Focus

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Focus is about a con man (Will Smith) who takes a young woman (Margot Robbie) under his wing when she wants to learn the tricks of the trade. The two have a brief relationship, which doesn’t end well. Three years later, the con man runs into her while he is working a job, and things start happening between the two. This could have easily turned so much worse than it did. Fortunately, the final product ended up being a pretty solid flick. The movie is mostly able to work because of its talented leads. Will Smith practically oozes charm and charisma, and Margot Robbie proves here that she wasn’t just a one-trick pony with The Wolf of Wall Street. Smith and Robbie have fantastic chemistry together and they are able to work off each other really well. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a very good thing because the romance aspect of the movie is really important to the plot. One thing I really have to compliment this movie for is really sidestepping the whole “misunderstanding” cliche often found in romantic comedies, a cliche I absolutely hate. The dialogue is pretty solid, and the actors in the movie are all able to sell it. Whenever one character would go through how a con was pulled off, I was completely sucked into the scene. So, in short, what we have here is a pretty damn good movie with solid writing, good acting that is anchored by the two unbelievably likable leads. 

9 / 10   

Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2016

These are just the movies coming out in the next year that I personally am looking forward to the most.

Honorable Mentions:

The Huntsman: Winter's War: While I didn't hate Snow White and the Huntsman, I can admit that cutting out Kristen Stewart (replacing her with the much more talented Jessica Chastain), and putting more focus on Chris Hemsworth all seem like good steps in the right direction.

Zoolander 2: The trailers for Zoolander 2 really did make me laugh, a lot. That being said, extreme stretches between a movie and a sequel don't always turn out for the best. So, I'm cautiously optimistic with this one.

The BFG: After seeing the teaser trailer for this one, I got excited. The trailer followed the opening of the book, from what I remember, and it's directed by Steven Spielberg, so looking forward to thi one for sure, but I just have others I'm more excited for.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: From what I can tell, this movie takes place in the Harry Potter world, but will feature an entirely new cast of characters. I'm very curious to see where this movie's going to go.

My Top 10

#10: Untitled Fifth Bourne Film: I like these movies. Matt Damon's coming back to play Jason Bourne. Paul Greengrass, who directed the second and third movies, is coming back to direct. I can't wait to see what comes next for Jason Bourne.

#9: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: This could easily end up being a lot higher on my list if I end up loving Force Awakens. The idea is that this movie will follow the team of rebels that initially set out to find and steal the Death Star plans.

#8: Finding Dory: Finding Nemo is one of my favorite Pixar movies. Will this movie be good? Will it be awful? Who knows? Will I see it? Most definitely.

#7: Star Trek Beyond: I have been really digging the Star Trek reboots. The script will be written by

Simon Pegg, who I am a fan of, and I want to see what he can do with an action-sci-fi script. Besides that, the villain is going to be played by Idris Elba. Yeah, I want to see this one. 

#6: Independence Day: Resurgence: Umm, it's the sequel to Independence Day. I don't think I need to say any more. 

#5: X-Men: Apocalypse: I think it helps that this will be the fourth film in the franchise directed by Bryan Singer. He also directed the previous film in the franchise, Days of Future Past, my personal favorite in the franchise thus far. 

#4: Doctor Strange: At this point, I think Honest Trailers said it best "We'll see anything if they slap Marvel's name on it." Doctor Strange will be Marvel's first major foray into the world of mysticism. On top of that, the movie has an awesome cast attached to it, including Benedict Cumnerbatch and Tilda Swinton. 

#3: Captain America: Civil War: I think I'm just a little more excited for Captain America than Doctor Strange for a very simple reason. This looks like it could be a very big gray area for the Marvel movies, something we haven't seen a lot of. I'm also excited to see Black Panther for the first time in a Marvel movie, and because Spider-Man will be making his official debut into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

   

#2: Suicide Squad: I'll admit that there are a couple things regarding Suicide Squad I'm not sure about, but there's just so much that gets me excited. I like the idea of Jared Leto as The Joker, and I think he'll do a pretty good job. Will Smith is gonna play Deadshot, which should be interesting because we've never really seen Will Smith take on a more villainous role before. But, I'll be honest I'm mostly excited for one name: Harley Quinn. 

 

#1: Deadpool: I've been curious about this movie for awhile. I was definitely one of those people up in arms about the idea of trying to make this movie PG-13. But, it won't be. I'm not gonna lie. Every bit of marketing and advertising I have seen for this movie has told me it's probably in the right hands. Of course, it also helps that Ryan Reynolds is actually a huge Deadpool fan, and was one of the people pushing for this movie to be closer to the comic book. 

Favorite Songs: In The End by Linkin Park

So, this isn't something I'm gonna do all the time, but I figured every now and then I'd share some of my all-time favorite songs.

Creed

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How do I describe my thoughts on the movie Creed? In a word: fantastic. The movie has a lot of emotional weight to it that you can really feel. There’s a lot of different parts to it that come together to make this one of the best movies of the year. First off, the acting in the movie is phenomenal. Michael B. Jordan owns the role of Adonis Creed. Sylvester Stallone is probably the best he’s been in a very long time from a performance standpoint. Jordan and Stallone share a wonderful student-teacher, and further, a surrogate father-son relationship and chemistry together. The two share a lot of parallels to each other in the story, and they are able to form a bond that way. The movie also has two pretty big, solid fights. I loved the both of them. I, echoing the voices of plenty of other critics, personally love the first major fight the best. I love that it’s filmed to look like one shot. Director Ryan Coogler has made what I think has a shot at becoming a classic film in the years to come. Granted, only time will tell. As someone who really hasn’t seen any of the previous Rocky movies in full, I think I can pretty safely say that you don’t necessarily need to be a Rocky fan to enjoy this movie, but it probably doesn’t hurt either. 

10 / 10  

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

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I wanted to like the final Hunger Games a lot more than I did. Now, don't get me wrong. This isn't me saying I didn't like the movie. I did. It's just that I thought that some of the flaws were a bit more noticeable here. First off, I wasn't a big fan of the way the movie was paced. I honestly thought some of the moments where the movie kind of started to drag could've been tightened up. I honestly think the movie was about ten or fifteen minutes too long. The other thing I wish could've been handled better was the movie's tone. At points it felt like the movie was trying a little too hard to be a romantic drama film. At other points, it felt like they were aiming for a suspenseful action thriller. Personally, these were the moments I enjoyed more. There was a sewer sequence that was probably my personal favorite. The suspense was really well built up, and the payoff was pretty damn good. It felt like something out of one of the first two Alien movies, it was that good. I also really have to give props to the actors in the movie too. Seeing as this is the fourth movie in a franchise, it's possible at this point for the cast to just start phoning it in. None of them do. They all have a pretty solid emotional backbone to their performances. However, I do wish some of the supporting players got a little more to do. I can understand why the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman's role was so small, but I really would've liked to have seen a little more from Jena Malone, Donald Sutherland, and Woody Harrelson. So, yeah, I thought this movie was "good", but I really wanted to be able to say I thought it was "great".

7 / 10   

Sicario

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Sicario is a movie I had been looking forward to for a while. Just from the opening scene of the movie, I knew what I was in for. Director Denis Villeneuve masterfully manages to bring to life a grim, bleak world. However, I would like to compliment the occasional interjections of humor, particularly from Josh Brolin’s Matt Graver. Graver is an undercover CIA agent with a penchant for wearing sandals. As good as I really do think Brolin is, it’s the performances by Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro that really manage to carry the movie for me. Major props should also go to director of photography Roger Deakins, as the film is incredibly shot and filmed. Everything seemed to be crafted and come together in a way that I found the movie to be very tense. Oftentimes, I didn’t know what direction the movie was going to take, and felt things could start going wrong at any moment. The climax of the film even manages to seamlessly shift from Emily Blunt’s point of view to that of Benicio del Toro. In a lesser movie, this change may have bogged the movie down a little, but it the hands of Mr. Villeneuve, it ends up working in the movie’s favor. Ultimately, I didn’t really have any issues with the movie, and firmly believe it to be one of the year’s absolute best. 

10 / 10    

Top 50 Favorite Movie Villains (30 - 21)

#30: Kevin - Sin City: Kevin may not be in the film all that much, but he is still the most memorable villain in the whole movie, at least in my opinion. He's mute. He's a cannibal, even going so far as to force a woman to watch while he had eaten her hands. He's even creepy during his death scene. As Marv puts it, he keeps the same blank stare, and never screams when Marv had been severing his limbs, or when the dogs start to finish him off.

#29: Simon Phoenix - Demolition Man: Simon Phoenix is just the embodiment of absolute insanity. The best way I can describe this character is to say something along the lines of "Picture what you would have gotten had Wesley Snipes played The Joker in Tim Burton's Batman instead of Jack Nicholson." Or, as one of the older cops in the movie puts it, "in a bad time, he was the worst."
   
#28: Khan Noonien Singh - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Khan's motive of revenge is incredible to me. I mean this is the man who is indirectly responsible for the death of Mr. Spock, and directly responsible for the physical and emotional torture of the crew of the Enterprise. In my opinion, Ricardo Montalban and the character of Khan is a large reason as to why Wrath of Khan is easily the best of the Star Trek franchise.

#27: The Wicked Witch of the West - The Wizard of Oz: Just about the ultimate childhood villain. The Wicked Witch of the West has been one of the absolute greats for decade upon decade. Her cackle is infamous, as are several of her most well known quotes, whether it's screaming "I'm melting. I'm melting. Oh what a world!" when the water is poured on her, or when she's threatening Dorothy with the line "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!" There may not a person on the face of the earth who doesn't know who the Wicked Witch of the West is.
   
#26: Jigsaw - Saw: I've mentioned Jigsaw in my Top 10 Horror Movie Villains. As I've already said, I love this character and his motivations. I love that the character doesn't really realize he's the bad guy. He actually believes that kidnapping his victims and torturing them by forcing them into the choice of "live or die", he is somehow saving them.
   
#25: Syndrome - The Incredibles: The Incredibles is my favorite Pixar movie, and Syndrome has a lot to do with that. Jason Lee is able to make what I believe is one of the funniest villains I have ever seen. However, he also manages to have a pretty despicable plan, and a fairly dark one for a family film. He intends to kill every superhero, so he can become one. What's even more gruesome is that his plan actually succeeds about 90%.

#24: Sam - Trick 'r Treat: Much like Jigsaw, I've actually talked about Sam before. There's not really a whole lot I can say.But, I would like to mention that in addition to being a tricker-or-treater who kills the assholes of the world that don't observe the rules of Halloween with a lollipop, he's also immortal.

#23: Gollum - The Lord of the Rings: For me, Gollum ranks up there with Magneto and a certain other famous movie villain that I will be talking about eventually as one the three most tragic movie villains of all time. Gollum is a villain in the Lord of the Rings universe, but it isn't his fault. His lust and corruption by the power of the one ring drives him to theft and murder on many occasions.

#22: Commodus - Gladiator: Commodus is nothing more than a spoiled brat with a murderous side to him. He wants to rule as emperor. What to do? Murder your father, take his place, murder the family of the general that your father looked to as a son, and sell this man into slavery. But most importantly, show little to no remorse for your actions.
  
#21: T-1000 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day: Here's something I hadn't really thought to ask before. Was the T-1000 a metaphor for stranger danger disguised as a killer robot? Seriously, he's faking being a cop, and hunting for a young boy. He just also happens to be a nearly unstoppable killing machine with the ability to morph into any organic living thing he touches, and can turn his arms to bladed weaponry.