Moana (2016)

Starring: Auli'i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson and Rachel House

Moana is the new Disney’s musical animation movie. It is a heart-warming story of the chief’s daughter who is trapped in a Polynesian island with her born tribe duties. The Ocean plays a role in the story as a living character and chooses Moana to cross the reef and rescue Maui, the demi-god that stole the heart of the islands goddess Te Fiti, spreading darkness through the world.

Having excellent songs, the movie goes beyond a cute story. It shows children a strong female character that lives in conflict about what society and her parents expect from her and what she wants to do. Choosing to follow her heart, she goes in an adventure and learns many skills otherwise impossible. During the climax, after she is abandoned by Maui and lost in her own thoughts, she receives a visit from her dead grandmother, telling her she has the power of choice. Then, she finds the strength to keep going by herself, demonstrating that you can do everything you want, you just have to believe in yourself.

She finishes the movie single, still hunting for adventures, which is great to show kids and adults that the world is full of diversity and has been changing a lot in the past few decades and a girl is not just about being pretty for a man.

My favourite quote is from a song, when she finds herself and sings: "I am Moana!"

Trailer:

Inception (2010)

Poster Source: joblo.com

Directed by	Christopher Nolan
Starring	Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine
Music by	Hans Zimmer

Short Story:
Christopher Nolan’s Inception is one of those riveting, baffling, breathtaking intellectual mind games that leave the audience in awe and not quite sure about what they’ve just witnessed. It really is hard to sum up the story in a few sentences, but I’ll give it a try anyway.

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a highly skilled thief who has taken corporate espionage to an entirely new level. He connects with his marks in their dreams, when the victims are most vulnerable, and steals their secrets. This back and forth between dream and reality causes the death of his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard) and makes him a wanted fugitive, leaving his two children behind.

His chance at redemption comes in the form of Saito (Ken Watanabe), a Japanese billionaire who offers Cobb one last job: instead of stealing a secret from rival young billionaire Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy), Cobb has to plant an idea in Fisher’s subconscious – hence the title, Inception. In return, Cobb would have his criminal record erased and he would be able to reunite with his children.

In order to achieve this seemingly impossible task, Cobb enlists the help of a highly specialised team: an Extractor (the person who manipulates the target into revealing his/her secrets), an Architect (the person who builds the reality-like dream in which the Mark - targeted person - and the Extractor meet), a Dreamer (the person whose mind actually hosts the dream) and a Forger (he can not only forge someone’s signature, but in that dream world created by the Architect, the Forger can take up someone else’s appearance, too). Saito joins them in order to make sure that Cobb actually accomplishes his task.

The actual inception involves the characters entering various levels of (sub)consciousness in their dreams, each one deeper than the other. The last level, the Limbo is basically a raw subconscious state from which is almost impossible to return. An interesting characteristic of these dream levels is the passing of time: the deeper the level, the faster the time passes. A few minutes in real time can translate into months, years or even decades in dream time. The movie starts with Cobb and Saito meeting in Limbo: Saito is an old man living in a beautiful Japanese palace on the beach, Cobb is washed ashore with only a gun and a spinning top (the one thing that connects him to reality) on him. Cobb manages to persuade Saito that they are in a shared dream, reminds him of their agreement, they wake up (or so we are made to believe) and they both get their “happy ending”. There is a catch, however: the only way for Cobb to tell if he is dreaming or not is with this spinning top. In a dream world, it spins indefinitely, whereas in reality if will obviously stop after a while. In the last scene of the movie Cobb spins the top, but walks out of the room just when it was about to fall over and goes to be with his children. It seems that whatever the result, Cobb has accepted the current state as his “preferred reality” and stops questioning it.

The audience, however, is left wondering: does Cobb really get a happy ending or is he still locked up in Limbo?

Verdict:
This movie is certainly not for the faint hearted. It challenges you on an intellectual level and at the same time, it dazzles your senses with spectacular visuals. A must see, but observe the PG-13 rating. It really isn’t suitable for impressionable young children. One last thought: we are always told to "dream big", "follow our dreams", etc. and yes, we certainly need to do just that, but every once in a while we also need to stop dreaming, wake up and enjoy our reality.

Favourite quotes:

Saito "Do you want to take a leap of faith or become an old man filled with regret waiting to die alone!"

Cobb: “What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there, somewhere.”

Cobb: “When we wound up on the beach of our own subconscious, we lost sight of what was real.“

Robert Fischer Jr.: "I know, Dad. I know you were disappointed I couldn't be you.”
Maurice Fischer "No, no, no... I was disappointed... that you tried."

Megamind (2010)

Photo source: Slashfilm

Directed by	Tom McGrath
Starring	Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross, Brad Pitt
Music by	Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe

Short Story:
Super-intelligent super-villain Megamind and Elvis-lookalike superhero Metro Man have been rivals ever since they were a few days old. They both come to Metrocity from another planet, but while Metro Man was raised in a wealthy family and has always been popular, Megamind lands in a prison with his best friend/sidekick, Minion, is raised by convicts and becomes an outcast from the first day he sets foot in school.

In and out of prison all his life, Megamind kidnaps Metro Man's alleged love interest, TV reporter Roxanne Ritchi and when the hero comes to the rescue, Megamind finally defeats Metro Man and takes over control of the city. The problem is, that every villain needs a superhero and Megamind is no exception to this rule. Feeling at a loss without someone to fight, Megamind decides to create another hero by injecting Hal Stewart, Roxanne's creepy cameraman with Metro Man's DNA. He calls the new "hero" Titan (all the other cool names have already been trademarked), but it turns out that enhanced physical powers don't necessarily make a hero. Hal's low intellect and mean personality are also accentuated by the serum and in fact, he becomes a true villain. Eager to maintain the good guy-bad guy equilibrium and to save the city from Titan's destruction, Megamind teams up with Roxanne - first disguised as Bernard, a curator at the Metro Man Museum, and later on as himself - and ends up falling in love with her.

There's a lot of action, witty dialogs and great visuals during which we find out that Metro Man hasn't really died, but faked his death in order to pursue an artistic career as a singer and Megamind realises that he's won his first battle because his efforts were put into doing good. I'm not going to give away more from the story. Suffice it to say that this is truly a movie for the whole family: children will love the action and bright colours, adults roar with laughter at the various social, political, cultural and other references. Personal favourites are the mixture of Elvis/Metro Man's celebrity / seasoned politician moments: flies over the crowds, walks on water, kisses and juggles babies (note the politically correct caucasian, black and asian baby) and when someone cries out: "I love you, Metro Man!", he replies "And I love YOU, random citizen!"

Will Ferrell is having an absolute blast as Megamind and the way he pronounces Metrocity to sound like "atrocity" was a touch of genius. The rest of the cast and the music are equally brilliant.

Verdict:
If you want a movie to brighten your day, this is it. If you watch it with children, it might be worth talking about it a little bit afterwards, pointing out how a hostile environment can cause someone to become antisocial, but love and positive reinforcement will bring out the best in all of us.

Favourite quotes:

Megamind "I was eight days old, and still living with my parents. How sad is that? Clearly, it was time to move on."

Megamind: “Funny. I guess destiny isn't the path chosen for us, but the path we chose for ourselves.”

Megamind: “All men must choose between two paths. Good is the path of honour, heroism, and nobility. Evil... well, it's just cooler. “

Roxanne Ritchi: "If only life had a reset button...”

Megamind [disguised as Bernard] "I've looked into the reset button... The science is impossible!
[sniffles]

Megamind [disguised as Space Dad] "You've been blessed, with unfathomable powers!"
Hal "What kind of power?"
Megamind "Unfathomable. It's like, uh, without fathom..."

Event Horizon (1997)

Staring: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinland & Joely Richardson

Event horizon is a science fictional psychological thriller which takes place in the year 2047. The movie focuses on a crew set off in space to rescue a previous missing ship named the Event Horizon. The ship itself was testing an experimental drive which enables the ship to travel faster than the speed of light by folding space-time to reach great distances instantly.

The film itself had great potential with the film following true to it's genre, however it commercially failed in the cinemas during it's original released, possibly due to rushed production and unmet deadlines. The film has gained a cult following over the years as it provides a uniquely entertaining story. The cast is a surprising choice for it's genre of film however Sam Neill plays his role quite well.

Event Horizon draws it's inspiration to the previous big films of the genre such as Alien & Solaris. Although it isn't as great as these films I would still recommend watching this movie to those deeply interested in this genre of film

"I created the Event Horizon to reach the stars, but she's gone much, much farther than that. She tore a hole in our universe, a gateway to another dimension. A dimension of pure chaos."
Weir-Event Horizon

Ghost In The Shell (2017)

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Ghost in the shell is a scifi/action set in a postmodern city where the lines between what is human and what is machine are blurred.
based as an adaptation off the original Ghost in the shell manga & movie (1995). Scarlett Johansson plays as the major a police officer who suffered an accident and was rescued by recovering her brain and placing it into a complete cybernetic body. Only she discovers that the people who saved her have not been truthful as to how she ended up this way.

The movie itself displays a beautiful post modern city and often show chases it's cutting edge graphics, however the bad press over the movie lies more within it's story and how much it faithfully pays respect to it's predecessors. I myself think of Scarlett as a highly professional actor but couldn't help but feel the story itself was lacking. The movie often chops bits and scenes from the famous anime into the film but removes the philosophical / and in depth concepts that the original anime was famous for. The story itself digresses from the original plot which in itself is not something bad. What didn't make sense to me was how certain scenes that were straight from the anime it self were sort of cut and pasted into the new story line forcefully, trying to pay the basic homage to the original film when perhaps it wasn't necessary with the direction they wanted to go with it.

Overall the film itself has it's moments of stunning visuals, film goers who haven't seen the original film will probably enjoy this more than those who have. The story pales in comparison to it's original though it's visuals are imaginative and it's soundtrack is fairly decent.

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Starring: Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans and Josh Gad

Beauty and the Beast is well known among children and adults from its fairy tale story and music in Disney’s 1996 animation movie. Counting on that successful title, Disney has decided to turn it into a live action, starring Emma Waston as Belle (which I could not think of someone more suitable for this role), the odd girl who lives in a village and dreams of more.

The remake has not only brought all the old plus new songs, but added modern touches to the screening. One of my favourite addition was the story behind Belle’s mom and how she and her father ended up in such a “little town”. Not only more about Belle’s mother, they also tell us more about Beast’s past and why his servants are so attached to him, turning the simple “becoming a beast” into a more deep and thoughtful story.

Although the movie is full of magic, music and special effects, it did not please everyone. The introduction of a visible gay character was an issue for many people. In the 2017 live action, LeFou is clearly in love with Gaston and demonstrates his affection to the good-looking sexist hunter throughout his actions. This polemic topic has been discussed a lot over the world, and the inclusion of a gay character just shows how Disney is concern about bringing equality to its stories in a natural way.

The songs were gracefully performed by the whole cast and the soundtrack is stunning. My favourite quote in the movie is one of the last lines, when Beast back to its human form and Belle jokes: “Do you think you can grow a beard?”.

Trailer:

Fast And Furious 7 (2015)

Fast and Furious 7 (2015)

Starring: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Paul Walker

Fast and Furious 7 is probably my favourite of the series. It is action packed but is also probably one of the deepest and meaningful of the series. This movie focuses on family and brotherhood, whilst still having the super-fast and awesome cars, and tons of great action scenes, that make me feel extremely sorry for the stunt guys.

This whole movie occurs because Deckard Shaw, older brother of Owen Shaw, the bad guy in Furious 6, threatens Dom and Brian’s families. This movie has the right amount of backstory behind Shaw’s motives for going after Dom’s family, which means that throughout the movie, you are easily able to follow along, which was slightly harder to do in Furious 6 due to the slight lack of backstory. This made Fast and Furious 6 in my opinion, not as good. This movie shows two guys doing the same thing, getting revenge, but this time it’s also for the same reasons, family.

I swear, with each movie in the franchise the budget increases dramatically. The cars they featured like jeez. They had a Bugatti Veyron, Aston Martin, Maserati, an R8, and the third most expensive car in the world, with only a few in existence, the Lykan Hyper sport. That’s only to name a few.

The action also increases a ton. Vin Diesel’s character Dom, flies the Lykan out of not one but two frigging towers in Abu Dhabi. Then the car goes flying out of the third tower and crashes, while Dom and Brian roll out of the car before it goes ‘bye-bye’. Also, the damage that would’ve been don’t to the penthouse alone. They fly out in cars from a plane high in the sky.  They take down a helicopter by throwing grenades onto the helicopter.

This movie is one of the most sentimental of the series. This movie is when Hobbs and Dom finally are good friends. Hobbs says to Dom in the hospital room “the official answer is don’t” “the brother to brother answer is do whatever you gotta do and don’t miss”. He also refers to Dom as “an old friend” when he introduces Dom to his daughter. Then towards the end of the movie, Hobbs rips off his cast to “go to work” to help them take down Deckard. When Letty and Ramsey think that they have no cavalry, Hobbs shows up with a frigging machine gun to save the day and says, “women I am the cavalry”. 

This movie also has hilarious quotes mostly thanks to Roman “the joker” of the group.

“This right here my friend is the dumbest plan I’ve ever heard”

“Adult diapers in your glove compartment”

“Cars don’t fly Dom” – Brian as they are about to fly out of the penthouse

And some really sweet and sentimental ones along especially the ending with the song See You Again

“If you die I die”

“It’s never goodbye”

“the most important people will always be the people in this room”

“Everything I went through you were standing there by my side”

To watch the Fast And Furious 7 trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skpu5HaVkOc

Fast And Furious 8 (2017) is now out in cinemas

To watch the Fast And Furious 8 trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19uRZ0vVVbA

Renaissance Man (1994)

Photo source: What's Up Life

Directed by	Penny Marshall
Starring	Danny DeVito, Gregory Hines, James Remar, Cliff Robertson
Music by	Hans Zimmer

Short Story:
Bill Rago (Danny DeVito) is a brilliant, but arrogant, divorced advertising professional who suddenly finds himself unemployed (gets stuck in traffic, can’t make his pitch to a potential client and consequently loses his job). After a while, the unemployment agency finds him a temporary job at a US army base: he needs to teach a group of underachieving soldiers (the “Double D’s – dumb as dogs**t);the fundamentals of English language and comprehension so that they can pass basic training.

In the beginning, Bill feels nothing, but contempt for these soldiers and the feeling is mutual, but as the story unfolds, with a little help from Shakespeare’s Hamlet they all learn to respect themselves and each other. What’s more, they learn to set their aspirations high and become the best men they can be.

There are two other sidelines to the story: While teaching the soldiers, Bill finally understands that family and friendship are more important than a hi-flying job and as a result, he manages to fix his relationship with his estranged teenage daughter. The training officer, Sergeant Cass is openly hostile towards Bill since believes that teaching a bunch of misfits even the most basic comprehension is an utter waste of his and the soldiers’ time. Obviously, he is proven wrong as both Bill and the soldiers raise up to the challenge.

Verdict:
Although it flopped at the box office and received quite a few bad reviews, Renaissance Man is one of those timeless feel-good movies that make you laugh out loud, teach you some great life lessons and provide a few memorable quotes. 

Favourite quotes:

Bill Rago at the unemployment office, when asked what jobs he would be willing to do: “’If you give me a check, I’ll be willing to cash it!”

Bill Rago: “Hi. I'm Bill Rago. I've never taught before and you've never thought before. So good luck to all of us.”

Bill Rago: “All I know is, the choices we make dictate the life we lead. “

Soldiers: [chanting] “Hamlet's mother, she's the queen / Buys it in the final scene / Drinks a glass of funky wine / Now she's Satan's Valentine.”

Private Miranda Myers: “I'd rather be a Double D than a swinger from the ugly tree, you fat pig.”

Fast And Furious 6 (2013)

Fast And Furious 6 (2013)

This is a movie that if you love action and cars you will love. However, you may not like it as much if you are into intricate story plots.  It is also probably the most suitable for a family to watch out of all the series as, well, it has the least amount of females being objectified which is stereotypical in car racing movies.

It is action from the get go. Featuring stunts that make me feel sorry for the stunt guys if they were made to do them, Dom flies out of a freaking moving car into the air to save Letty who is on top of the moving tank, and lands on a car. I mean they have a tank!1 A frigging tank and just imagine, the budget for this movie must’ve been insane.

Although it maybe not the best in the series, it still absolutely deserves a watch. It’s a movie that focuses on family just like all the other movies in the series which if you’re a fan of the series will know that family has been a massive key throughout. It has tons of actions, tons of nice cars I mean Hobbs calls their love for cars like a marriage which I mean yeah it kind of is.  They featured, to name a few, Lamborghini’s, they had a mustang, the Camero, and Aston Martin. 

This movie is also really good and important In the series because throughout, Hobbs has been trying to hunt them, and in this movie, Hobbs and Dom finally have a bond at the end of the movie where Dom says to Hobbs “not bad for a cop” and Hobbs says “I’d never thought I’d trust a criminal” like aww how cute, they’re finally friends. The way they end the movie is also really cool it shows what really happened at the end of Tokyo Drift, another movie in the series that you should watch if you haven’t already.

“Dominic Toretto you don’t know me yet, but you’re about to” – Derek Shaw  

The smart ass comments in this movie are hilarious 

"My swagger-less friend over here really wants your shirt" - Tej after the car sale person humiliated him and Hobbs 

"That ain't a plane that's a planet" Roman