It dragged, there was no tension, and you were rooting for the disease. (I was, at least, even though Damon’s performance was solid.) The only exciting parts were the couple of scenes when there was an actual sense of danger, when Damon was running through the town with his daughter, and the chaos all around him. After that, there was all talk with montage music. Do not go see this movie. This is not the disease movie that we are waiting for. Contagion is a Porkchop, and it disappointed me. Though its cast is star-studded, it’s pointless. I have already forgotten it, and I just walked out of the theater! Save your money and walk away. Oh, and when the credits popped up on screen, I heard someone say, “That’s it?” I was seriously going to go up to the guy and say, “Bro, you just read my mind.”

Interesting Facts: Kate Winslet filmed her role in 10 days.

Interview with Matt Damon

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Battle: Los Angeles-(PG-13)-(Blu-Ray worthy)

The trailer tempted me to see this movie. I’m sure it tempted many Sci-Fi fans. Sci-Fi has had many great movies lately, like Avatar, Inception, Star Trek, etc. I expected to add this on the Sci- Fi page, but let me clear something up: THIS WAS NOT A SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE. IT WAS A WAR MOVIE. You’re thinking: Wait, there were aliens! It had to be Sci- Fi. No, it wasn’t. The story is about a group of Marines who are called to action to battle these aliens. They learn that the ships flying around are drones: That means that they are unmanned. The Marines pair up with a girl who has information about the ships. She says that if they are unmanned, there must be a central control center…so they set off to try to destroy it. Will this movie end like War of the Worlds, where the humans win, or V, where the aliens win? I won’t say. The three key points to this movie are visuals, sound, and story. The visuals were great. To be honest, there were no special alien effects: Just fire and explosions. If I wanted fire and explosions, I would have rented the Expendables. I am not impressed by the explosions. The visuals were equal to what I’ve seen a year or two ago. The same scope was being looked through the whole movie, which was annoying the heck out of me. The aliens in District 9 were the better than the ones in this movie! These aliens are barely seen, and they look a little like crabs. Why did aliens go from having big eyes and green skin to being crab-like? The visuals overall failed to impress me. Next is the sound. As the trailer shows, there is a techno alien Sci-Fi song featured in the movie. NO! There is not! I couldn’t focus on any music. All I could hear were explosions and gunfire. There were no Sci-Fi sounds or tracks included. Lastly, there is the story. The story wasn’t as bad as the critics said it was. It had a plot that was easy to understand and easy to follow. It’s a war movie. You can’t expect an Inception-like plot with a war movie. The camera work wasn’t bad either. When the camera started shaking at the beginning, I got nervous it would be another District 9…but I shouldn’t have been. The camera work was fine. It was nothing to sneeze at. I think that I didn’t enjoy the movie so much for two reasons: First, I went to see a SCI-FI MOVIE. I got a WAR MOVIE. If you are going to see a war movie, you will love it. If you are going to see SCI FI, you will be upset. It is not a Sci-Fi movie. The second reason I didn’t enjoy this movie so much is because they made New Jersey’s reputation decline. Jersey Shore has made our rep bad enough. Now this? A character asks, “Does anybody know how to hotwire a car?” A soldier replies by saying, “He can. He’s from Jersey.” (I am from Jersey and I don’t hotwire cars, so I was offended slightly.) I must also point out that there is a soldier who sounds like a cartoon character from South Park, and he looks like Eminem.

Let me know if you spot him. It was a decent movie, well filmed and some-what well acted, at times. Action is action. The advertisement loured me in, so if you want to see this movie out of curiosity, go if you must. It isn’t a total loss. Some parts will get your heart pumping, most will leave you waiting for it to be over. I had mixed emotions about this one, but the movie is a small Porkchop. (By the way, I didn’t put this on Spy/War/ Action movies page because it was a Disaster-like movie. Aliens invading earth is a pretty big disaster.)

Interesting facts: Very little of this movie was shot in LA. Most of it was shot in Louisiana.

Some actual Marines played as extras in this movie.

Behind the Scenes

2 Scenes

What this movie is based on

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Unstoppable-(PG-13)-(Blu-Ray worthy)

With Chris Pine and Denzel Washington, I knew I should see this. Why? Well, Chris Pine’s previous movie was Star Trek, and that was a success. I didn’t think the guy would go for anything amateur. The last time I saw Denzel Washington, he was with John Travolta in The Taking of Pelham 123. That was a train movie, more or less, and the guy worked his role very well. Once I saw he was back for more trains, I knew he would pull it off. This movie is about a train, who was left alone by an idiot conductor, and accidentally put into movement. It is on a main track, and trains are in its path and around it. People and companies work to get it derailed, stopped, and slowed. Two guys, Will and Frank (Chris and Denzel) are on a small train in their path, and once they devise a plan, they try to control the subject, with many obstacles and limits. The three key points to this film was suspense, pace, and camera-work. The suspense didn’t start to build up until halfway through. The beginning was very slow, and had no thrill to it. What triggered the beginning suspense was an exploding train. The suspense was there, because every time you think the situation was solved, there was another issue. This was getting you to bite your nails and kick like mad. The suspense alone made it worth the watch. The pace was great. It wasn’t too fast of a resolution, or too slow of a progression. Some movies, like 2012, paced scenes too slowly, and the suspense was flat. This movie had the pacing just right, and it didn’t spend too much on a scene. This kept you guessing if the problem presented was the last one or not. It added to suspense.

The camera-work was different. This is a movie that used a lot of zooms and pans, still cameras, and simulated cameras. What do I mean? Well, the still cameras were placed under the trains to show them zipping by, which was shown every twenty minutes, which annoyed me. The simulated cameras were the newscasts that were broadcasted for the movie, showing a gritty and dim camera every time the news was shown, and the news was shown a whole lot. I’m not a big fan of the zooms that are highly recognizable, but the camera work wasn’t horrible because of some zooms. It was fair. I feel that the cameras could have been handled better, but that’s an opinion. I was relieved that the camera work wasn’t like District 9 or Paranormal Activity. This movie is praised for its story, and I could easily see why. This was an unstoppable Porkchop.

Interesting facts: This movie was based on a true story.

Chris Pine performed all of his own stunts.

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7823133/

Unstoppable Review down in New York above (I made this video)

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Interview with Denzel Washington

Interview with Chris Pine

Some good screenshots

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2012(PG-13)–(Blu Ray worthy)

After seeing this movie, I was satisfied and relieved. 2012 is a movie about the world coming to an end on December 21, 2012. Though I don’t believe that crazy theory, the movie was still enjoyable. It was full of tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, sinking ships, human salvation, and volcanoes. It may seem like a gloomy and depressing movie, but humor, dogs, and nice cars keep you connecting with the characters. 1/2 of the movie seemed to be taking place in some sort of flying vehicle, but the characters always shined light at the situation at hand. It was VERY long, but it was still worth seeing.

The effects were great, except for some waves, and the acting was right on….besides the children. They were constantly weeping and crying, with fake pout faces on the whole movie. Plus, they were simply bland, with no substance at all. Switching from scene to scene,location to location, builds suspense and drama, but when everything happened right then and there, it was disappointing and anti-climatic. For example, the suspense on the boat before it crashes into the White House is thrilling: Everybody hanging on, people yelling, things flying everywhere. They get to the shot where the ship demolishes the White House. The suspense dies. The whole movie is like that. There are some movies, like Inception, where the suspense is there at all times. The Dark Knight only has one very climatic part, which is the boat scene. It is truly the most loved part. This, however, is too slowly paced to be intense. The scene where the water floods the family is too long, so it drags on more than builds suspense. Still, some of the action WAS suspenseful at times….for example: When the family drives through the burning LA, and when the Indian family is hit by a wave. Those are the only two parts that gets your heart pumping. For an instant end of the world movie, it was sure slow action. If you like Sci-Fi and Disaster Movies, then 2012 is for you. Also, if you have a free day, a Blu-Ray player, and some guys over, pop this disc in and try it out. This Pork Chop has its fatty parts and the tender meat.

(WHY THE WORLD MAY END)

Interesting Facts: In the beginning of the movie when Adrien passes the little boy and capsizes his boat in the puddle, that foreshadows that the boat that Adrien’s father is on will capsize.

Noah, the boy in the movie, was named Noah, because of Noah’ Ark….see the similarity?

Jackson Curtis was named after Curtis Jackson (50 Cent). The director liked 50 cent, so that is how the name was born.

Nostradamus, a prophet who predicted many historical events, predicted the end of the world at a later date than 2012.