Welcome to Moviereviewmq

Welcome to our movie reviewing blog! We are four university students who take look at a various range of films to critique and pay reverence to. Our group has written on multiple genres from old classics to new modern gems, so there's something for everyone.

We have created the following video to give you an idea as to what we're about and some of the personal favorite movies we've reviewed, as well as introducing the reviewers behind the screen. We hope you enjoy!

Don't forget if you like what you see you can support us by  either liking or subscribing to our youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw0ZtRp3nE-el1G19D3yLkA
Keep up to date with what's new from us at our twitter! https://twitter.com/moviereviewmq
Leave your comments below and share this with your friends!

Up (2009)

Photo source: Associazione Italo Americana del Friuli Venezia Giulia

Directed by	Rob Minkoff
Starring	Ty Burrell, Max Charles, Ariel Winter, Stephen Colbert, Leslie Mann, Allison Janney
Music by	Matthew Margeson

Short Story:
When Carl Fredricksen was a little boy, he idolized famous explorer Charles F. Muntz. Unfortunately, Muntz is accused of presenting false evidence about the skeleton of a giant exotic bird he claims to have discovered at Paradise Falls, and leaves the public eye, vows not to return until he captures one alive.

Time passes, Carl meets Ellie, a Muntz fan who's dream is to have a house overlooking Paradise Falls. They practically grow up together, get married and decide to save money for a trip to the Falls, but life always intervenes in the way of things to buy, to fix, etc. A now elderly Carl finally arranges for the trip, but Ellie gets cancer and passes away before they have the chance to realize their dream.

Enters Russell, a young Wilderness Explorer who tries to collect the last out of a collection of merit badges in the hope that his divorced parents will come to his badge award ceremony. He knocks on Carl's door and offers him help of any kind so that he can earn his final merit badge, the one for assisting the elderly. Carl is not particularly forthcoming, but when he is ordered to move to a retirement home, he flies away in his home by using thousands of helium balloons and inadvertently takes Russell along. They get to Paradise Falls, find the giant bird and name it Kevin, befriend a talking dog, a Golden Retriever named Dug and get to meet Muntz. The problem is, Muntz is still looking for the giant bird and when he figures out that Kevin must be the creature that eluded him all those years only to befriend Carl and Russell, he becomes very hostile.

Carl and Russell's unlikely duo go through a series of life-threatening adventures during which Carl's house is destroyed, but not before he finds Ellie's childhood scrapbook. It turns out that while Carl's been living in regret for not giving Ellie the adventurous life they've always wanted, she filled out the scrapbook with pictures of their married life and left him a note saying “Thanks for the adventure- Now go have a new one.” More adventures ensue, Carl manages to rescue Kevin (now Muntz's prisoner), takes over Muntz's dirigible and flies it back to the city where he presents Russell with his final badge.

Verdict:
LOVE this movie! Up is the first animated and 3D movie to open the Cannes Film Festival. It was extremely well received at the box office, and it remains one of the best Pixar movies to date. It is just the right mix of thriller, adventure, love, humor - everything, really. The characters are genuine, well-formed, the dialogues full of heart and the story itself is one that most of us can relate to. An absolute must see, feel-good movie.


Favourite quotes:

Russell: Good afternoon. Are you in need of any assistance today, sir?
Carl: No.
Russell: I could help you cross the street.
Carl: No.
Russell: I could help you cross your yard.
Carl>: No.
Russell: I could help you cross your porch.
Carl: No!
[closes the door on Russell's foot]
Russell: Ow.

Carl: You'd better get up, Russell. Or else, the tigers will come and eat you.
Russell: There are no Tigers in South America. Zoology.

Carl: [Having arrived above Paradise Falls in South America, miles from where they took off] Don't worry, I'll get you down, find a Bus Stop.
[cuts off the strings to some of the balloons, allowing the house to descend down]
Russell: Whoa, that's s gonna be like a billion transfers to get back to my house...

Contact (1997)

Staring Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, William Fichtner, Tom Skirritt

Contact is a science fiction adaptation of the
book with the same name written by Carl Sagan who was a predominate astronomer. It follows Dr Ellie Arroway who is a scientist at the SETI institute that discovers indisputable evidence that extraterrestrial life is out there and actively sending messages to humans. The movie takes great length to explore the possible ramifications and philosophical implications of just how might a situation like this effect our society. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this film I thought was how there was a lot of thought directed in trying to back a lot of Contacts concepts in actual scientific contexts rather than extravagant Hollywood style action, giving contact a refreshing aspect to it.



Dr Ellie: "I'll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... seems like an awful waste of space. Right?"

Aliens (1986)

Director James Cameron
Staring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn.

Aliens is the prequel to the original film Alien, it continues off from where the last film ended. Following Ellen Ripley who has been found after 57 years of drifting in hypersleep (a sort of stasis). She must once again encounter the alien entity that destroyed their crew as a colony of humans has been developed on the planet where the organism was found. Although the film is directed by a different director to the first, James Cameron still managers to deliver a successfully thrilling sequel which I believe is an improvement from the first film. As well the role of sigourney’s character which showcases well developed heroine at a time in film where there weren’t many.

Ghostbusters (2016)

Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon

Ghostbusters is a highly successful movie from 1984 and now we are presented with a new updated version of the classic. The movie features the same story about four scientists who believe in ghosts while nobody else does. Strange things start to happen and the city is taken over by the supernatural, giving the scientists the chance to fight it with their inventions.
The movie was strongly criticized especially because of the gender change in the roles. Instead of four male characters as protagonists, they now decided to put four females in their place. This is important for representation and my personal feelings are positive towards this change. They have also swapped the dumb female secretary for a male one.
Overall the film is the same as before, with a few updated jokes and, of course, modern special effects.
My favourite quote is from the scene where Kevin, the secretary, decides to create a logo for the Ghostbusters and he comes up with the old one, but with breasts and, when everyone looks shocked and disappointed he says: “Is it the boobs you don't like? Because I can make them... bigger”.

Trailer:

Now You See Me (2013)

Now You See Me (2013)

Starring: Dave Franco, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman

Now You See Me is one hell of a smart assy movie. It has some awesome scenes. The scene where Daniel gets out of the handcuffs, and switches agent Rhodes phone and he says “always be the smartest guy in the room”. The trick of robbing Tressler, and giving the money to the audience. Also, the scene where they find out about Rhodes, and who he really is. So cool! “I did not see that coming”.

It is cool how Rhodes goes from being the one hunting them to the one who is really behind the making of them as a group, and who orchestrated the whole event, of stealing money from Tressler, the insurance company that wouldn’t pay for his father’s insurance, and also taking down the guy who debunked all of his dad’s magic tricks. “the real magic is getting four strong solo acts and getting them to work together”.

And can we talk about Dave Franco in this movie. Soooo good “You’re a big boy now, Jack”. The scene where Jack fights agent Rhodes, and Fuller, sooo cool!

The movie also has some killer lines

“the more you think you see, the easier it is to fool you”

“oh, no nothings ever locked”

“I thought you were quite a dick”

“as if they were on the inside”

“could you be more of a condescending ass”

“this is kind of a talent only area”

“I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited to see that look on your face”

Now You See Me trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_diRgwPCS8

image from https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTY0NDY3MDMxN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTM5NzMzOQ@@._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg

Arrival (2016)

Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker

Arrival is a brilliant movie that shows a unique perspective of what non-terrestrial species may represent to humanity. The movie starts with the invasion of 12 alien objects in 12 distinct parts of the world. The locations are random and the countries are working to solve the puzzle.

The “space ships” are just there, inoffensive containing the alien specie inside. The great point, in my opinion, is the “non-humanification” of the them. They don’t look like us, they don’t walk, communicate, breath or behave like us. They are different, as it should be.

The climax of the movie happens with the decision of China cuts off the collaboration with other countries and decide to attack. If that happens, the scientists would not be able to receive the gift from the aliens: their language. For them to translate and understand it, they need the cooperation of all 12 nations and avoid war.

Different from other movies, the aliens are shown as allies and not enemies. The only down point that got too unrealistic was when the main character gets inside the alien atmosphere and survives. Apart from that, it is a movie that makes you think about cooperation and decision make.

The best quote was from Dr. Louise Banks: “The weapon is their language. They gave it all to us. Do you understand what that means?”.

Trailer: