movie review

Fatu Castillo

Staff Writer

I’ll be honest and say that if you have epilepsy or a weak stomach, you can save yourself some time and just click on a different review, because this one ain’t for you.

Not only will you most likely have seizure from the flashing effects but you’ll also unload the contents of your stomach watching Hellish, grotesque monsters roam around the screen. Turn away now, I’m not about to be responsible for you doing either of those things because you just had to watch the movie I reviewed.

I ain’t having that on my conscious.

I’m normally not a fan of horror movies, I’ve admitted numerous times before, go read I Admit It, I’m A Weenie if you don’t believe me. Say what you will but I take pride in my cowardly nature because I know it would keep me alive in a horror movie.

No sir, the token minority character, that would be me, won’t die this time.

Now all of this should give you reason enough to believe me when I type that this movie had my attention, and kept it, from the first scene. It goes to say something if I, a known coward, will sit through

The movie starts off intense, I saw a women get gunned down as a man runs away, assumedly to his death, as his friend gets drenched with gasoline and set on fire by two obviously compassionate individuals. Then the screens pans over to that handsome man, pictured above, and I was left wondering what the heck was happening.

It didn’t get any better as the movie went on either.

It kept me on my toes the entire run, I was never sure how things would throw down. It was amazing!

That seemingly important deputy that I thought would lead everyone to safety? Dead. Those two men who gunned down and torched a women? Victims. The hospital that everyone is stuck in? A portal to another dimension.

And that’s not even half the stuff that threw me through a loop, that’s just the stuff I could say without spoiling anything.

I definitely recommend watching this if your stomach and brain can take it, you may not like the acting but you won’t be able to stop yourself from watching. The entire time, you’re eyes will be glued, your brain wondering what the heck will happen next?

Deja Harrison

Staff Writer

The Fast and the Furious is an action series that is centered around insanely fast and illegal car races, heist and family. The recurring theme in the films are family is everything and they focus heavily on loyalty and trust. The films have been a huge success since the original in 2001.

After the sudden death of main character Paul Walker who played Brian O’Connor in the Fast and Furious series in 2013 many fans speculated about the release and quality of the recent 8th film. Walker played a huge role in all of the movies so the controversy that surrounded movie was very understandable. I decided to take a look at the movie and see if it still lived up to the previous films.

In the Fate of the Furious, or Fast 8 as most would call it, the themes are still very apparent. Dominic played by actor Vin diesel is forced to go against his family/crew by a mysterious female cyber terrorist named Cipher.

She is using his highly trained skills to wreak havoc across the world, her ultimate goal is to have power over all in the world. Dominic’s team consisting of his wife Netty(Michelle Rodriguez), Luke(Dwayne Johnson), Roman(Tyrese), Tej (Ludacris), and Megan(Nathalie Emmanuel) have been assigned to track and put a stop to him and Cipher’s attacks. The team does not know that Cipher is forcing Dominic to go against them, they simply assume that he is going rouge. I don’t want to give too much away but what Cipher is holding over Dominic’s head is huge and is a major game changer for the series.

In all I believe all the doubts on the movies story and overall rank were for nothing. Paul Walker’s death was very tragic and it made it  hard for fans to see the films because they couldn’t envision the crew without him. The crew in my opinion did an amazing job honoring him and they kept his name alive in a way that I won’t reveal because it will be a major spoiler. This movie is definitely a must see if you enjoy laughs, family and some nice kick butt action. I recommend it to all.

 

Fatu Castillo

Staff Writer

Let me kick this off by saying that I knew exactly what I was going to get when I went to see Kong: Skull Island. I didn’t go into the movie theater expecting to be blown away by an intricate plot like Inception or delve into modern societal issues like in Her.

This is not a movie that will have you in tears while people filter out of the aisles nor will this movie compel you to contemplate society and technology the next time your phone dies and you’re bored.

So turn back and don’t waste your money if you want your emotions hammered like a punching bag or your thoughts challenged by a pretentious director that just had to make a point.

No, if I was looking for a movie that would blow me away with an amazing plot or deeping meanings then I’d be sorely disappointed.

I mean, dropping bombs on a random island? Because a crackpot researcher thinks there might be something there? Where was the government agent to say “Uh, Sir, that sounds a little too expensive.”

I paid money to see one thing and one thing only, sick monster fights on a giant screen. Let me tell you, I got my money’s worth.

Jordan Vogt-Roberts, the movie director, knew exactly who his target audience was and played right to them. Not even ten minutes in and Kong, all hail the king, was already on the screen.

He wasn’t beating anything up yet, which was a little bit disappointing, but he was still cool to look at. And it gave me the perfect taste of the what was in store for the rest of the movie.

It didn’t take long for hands to start being caught since the first fight scene was about fortyfive minutes. Watching Kong wretch-shop a bunch of military helicopters with added explosion noises and comical deaths was extremely pleasing.  

Sometimes, there wasn’t even a reason for hands to be thrown but they were, namely when a giant octopus attacked out of nowhere in water that was definitely too shallow for it to be in.

Why? Because senseless violence and epic soundtracks were exactly what me and the other there are dwellers paid for.

Good acting? Not so much.

By the time the movie was over, I could care less about the if the people lived or died. I still can’t wrap my head around why some of them were even in the movie.

Why would a government agent allow an obviously anti-government photographer to come along on a secret mission? Why would an otherwise level-headed intent go crazy with vengeance instead of saving his men?

I don’t know and I don’t care, I got to see soldier fight with a giant spider.

Would I recommend this movie? No, if you don’t want to waste money of forgettable characters and a lame plot. Yes, if you just want to watch sick monster fights.

 

Caroline Pitone

Staff Writer

Life is a Science Fiction movie that has recently came out. I went to see this movie on a Sunday. My expectations for this movie weren’t too high, because there are already many movies out there that have attempted at a similar concept. Although I do like things that are Science Fiction , I was excited to see what this movie had in store.

The plot of this movie is for the astronauts to capture some samples of the planet mars to test. They soon see evidence of Life that they weren’t expecting.  They see that the cell they find, is made of all muscle and all brain, which blows their mind and allows them to classify them as an Ëxtraterrestial.  In Life, we see some well known actors such as, Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllehnaal. The are companied along with some great actors; Rebecca Ferguson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare, and Olga Dihovichnaya. They all played great roles and were the main characters. Each role was very believable. The actor that played their role the best in my opinion was Ryan Reynolds. He really sold most scenes for me and did nothing but contribute well to every scene with his talent.

The thing that stuck out to me in this movie were the insane graphics. The animations and camera angles were so mind blowing. A movie I could compare these graphics to is the famous Avatar.
After seeing the movie, I have to say I was a bit disappointed, but also was not expecting the best movie in the world. The beginning of the movie was slow but everything soon started to fall into place, after about half way into the movie, it lost all of my attention. As good as the graphics were, and as good as the filming was, the content did not show through. I believe they could have made the movie so much better with the plot they had.

Mekhi Granby

Staff Writer

Last weekend, I went and saw “Get Out.”

My only expectations for the movie was for it to be super good as I was told it would be by a friend and my sister who had already seen the movie. I didn’t watch the trailer at all, so I had no prior knowledge about anything concerning the film. Usually, I could care less about movies and keeping up with them. But this movie was different. So much excitement was building up inside me in the days leading up to seeing it. I think the reason is because all the good comments I heard about the movie and the movie being completely new (non-sequel or remake).

I got to see it on a Friday at the Rave Cinemas in West Philadelphia. As soon as the movie started, I was so engaged, my mind is constantly racing and it’s easy for me to slip into a daydream or just not be paying attention but this wasn’t the case for Get Out. From the beginning of the movie my eyes were glued to the screen, I didn’t want to miss any small clues or important information.

For those who don’t know, without giving anything away: Get Out tells a story of an interracial relationship between Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) and Rose Armitage (Allison Williams). They’re at the “meeting parents” stage in the relationship and Rose decides to invite Chris over her parents house to meet them. Chris and Rose arrive and things start getting crazy as Chris slowly realizes the truth about the Armitage family. From the beginning things seem a little strange to Chris but as the film unfolds, so does the truth.

In the beginning I was calm and relaxed but towards the middle my jaw slowly started to drop as things got intense. A factor that made the movie ten times more enjoyable for me was the audience. In those intense scenes, reactions were heard by multiple people across the theater and most of the stuff that was said was what I was thinking. Some of the reactions throughout the movie were “I KNEW IT!”, “OH MY GOD!,” “NO SHE DIDN’T!,” and “DON’T DO IT!”

The callouts weren’t directed towards the main character as they normally are in horror films. Instead they were directed towards the people affecting the main character and the actions concerning him. Nobody seemed irritated or annoyed by the callouts in the theater, the screening went perfectly in my opinion.

Towards the end of the movie my jaw was completely dropped, I was on the edge of my seat, I was so amazed by the scenes and I even made some callouts of my own as I was so shocked by what I was seeing.

After the movie I was completely satisfied by the film, it was everything that I was told it would be.

While leaving the theater I couldn’t stop smiling. I was ecstatic that I seen the movie and I was happy with how it ended. I came to the conclusions that I should give movies more of a chance instead of completely dismissing them without seeing a trailer or knowing anything about it.

There are countless amounts of messages and references to things going in today’s society found within the film. It makes ties to slavery while shining a light on a new concept. During an  interview with HipHopDX, Peele said he wrote the script while Obama was president and that Get Out is very relevant in today’s society. 

Get Out is a very eye-opening, edge of the seat type of movie. As I was watching, some of the events were predictable but it kept me guessing at the same time. It added a new perspective to my inventory and made me more cautious about several things.