Delivery Man

Delivery Man

Delivery Man is a Dramedy starring Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Cobie Smulders (Robin in How I Met Your Mother) and directed by Ken Scott.

The film tells the story of David Wozniak, a man who works in the family butchery as a delivery man. He is rather irresponsible, is heavily in debt – $100,000 to be exact and discovers that his girlfriend is pregnant.

With a brief synopsis like this it would be safe to assume that this is just your average, generic feel good comedy that for some reason stars Vince Vaughn. However, there is more to this film as about 20 minutes into the movie David is visited by a lawyer. It is then revealed that during his student years he visited a sperm bank and gave 693 donations. The result of this generous donation: he is the father of 533 children. 142 of those have started a lawsuit to force the clinic to reveal who their father is.

What I didn’t like about this movie:

There’s not a lot to complain about here really. The only few gripes I had with this film is it did have its rather soppy moments which just went overboard. Then there is Cobie Smulders who plays David’s girlfriend. In all honesty, her performance wasn’t really on par as what it normally is.

However, this biggest problem I had with the movie were some serious plot holes. I cannot really delve into them as I don’t want to give important scenes away but there few a few moments when something happens and you’re immediately left scratching your head and wondering how in the world they were able to get this right without explaining what happened. This is of course coupled with his girlfriend’s reaction at the end of the movie which is completely far from believable.

I’m pretty sure most of the stuff was explained through deleted scenes which are sadly not available on the DVD release.

What I did like about this film:

It’s really nice to see Vince Vaughn in a different genre for a change. It feels fresh and although his performance wasn’t perfect, it was pretty decent. This movie also has some pretty funny moments but at the end of the day, it’s a really sweet film with a really sweet message.

With that, Delivery Man gets a heart-warming 6 out of 10

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Grudge Match

Grudge Match

Grudge Match is a sports comedy film starring Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, Kim Basinger and is directed by Peter Segal.

The main premise of this film revolves around two aging boxers who were big in their day, they were and still are complete rivals. However, when the boxer, Henry “Razor” Sharp decides to retire, his opponent Billy “The Kid” McDonnen is left frustrated as he wanted a rematch. So we then fast forward 30 years later, both Henry and Billy no longer box due to their age, but an opportunity arises which finally gives Billy the chance to have his final match with Henry.

Now I’ll stress again, this is supposed to be a boxing movie. We have two actors who were both in extremely successful boxing films, that being Rocky and Raging Bull.

However, in Grudge Match, the only proper boxing we see is in the last 15 minutes of this film. The rest of the movie shows these two characters and their intense rivalry for each other. Along the way they meet different people and a former girlfriend of Henry’s which seriously serves no purpose. It takes away the little comedy there is in this film and it feels like a distraction to fill in some time on a very thin script.

 The acting itself is quite laughable at times, specifically from Stallone. Even Jon Bernthal, who plays Shane in the Walking Dead, felt really flat and far from convincing.

The bottom line is, if you want to watch a sports comedy, I might suggest Dodge Ball. It might be silly and not take itself seriously, but it is meant to be silly and not try achieve something it knows is quite difficult in a film of this genre.

If you want to watch a decent boxing movie, the rather stick to Rocky or Raging Bull.

As for The Grudge Match, it gets a low blow 4 out of 10

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Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is a supernatural horror film starring Andrew Jacobs, Jorge Diaz and Gabrielle Walsh. The film is directed by Christopher B. Landon who wrote the movie Disturbia and the last three Paranormal Activity movies.

As per usual, the film follows the whole found footage format just like the other Paranormal Activity movies and has become a staple format in horror movies these days.

In this film we follow the antics of recent high school graduate Jesse and his two friends. Jesse lives in an apartment with his father and grandmother. Below them lives an old lady whom everyone believes is a witch.

Now as you would imagine, Jesse and his friends try sneak into the old woman’s apartment and of course discover all sorts of strange things. This somehow leads Jesse to be possessed by an entity which seems to protect him at first. This entity is of course the same malevolent being that appears in all the films which has fondly been named Toby in Paranormal Activity 3.

But of course this is a horror and Toby is no guardian angel. So as you would have guessed by now, strange things begin to happen to Jesse and his friends and it’s up to them to find out what it is and how to stop it.

What I didn’t like about this film:

This is of course another unnecessary Paranormal Activity movie and it didn’t need a franchise. The first movie was the best and by far the scariest. As it possessed the right amount of tension and of course it had that air of mystery as the audience had no clue what was happening and what would happen next. But as things go in Hollywood, when a movie is a success, studios try and cash in on that success and spew out as many sequels as possible which dilutes the entire franchise.

Another problem is the whole entity. It should have remained unknown and mysterious, but it was given a backstory which became clearer in the third film and is revealed to be a manifestation conjured up by a coven of witches and this kind of gives franchise a stale, predictable feel.

What I did like about this film:

Although it is the fifth in the franchise, it is way better than Paranormal Activity 4 which was just a really dull movie. What made this film feel fresh was the fact that the film makers decided to focus on a Latino family rather than your typical suburban American family as it had in the past. There is also a decent balance of humour as well as tension in this movie and a few guaranteed jumps which is really needed in an aging franchise. The best part of this film is it does get the audience involved by using a clichéd technique of having the character wondering into dark corners and you are yelling at your screen telling him to stay away.

As I mentioned with the tension, this film can be seen on par with Paranormal Activity 3 as this is just as tense and really has its scary moments, which does make it a stronger movie in the whole franchise.

So with that, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones gets a frightening 6 out of 10

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Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is an action thriller film starring Chris Pine, Kevin Costner and Keira Knightly. The film is directed by Kenneth Branagh who also directed Thor.

This is the fifth film in the Jack Ryan franchise (Created by Tom Clancy) but instead of being a continuation, this is a reboot and serves as an origin story which seems to be the trend in Hollywood these days.

So the film starts off on September 11 2001. Jack Ryan is studying at the London School of Economics, graduates and then returns home to serve his country to fight in Afghanistan. However, he is critically injured, spends ages in rehab and is eventually drafted by the CIA to be an undercover agent. He works on Wall Street as a compliance officer, but is of course doing analytic searching for terrorist activity which he of course discovers. His mission now: Travel to Russia, discover the source of the activity and put it to a halt.

Here’s what I didn’t like about the movie.

There are a few scenes in the movie where the script just seems unbelievable and the action is just not on par. Now granted this is an action that deals with covert CIA operations. And there are a couple of continuity errors. One example of this is within ten minutes of Ryan landing in Russia is already targeted by a hit man. The problem with this is he is posing as an auditor and no one knows of his true identity and after this encounter, it’s done and dusted, no one asks questions and everyone believes he is an auditor.  

Then there is the acting chemistry between Chris Pine and Keira Knightly. The problem with the chemistry is quite simple: it’s non-existent. The characters are romantically involved but you just don’t feel it, that connection just doesn’t translate on camera and I think the one main problem is Keiria Knightly putting on an American accent. It just doesn’t feel right and doesn’t really feel natural at all.

Here’s what I did like:

Although the film does have its flaws, it isn’t a complete disaster. There is plenty of action to satisfy the Ryan fans, the CIA fans and the general action movie fans. There is some pretty cool tech used in the movie and you do feel the tension and the excitement when Ryan has to go all covert and sneak into areas that he’s just not supposed to be. This of course keeps you in suspense and you keep asking yourself, will he make it or will he get caught…?

So this is a breath of fresh air into the Jack Ryan franchise. It might not have the same allure as the Bourne movies, nor the tech savvy suave as the Bond films, but the film is still able to capture you and take you on a thrill ride and of course, Jack Ryan fans and Tom Clancy fans will love this one.

With that in mind, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit gets a covert 7 out of 10

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Pain and Gain

Pain and Gain

Pain and Gain is a crime comedy film starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson.

Now this movie is directed by Michael Bay and he is a polarised director. Meaning that people love him or hate him. Most people love him because of his high budget films and tons of explosions. He is of course the man behind the Transformers franchise as well as the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which will be out in August.

But that’s also why people hate him as they say he forsakes decent story telling just to pack a film with tons of action and explosions.

But then we have this film which is slightly different from Michael Bay’s usual style of filming. You can literally count the amount of explosions in this film on one hand, as there is only one explosion in the whole film.

But anyway, lets get to the film, so the movie is based on a true story about a man named Daniel Lugo who is a fitness trainer and works at a gym called the Sun Gym. He is able to recruit two more body builders and forms a gang which later becomes known as the Sun Gym Gang. Basically what happens is they become involved in kidnaping wealthy people, they extort, torture and eventually murder them all for money.

Here’s what I didn’t like about the film:

It was far too silly, some of the humour looked like it belonged on iCarly or one of those silly Disney shows, I just couldn’t take it seriously, Dwayne Johnson is a typecast actor, meaning he suits real hard core action where he is able to take on a more serious role, not in an attempted comedy role. I say attempted as Michael Bay seems to have missed his Mark on this one. He also did Bad Boys 1 and 2 which were quite successful, but for some reason it just doesn’t work in this film. I suppose it has to do with the fact that he tried taking a real life story of tragedy and violent crimes and tried to turn it into something funny, which almost seems insensitive, that and he just had the wrong choice of cast members.

What I did like about the film is even though it is flawed there are some parts in the movie where it is quite entertaining and I was able to let out a chuckle every now and then. I loved the fact that Ken Jeong makes a cameo in the film and is at least able to make his entire segment quite funny. Ken Jeong is the guy who plays Leslie Chow in the Hangover and Senor Chang in the TV show Community.

So with that in mind, Pain and Gain gets a painful 4 out of 10. 

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Last Vegas

Last Vegas

Last Vegas is a comedy starring a stellar ensemble cast of Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline. It’s also directed by Jon Turteltaub who is behind movies such as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Cool Runnings.

So the film follows the lives of Billy, Paddy, Archie and Sam who are in their senior years and have been friends since childhood.

Now Billy is the only bachelor amongst this group of friends, but he eventually proposes to his girlfriend who is half his age, being 32 to be exact.

So in order to celebrate, Archie and Sam decide to throw a bachelor party in Las Vegas and try to relive their youth just one more night.

Now this movie does seem to have a Hangover type of feel to it if you consider the fact that this is a comedy and it does involve 4 guys going to Vegas. However, this is a more toned down film and nowhere near as vulgar. But I’ll get to that shortly.

What I didn’t like about this film:

There were only a couple of things that just didn’t seem to work. Firstly there’s the music. Now when it comes to music in a film, you technically shouldn’t hear it. The job of the composer and the director is to create a medium that plays with your emotions and really brings you into the film and music is that medium. However, I found some of the songs just a bit too distracting and then in the third half of the film a montage plays out. Best way to describe montage, think of 80s films, they show people training over a long period of time but just shows all the important stuff to speed things along. So in Last Vegas a montage is shown with them getting ready for a massive party, yet the music was just totally wrong and really did nothing for that scene other than just irritate me.

What I did like about the film:

Well, we’re dealing with a stellar cast of amazing actors, so performance wise was just brilliant. The movie is also really funny, there are a couple of slapstick moments and it does get a bit sloppy as it does become sort of a romantic comedy towards the end, but in all the movie is quite entertaining and there will be a number of laughs guaranteed. Now if you are a fan of the dance group LMFAO you’ll be pleased to know that they do make a cameo in this film and it does ensue with some awkward, embarrassing laughs.

So with that in Mind, Last Vegas gets a senior driven 7 out of 10

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