A Keaton Review: A Quiet Place

By: Keaton Marcus

Genre/Horror/Thriller

Age Rating/13+ 

Lemonradar/92% sweet

So What’s The Story?

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing Emily Blunt and John Krasinski’s newest collaboration, Horror film, A Quiet Place. When unusual creatures crash and take over Earth, a family in modern time, Evelyn Abbott, Lee Abbott and their three children find out that they are blind and cannot touch or feel, however they have a very, very keen sense of hearing meaning the five people must live in complete silence for life; Can they make it out alive, or will it be too late, for all of them.

How Was The Cast?

One of the few Horror flicks, PG-13 rated at most that has two well-known actors to reprise main characters, in A Quiet Place we saw Emily Blunt take on pregnant and worried-for-her-children sort-of mother Evelyn Abbott, and John Krasinski (Blunt’s husband in real life) perform caring, strong, brave and protecting dad Lee Abbott; For the two children, playing Regan Abbott, the deaf daughter is Millicent Simmonds and playing worryful son Marcus Abbott is Noah Jupe. Like I said Blunt known for Edge of Tomorrow, The Devil Wears Prada, The Girl on the Train etc. playing Evelyn Abbott. Coping with the imminent silence of the film using sign language, this brilliant movie quietly and smoothly formed around the main characters, but evolving the main twist on Blunt’s character, the pregnancy (how can you keep a baby quiet?), actress Emily Blunt cooly plays a protective mother with an amazing narrative, a graphic but magnificently directed birth scene and overall you could feel Blunt with you in the theater as you were biting your shirt, waiting for the next scare. John Krasinski known for Detroit, Arrested Development and The Office both starred and directed in this film, and being Blunt’s husband in real life, Krasinski was able to play an amazingly real Lee Abbott collaborating former talent from other films and TV bringing them on the screen for his newest movie; With many internal and external conflicts burying Lee Abbott, this character is not only one of the best directed and scripted of all time, but surprisingly Mr. Krasinski has now proved that he can perform many different kinds of characters in many different scattered types of genres. Creating more and more twists in the film is Lee and Evelyn’s daughter, Regan Abbott who plays a very important part in the film and ultimately saves the day finding the creatures’ weakness played by deaf actress Millicent Simmonds. While going through all these character obstacles Simmons thoroughly crafts a well-developed, extremely real type of person without making Regan Abbott too boring to follow, opposite actually Regan was out of the five characters one of the most interesting to follow; Meaning she was the smartest protagonist in the entire span of the movie, carrying a huge plot twist and amazing, clever personal obstacles. Lastly the fourth main character is Marcus Abbott played by actor Noah Jupe known for Wonder, The Titan and Downton Abbey has showed many, many good performances in most of his movies and hit TV shows showing an extremely young, but very talented actor, for A Quiet Place Jupe went above and beyond taking characterization into new levels and being one of the little of 2018’s small characters to turn into big roles just during the movie; Playing out an interesting character story and an internal connection with Lee Abbott (Krasinski) for the entire film, this wonderfully successful actor succeeds massively.

Is It Worth Your While?

Directing and starring in A Quiet Place as I told you before is John Krasinski known for creating Hollars as his only directed movie, not having any experience for Horror and the shaky genre it is, Krasinski was a very, very risky choice. However the director proved me wrong, Krasinski crafted a brilliantly tense, scary and very, very unusually real and believable 90-minute Horror; Without making anything too bloated or talky filmmaker John Krasinski also gave each main character personal stories, conflicts and many other things along the way. Despite just setting a high-bar for Horror flicks in general, it also lit-up the PG-13 Thrillers genre which was very, very surprising and exciting to see, developing a true experience director John Krasinski has created his one perfect film so far with amazing character development, a smart scary story and a creative dystopian-type setting. The film also had a scatter of art, and low-budget but realistic special effects, considering the creature-feature genre (Van Helsing, Pacific Rim, Alien etc.) they all have enormous production budgets, A Quiet Place, the newest installment to that particular genre is just standing at an extremely low 17 million which is perhaps the smallest production for the genre. However the special-effects crew and team manage to create a just as real, scary visually impressive short-creature/Horror flick without spending too much money; While CGI and effects are not this movie’s game, they still spend a good amount of time on perfecting every single element of the film making it just as viscerally scary or even more as other flicks of the genre. Story and plot wise, the main conflict is mostly finding out the monster/alien’s weakness which is turned towards the deaf daughter, Regan Abbott (Millicent Simmonds) who creatively and smartly finds a way to defeat them. Though did the crew execute it well? The simple answer would obviously be a big, fat yes; Krasinski and the crew of A Quiet Place created a genius plot and story almost completely out of scratch, making a short, dark and very, very tense and suspenseful creature-feature. Relating to real life problems (the mouse and it’s predators), the film slowly and creepily edged the twists around the audience making them hide their faces every dark turn they pass during the 1 hr 30 mins of the movie.

Aging ‘Silence’

Though mainly A Quiet Place did turn out has a very scary and real Horror flick, it did not push too much out of the limits of its PG-13 MPAA rating with some shocking moments of violence, no bad uses of language whatsoever (like most scary films) and one graphic scene having to do with sexuality. Violence wise, there are some minor jumpscares including a blood spurt, a bloody hand on the shower wall, a man commits suicide by screaming and letting the monsters grab him, there is two meaningful deaths of main characters, the showing of an aftermath of a woman torn in half by the creatures and a bear foot stepped on a very sharp nail with little blood spills. Characters communicate via American sign-language which does not show any sense or form of bad language despite the common argues of family members. Sexuality wise, there is no actual nudity or “sex scenes”, but there is a very tense and minorly graphic birth scene with blood pooling in the bathtub but is mostly shown off-camera.

Creature-Feature Smackdown

 

A Quiet Place 100% sweet

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Language: ☆☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 13+

Cloverfield 95% sweet

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sex: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 14+

A Quiet Place 100% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Cloverfield 95% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

News Related to A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place bombs the Box Office with opening weekend.

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A Keaton Review: Ready Player One

By: Keaton Marcus

Genre/Sci-Fi Action

Age Rating/14+

Lemonradar/65/100 “sweet/sour”

Introduction

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing the Steven Spielberg book-adaption of Ready Player One written by Ernest Cline. When James Halliday, creator of the virtual-reality world The Oasis dies suddenly he has left a video containing information about a potential easter egg he has hidden inside his very game which will give the finder control over all of the Oasis; When dictating organization IOI threatens to kill teenage boy Wade Watts he knows he must find the egg before it gets into the wrong hands.

How Was The Cast?

This adaptation the truly amazing novel written by acclaimed Sci-Fi author Ernest Cline stars Tye Sheridan as the geeky teenage main character, Parzival also known as Wade Watts, Olivia Cook stars as the supposed ‘geek girl’ of the film, Art3mis also known as Samantha and Simon Pegg as the assistant creator to the Oasis, Og the wizard also known as Morrow with well known actor Mark Rylance taking on the important role of James Halliday full creator and controller of the Oasis. As I said we see Tye Sheridan (The Tree of Life, Mud etc.) take the wheel for the main character mostly known as Wade Watts or as his avatar goes, Parzival. Considering how geeky and funny this role was supposed to be Sheridan never convinced me enough that he was the right choice for Wade, taking the novel into perspective Wade the character is a almost too smart, geeky, overweight loser who happens to find pleasure in the Oasis, this was a very well-written character, but taking perspective back into the film there was no magic for Sheridan to tread in leaving him mostly in the dust; However Sheridan did happen to pull a few stray comical nostalgic laughs into the audience which may or may not be quite what die-hard 80’s fans are looking for. Secondly driving the female side of the group is actress Olivia Cooke (Thoroughbreads, Ouija: Origin of Evil) performing Samantha or Art3mis as her avatar goes. The real problem with this was that she was more believable in the fake virtual world than the real world and without any good dialogue to save her she is stuck in a total trance for the entire film as a human, disregarding the real world however as an avatar she was reasonably solid with a good sense of video-game adaption talent and strong female lead perspective to enhance the film a little more. Playing assistant creator of the Oasis known as Morrow or Og the wizard is well-known celebrated and comedic actor Simon Pegg. Pegg (Mission: Impossible franchise) Creating more star-power within the film was definitely a boost for the movie, however like many other films he did not have enough to work with comically or even overall despite a couple decent twists performed with his character there was nothing of substance to create more friction around the storyline or plot and ultimately not enough for masterful director Steven Spielberg. Playing the small but deeply important character in the film, James Halliday the shy creator of the Oasis is another well-known actor, Mark Rylance. Deeply the best part about the cast was Rylance turning his small bits and pieces of dialogue to something of actual importance, soothing the theater with a convincing American accent and occasionally very comical and funny at times giving the director something to work off of that is not fake. (hence the video game concept)

Quality

Directing the special-effect driven adaptation of wonderful virtual novel is about the best filmmaker Steven Spielberg who happens to be quite a difficult choice for this video-game/movie nostalgia thrill ride. As I explained before Spielberg (Jurassic Park, Jaws, Poltergeist, Indiana Jones franchise) is directing the film which may not have been the best choice as crazy as it may seem, however this proves multiple times that it has his thrill rides, visual candy and pure Spielbergian entertainment which does occasionally prove better than the lack of fun produced by director Spielberg. Creation wise Spielberg did give nostalgia to film geeks, but never went to his full potential as he went to in many of his other amazing films; Jaws, Jurassic Park and Poltergeist with pure scares and classic acting while Indiana Jones proves classic entertainment while giving solid special effects and thrills along the way. Concluding on the director’s standpoint Steven Spielberg might have been a true 80’s geek, but he was not fun or hip enough to direct this pure popcorn flick settling for a decently entertaining, but never full potential film. Reported to have a 175M+ production budget is pretty impressive for the massive amount of CGI used within the entire span of the film, a thing that makes video-game adaptations have a little strength at least is within the special effects which was very true for this film, while giving mild thrills and entertainment most of all Ready Player One gives a solid adaptation of the Oasis from book pages onto screen giving enough visual eye-candy to overcome the thin-story, plot, sometimes muddled directing and only decent acting from the cast. Reverting to storyline and plot standpoint things were much, much different and with Spielberg at the wheel this was a giant belly flop; The real problem for me was that I loved the novel so so much that it was almost heartbreaking that there was not a single thing similar to the treasured book which can go both ways, this was mixed, however creative it may seem to stray from the book it did not go past the novel fans’ heads making it increasingly difficult to watch. On the good side of things it did manage to thrill enough for non-fans of the book to be watchable which is why it can go both ways, this clearly went both which was a major loss and gain for director Steven Spielberg.

Aging ‘The Oasis’

There was countless violent and unneeded scenes in this film and I am here to talk about it. Starting with many action/horror sequences was a re-creation of Stanley Kubrick’s horror flick The Shining which includes a prolonged sequence of blood flooding through the mansion, a naked woman comes out of the bathtub and turns into a gruesome zombie/creature and ends up chasing them with an axe, in a comic like jump scare an alien pops out of an avatar’s body with blood as in the Sci-Fi/Horror franchise Alien, in another comic jump scare Chucky the serial killer doll slashed an enemy with a knife, other than that there is many video-game like action sequences including CGI-fueled special effects for explosions, gun fires, violent car chases, King Kong and T-rex’s smash buildings etc. Including a reasonable amount of bad language with multiple uses of s..t, a-hole, b..ch, d..kweed, douche bag, balls, damn, god damn, oh my god, pissed, insults such as ghetto trash, noob etc. and one use of f..king. Summing up any sexuality there was more focusing on slashy, bloody explosive action sequences despite a naked woman coming out of a bathtub (top of butt shown), a mild couple second moment where a woman on an oasis console mimicking pole dancing and a mild, avatars where skimpy outfits occasionally, Art3mis touches Parzival’s private regions seductively, Parzival relates to Art3mis as hot, and a few big kisses.

Spielbergian Sci-Fi Showdown

Ready Player One 70% sweet/sour

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 14+

Minority Report 95% sweet

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 13+

Ready Player One 70% sweet/sour

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Minority Report 95% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

News Related to Ready Player One

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A QUINN REVIEW: READY PLAYER ONE

READY PLAYER ONE

(2018)

AGE: 13+

67% SWEET/SOUR

Intro

Based off the best selling novel by Ernest Cline, comes Ready Player One. The story of a teenager named Wade Watts, who lives in Columbus Ohio 2045 where life has stopped trying to face the problems of global warming but tried to live through them. When life got boring and people longed for a better reality. A man named Halliday built an entire virtual universe called the OASIS, where people can do whatever they want, and  whoever they want! Later people discovered a message sent by Halliday himself! It said that he had hidden an easter egg in the OASIS, and the first one to find it will gain half a trillion dollars and complete control over the OASIS. The race was on to find three clues that will lead them to the egg. The OASIS is now a war, will Wade find the clues and get the prize or perish in the OASIS, you will have to find out.

Quality

Not Steven Spielberg’s best, but still was quite entertaining. Ready Player One had enough visual thrills to keep you focused through the two hours and twenty minute runtime. Now video game thrills are not Spielberg’s style, but he did a reasonably good job directing the film. He put together a simple but solidly entertaining story based off of the book. He could bring thrills into the film like he always does, but that does not mean the film was great. The only problem with the directing was that (like I said earlier) it was not Spielberg’s style to make a hip 80's based sci-fi film. Which created a flaw in the directing style, but overall the directing was solid. The story was simple, and not as twisty as I thought it would be, but the plot was entertaining enough to keep me going. Also not much depression in the film. It could have gone more deep with emotion in the character of Wade because his story is sad, but in the movie they did not have enough to make me feel bad. The story could have had more humour too a few funny moments. SO WHAT! Nothing could make me laugh out loud, not even Simon Pegg. Characters were developed enough so that you could understand each one of their personal stories, which was good especially the bad guy who I personally thought was the best character because he was evil enough to suit the role. Overall Ready Player One was a solidly entertaining popcorn flick for 80’s lovers.

How Was the Cast

The cast in Ready Player One was solid. First we have Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts/Parzival. As a not very well known actor he was pretty good in Ready Player One. On the other hand besides being outstandingly cool in the film. He could not be geeky like he should have been in the film making him not the exact type of actor for the role, but he still could play the character well. Next we have Olivia Cooke as Samantha/Art3mis. She was nice for the role, and was able to get into character throughout the movie which made you believe in the character. Third we have Ben Mendelsohn as Sorrento. As a bad guy I thought he did outstandingly well, though he did not scare me he suited the role perfectly, and was a very much developed character. Fourth and finally we have Lena Waithe as Aech/Helen. I thought the actor in this film for Aech was very funny, and suited the character perfectly. It seemed as though Aech was real because of this actors great performance as this character.

Age Logic

I gave this film 13+ mostly because of violence. Swords, Laser guns and more mythical weapons are used to kill. Many scenes of violence destruction etc. They had a made up version of The Shining with frightening and bloody zombies, and an alien bursts out of someone's chest. Wade/Parzival is a brave and caring character who accepts working with others and will not give up on himself or his friends.

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A Keaton Review: Pacific Rim: Uprising

By: Keaton Marcus

Genre/Sci-Fi/Action

Age Rating/11+

Lemonradar/35/100 “sour”

Introduction

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing the sequel/reboot or action robot flick Pacific Rim: Uprising. Years after the war between the monstrous Kaiju and the massive Jaegers finally end as the breach on the Pacific Rim is closed the world is in mass destruction, countries, cities, towns etc. the rebellious Jake Pentecost (John Boyega) whose father was killed in action as a great pilot bands together a ragtag team of pilots to stop a new threat of a new kind, Rogue Jaegers.

How Was The Cast?

Gathering an almost all new cast from the original Pacific Rim is this sequel giving John Boyega the main character, while Scott Eastwood and Cailee Spaeny take on the runner-up side characters, this may or may not be very risky, but going far from the original is not a good sign. Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi) is performing the supposed rebellious son of Pentecost, former and dead Jaeger pilot played by well-known actor Idris Elba. Taking that in Boyega does have some experience with the particular genre desperately trying to bring in good genuine laughs like in previous films; Boyega ultimately fails at everything, combining a truly awful story set-up and a unreadable plot, terrible narratives and script with unpleasant directing. Now however this may not be enough to cloud the hidden talent of Boyega fully, it does clean up after itself pretty darn well considering the actor you have just completely wasted. Newcomer Cailee Spaeny plays the runner-up character of Amara Namani, the jealous cadet that looks up to the professionals. Trying hard once again to add some sort of charm is Spaeny who really does not help quite at all. The character development was completely irrelevant never really connecting with any members of the cast ending up the first-time actress that continues this disappointing run of stiffness and unbelievable failure. Son of famous Clint Eastwood is another fresh actor right out of the barrel, Scott Eastwood (Suicide Squad, Fury and Snowden) plays the unwilling-to-help partner of Jake, Nate Lambert. What an outrage considering all the talent his father Clint had; This was really just unbelievably silly. Fake, unbelievable, stiff, powered by a drag-along narrative and jokes that really end up awful slapstick, this is the best description of Eastwood in this wasted and highly anticipated chance that maybe the son would adhere the talent of Clint Eastwood. This did not happen under any circumstances.
 

Quality

In this undecided battle of either sequel or reboot is directed by first-time filmmaker Steven S. DeKnight debuting his first feature film. Technically speaking previously much more experienced Guillermo Del Toro directed the original which was a major endorsement to action fans, this was an extremely risky and quite a stupid track to turn. DeKnight was a complete circus, providing a chalchoponus, noisy and confusing plot, a terrible development in characters and an awful sense of smarts added on to the film’s bloated running time. Not providing enough of the rock-em sock-em robot fights that were anticipated to cover up the dumb story, neither of which used the music well which kept the film trudging along in an actually quite boring way lacking sense of fun, smarts or good battles. Spending an insane amount on production comes the special effects weighing down at a approximately 150M, this was used and wasted for nothing but cut-rate sometimes even cheap looking special effects, considering all the good ways they can use that money this was a really big disappointment failing to create a original 3D environment around the audience. Or even generating any visual thrills to cope with the lack of smarts. Saying this the special effects were literally equivalent to your little brother smashing everything with his new Transformer toys. Ending up almost the same as the Michael Bay Transformers franchise as I said this treading and adhering too much to formula and relying on terrible special effects. Setting up the overall story with a crash making it an unoriginal boring installment to the robot franchise. This hurt the genre even more with a terrible storyline and plot that only consists of explosions and mass destruction.

Aging ‘Gypsy Avenger’

This film is really for nobody considering the overall quality, but what was the purpose of this very creation of the vile 1 hr 51 mins. Taking on the action sequences first, there were almost countless bland violent scenes that tend not to make sense, destruction, people getting stomped on, monster like things terrorizing cities and many explosions with robot-monster battles. Consisting of many frequent uses of goddamn, ass, boobs, butt, screw that, s..t and son of a b..ch this film obviously does not stray from many violent action movies. Despite no actual sexuality, there are many scenes with mild flirting and a woman kisses two men at once. (confusing)

 

Robot Slash-Down

Pacific Rim: Uprising 25% D-sour

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 11+

Transformers 45% sour

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 12+

Pacific Rim: Uprising 25% D-sour

Storyline: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Cast: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Transformers 45% sour

Storyline: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

News Related to Pacific Rim: Uprising

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A QUINN REVIEW: PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING

PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING

(2018)

AGE: 11+

32% SOUR

Intro

Pacific Rim: Uprising tells the story of Jake Pentecost son of Stacker Pentecost. Leading a new generation of Jaeger pilots with Nate Lambert against a new Kaiju threat and a plot to possibly end the world.

Quality

2

This movie was equivalent to me and my older brother wrestling for absolutely no reason. The story was just messed up, and had no twists or turns to keep you entertained. Even with the great effects I felt bored, compared to the original Pacific Rim (61% Sweet/Sour) this was a piece of crap in almost every way. You could tell from the moment the evil Kaiju Jaegers attacked the base that it was going to be a bad experience. With not just the story, but the cast as well. The directing of the film was only okay but it felt like it was written by monkeys. The scenes had terrible dialogue, and were a big mess of special effects. Plus the story kept changing every thirty minutes. First it was like flight academy than some scientist mumbo jumbo and finally a long and boring fight to the finish. I think overall if your a guy/gal looking for a CGI infested film be my guest, but if your someone with actual taste in movies, and believes in plots than go home! This film is toxic!!!

How Was the Cast

The cast in Pacific Rim: Uprising was just bad. First we have John Boyega as Jake Pentecost. In his previous role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi you could tell that he was a good actor, not in this he wasn't. Even with his booming voice of a general he could not succeed. Partly because the script was bad and partly because he was not meant for the role. Next we have Scott Eastwood son of legendary actor Clint Eastwood but even with his good looks he did not inherit the talent. He was so stiff, and used terrible dialogue even more terrible than it had to be. Overall not a very bright future for this young actor. Third we have Cailee Spaeny as Amara Namani. From the moment she entered you could tell that she was a disaster she made bad scripting even worse, and just could not suit the role well enough so that you would believe in her. Overall terrible casting for her and not a good future for this young actress. Fourth we have Burn Gorman as Dr. Hermann. He was okay but needed more  Overall needed to be so much better. Fifth and finally we have Charlie Day as Dr. Newton. As a bad guy terrible, as a man playing dumb, good overall a terrible performance from him.

Age Logic

I gave this film 11+ because of mostly violence. Buildings are destroyed by monsters and giant robots. A few guns are pulled, and shot. Many explosions, lots of fire and CGI, but Jake Pentecost is a good leader who never gives up on his teammates or himself. This is why I think this film is for older kids to tweens.

ROBOTIC SMACK DOWN!

Pacific Rim: Uprising 34% sour

Story 1.5/5

Cast 2/5

Quality 1.7/5

Pacific rim 61% sweet/sour

Story 3/5

cast 3/5

quality 3/5

Pacific rim: Uprising 34% sour

story 1.5/5

cast 2/5

quality 1.7/5

 

Transformers 62% sweet/sour

story 2.5/5

cast 2.5/5

quality 3/5

News Related To 'Pacific Rim: Uprising'

$plurge, $tream, $kip: Pacific Rim: Uprising provides solid special effects, but a bad cast, a terrible story line, and just overall pure badness... $kip It

A Keaton Review: Tomb Raider

By: Keaton Marcus

Genre/Action/Fantasy

Age Rating/13+

Lemonradar/70/100 “sweet/sour”

Introduction

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing the reboot and video game adaption Tomb Raider starring Academy Award Winner Alicia Vikander. Seven years after Richard Croft (Dominic West) goes missing, his daughter, Lara Croft (Vikander) finds that he was searching for a way to find the ‘Death Queen’, located somewhere off the coast of Japan in a tomb called ‘The Mother of Death’, trying to find proof that the supernatural are real. When Lara arrives, she finds that a Militant organization known as Trinity is looking to control the dead, and unleash its uncertain powers on the world. Lara must stop this, and find her dad before this corrupted organization succeeds.

How Was The Cast?

 Leading the cast with a committed and witty performance is actress Alicia Vikander, who plays Lara Croft with gusto. Supporting roles include actor Daniel Wu as Lu Ren, Walton Goggins as Mathias Vogel and actor Dominic West plays the role of Richard Croft. As noted, Alicia Vikander, known for The Danish Girl, Ex Machina, Seventh Son, The Light Between Oceans etc. playing the fundamental role of Lara Croft. Vikander already holds an Academy Award under her belt, winning Best Supporting Actress for 2015’s limited pic The Danish Girl; In Tomb Raider, while the actress is not used to action flicks, or adventure for that matter, struggling in a supporting role for lacking Fantasy Seventh Son in 2014, though in this franchise reboot, the 30-year old actress delivers a witty, bold and “committed” performance as Lara Croft, not objectified as Jolie was in the brainless original film couplet. Not only improving on Jolie’s performance, Vikander may have brought the most real, and best, for that matter lead performance in a video-game adaption. With olive skin, and small-boned looks, the actress is shockingly European, which surprisingly makes her that much better for the role. Following his previous role in Star Wars: Rogue One and the adventure TV flick Into the Badlands we looked upon Daniel Wu playing Lu Ren. Wu was just the run-of-the-mill drunken sailor, borrowing at times from Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow, Wu is given some solid scripting more towards the beginning of the film, with some good laughs, but going on through the film, Wu has the spotlight stolen by Vikander’s fantastic performance which director Roar Uthaug has a tendency to focus on, overall, making Wu an ultimately unneeded character that fails to shine. Known for his previous performance in Maze Runner: The Death Cure, actor Walton Goggins plays Mathias Vogel. With a performance that is not at the least boring, but has a tendency to be absurd, and very over-the-top, Goggins plays the stupid, but fun-to-watch villain that shows that the actor is clearly unexperienced, but has some enjoyable moments for the audience which may or may not deride the fact that his scripting remains weak and there is rarely any relevant character development. Lastly, the more supporting role remains actor Dominic West known for his roles in Johnny English Reborn, John Carter, and 300, playing Lara’s father, Richard Croft. Narrarating the opening credits, and having little-to-do with the rest of the film, Dominic West delivers a relatively refreshing, but misused side-character that never quite delivers, though with Vikander’s performance, the film is mostly covered.

Quality

This is really a two-way-offer, truly speaking the film is not really worth your money despite not being as terrible as it could be but technically this should be an entertatining action flick on Saturday night streaming. Directing is Roar Uthaug, his second wide release film after the critically acclaimed disaster film The Wave, Roar Uthaug, this was extremely risky, not just in the genre type that he is into, but again there were too many negatives to the movie for the pros to take over. Saying that, Uthaug was new and added too many unneeded cons to the film such as narrative falters, a lob-sided Indiana Jones type story and plot, and occasionally failed to develop the character's emotional balance to their full potential, meaning that if they had chose better a better script and director the movie might have a chance of being well executed. However despite all the stupidity Roar Uthaug added to the movie for a new filmmaker he still settled for a mildly entertaining, occasionally fun diversion for great adventure films, continuing to surprise taking a very uninspired origin and turning it into something of substance, something to work off of and maybe even starting a new franchise despite failing to fully redeem Croft from the game console to big screen once again in many ways. Something that all action movies treasure as their own, special effects and visuals, this could be something that Tomb Raider could have taken advantage of fully; But instead the fantasy happens to go for mildly entertaining in visual form, but this is both positive and negative, Raider also happens to be one of the first films of it’s genre to have an under 100M budget standing at 94M which is quite creative, however this can mean two things, that the special effects team were laying a bit too or they were just trying to create a one-of-a-kind action adventure movie. The thing is it really ended up both of those things which blended in the film just fine without going to overboard but not reaching the full length of what it could be. Reverting back to the creative standpoint and also to director Roar Uthaug are the mixed feelings of the storyline or even plot. The start of the film begins with Croft getting beat up in a boxing arena by another woman, as you can see this had almost nothing to lead it up to the exciting action/CGI thrill filled middle, this was a big problem for me. Right after that scene you can clearly see that Lara seems to be a poor young woman and is still grieving over her father’s supposed death, talking back about the middle section to the movie this was truly the best section with some key action sequences, solid special effects and a good sense of thrills despite true feeling in the bumbling violent despite fun scenes. Ending with a true disappointing crash Tomb Raider goes in an unexpected direction towards the finishing sequence in the film deciding to actually open the tomb, this was a little stupid and mindless considering the promising middle sequences, (disregarding the uninspired premise) for the genre Tomb Raider manages to stay ahead with a solid, some fun action sequences to keep the muddled plot alive and really it had some true fun within the cinematic experience.

Aging ‘Trinity’

Who is this film really for, that is the real question, age wise this was judged to 13+ meaning the oldest Tweens and up. There was almost countless action sequences which despite the deaths the movie cut most of the blood out of the scene; Like most action films there was lot’s of killing with guns, dynamite and a slavery like concept on the island. Not straying from other adventure movies such as The Mummy, Tomb Raider lays low on extreme violence, but it is something to remember before going to the movie theater. Surprisingly taking all the bad language in the film was almost nothing not thinking about some stray uses of s..t or f..k, this is actually one of the first Action movies going to a safe zone with the profanity which may or may not be much of an endorsement for the kids. The film also avoids all costs on sexuality, staying away from the highly sexualized Angelina Jolie, form-fitting, tight-shorted Lara Croft. Taking it on the big scale the film is the highest on violence which is common in Action/Adventure films such as Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones, but summing up on bad language or sex, there is no straying away from PG-13 levels. 

Adventure Film Clash

Tomb Raider 62% sweet/sour

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ☆☆☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Age Rating: 13+

Raiders of the Lost Ark 92% sweet

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Sex: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Language: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 11+

Tomb Raider 62% sweet/sour

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Raiders of the Lost Ark 92% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

News Related to Tomb Raider 

$plurge, $tream, $kip: Although suffering from some tired scripting, and choppy storytelling, Tomb Raider features a more grounded approach, and a terrific performance by Alicia Vikander which bolster the film’s flaws, making it a fun, if unoriginal franchise reboot…$TREAM IT

A QUINN REVIEW: TOMB RAIDER

TOMB RAIDER

(2018)

AGE: 13+

35% SOUR

Intro

One day Lord Richard Croft set off to find the tomb of the mother of death, but sadly was never seen again. His daughter Lara Croft has decided to follow in his footsteps. Not only to solve the mystery before the organization of Trinity, but to find her father as well.

Quality

I was really looking forward to seeing this film, and was surprised to see that it was really bad. First of all the directing was awful, most scenes such as the boat crash scene were just a big mess of out of control special effects, and brainless action. With all of this it’s easy to see that director Roar Uthaug could not do a great job with this film no matter how hard he tried. The only thing that hooked me into the movie in the first place was the beginning, but the moment main characters Lara and Lu are in the devil’s sea it drops a whole lot. The whole middle was just boring. Unlike Indiana Jones I was zoning in, and out of the movie. For a second I was interested but then just annoyed at almost everything that had to do with the story, and talk about a clumsy conclusion. Bringing all that gore, and random action sequences. I was like just stop, and also Lu Ren was like in what 3 scenes. Like do they care that he was introduced as an important character, but then just some guy with a gun. I only recommend this film to hard core effect driven popcorn flick movie fans. But people who are not those people. It’s easy to say that this was a chemical mixture gone wrong. An attempted mix of a bad Indiana Jones and The Scorch Trials.

How Was the Cast

The overall cast of Tomb Raider was average. First off we have Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft. The ballerina of the film that’s all I have to say. She looks fit for the job. But ended up with a bunch of dancer jumps, and robotic acting. Overall I say you should have chose a better actress. Next we have Dominic West. Bad acting In my point of view he actually should have been a smaller, and less important character, and they should of not brought him back because that just confused me. Third we have Walton Goggins as Mathias Vogel. He was okay but I thought he did not suit the role well. Honestly I thought he was better as that creepy character in The Death Cure. And finally we have Daniel Wu as Lu Ren. He was good but could of boosted the film up much more if he was a bigger character like at least make him the partner of Lara for the film.

Age Logic

I gave this film 13+ mostly because of violence, and some gore. There are many gun scenes including shootings of innocent people. Also many scenes of peril and death. At the end people suffer to a disease, and there flesh is torn off because of it, but Lara Croft is smart and brave a person to look up to for girls, Lu Ren cares about others even if they are not his friends. Overall I recommend this film for older tweens to teens.

Ranking the raider

tombraider 30% sour

story 2/5

cast 2/5

quality 2/5

indiana jones: and the temple of doom 55% sour

story 2/5

cast 4/5

quality 3/5

news related to 'tombraider'

$plurge, $tream, $kip: Tombraider provides nothing, but a few okay performances, a terrible plot, bad special effects, and no sense of fun... $KIP IT

A Keaton Review: The Cloverfield Paradox

By: Keaton Marcus

Genre/Sci-Fi/Thriller

Age Rating/14+

Lemonradar/23% D-sour

Introduction

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing the newest surprise release from the Cloverfield franchise, The Cloverfield Paradox. In the future year of 2028 when almost all of Earth’s whole power supply goes out NASA sends a team of six brave astronauts to conduct an experiment called The Cloverfield Paradox that may or may not restore all power to Planet Earth with their ship The Shepherd which is a particle accelerator surrounding Cloverfield Space Station, we focus on one crew member named Ava Hamilton who has lost her kids to a dreadful fire many years ago while fretting to go back to Michael, her husband.

How Was The Cast?

If you see this particular movie you realize that you have never really heard of this cast before, well let me tell you that this was a brilliant choice of actors, the problem is they really did not use them in the right way at all making them just the center of mixed up, muddled genres that linger within the film. The first main character that we really focus on is Ava Hamilton, the mother of two dead children played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Ms. Raw was a very smart and peculiar decision for the very important role which I really liked in the beginning of the movie, but as the film got longer and went on Mbatha-Raw had some problems; The director really got confused and messed her amazing talent up which in my POV is impossible, Raw also did not quite fit towards the genre and is really not the best actress at going out of her comfort zone with a career that consists of Jupiter Ascending, Concussion and Beauty and the Beast; Although Ms. Raw did have quite a tough time getting over the fact that she was ruined by the director, she was still a good fit for the character Ava Hamilton even though it was completely remotely out of her main comfort zone, but saying that leads to the very truthful fact of even though she was a solid choice, Raw does not belong in an alien movie. Then there is the captain and commander of the mission Kiel played by David Oyelowo who also ended up quite an odd but special decision for this film. As I said just before Oyelowo was another good and healthy choice for the commander Kiel not just because it brings out the diversity level more but it is creative to choose a non-superstar; Then again Mr. Oyelowo was still very muddled in the awful directing of a very cool premise which instead of showing his real talents Oyelowo looked like he did not know what he was doing in the movie giving an even worse, wrong perspective to the audience, going back to his career you will see Queen of Katwe, Jack Reacher, Selma, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Interstellar which even gives him the power of having already done a Sci-Fi Thriller which sadly still cannot save him from bad directing, script and plot. Thirdly there is Schmidt played by Daniel Brühl who continued the cool tradition of creative casting. Brül again might have helped the cast with his amazing appearance and talents, but they were again blindsided by all the movie’s main flaws and challenges making him another robot actor in this truly desperate to please toxic movie that cannot get it’s cast to shine; Although this is definitely true Brül did have a few tricks up his sleeve with his good presence and familiarity on the screen that made him watchable at all. Fourthly and lastly there is the comedy of the film, Mundy who is played by good old Chris O’Dowd. O’Dowd may be quite helpful to this group of confused people, but that is still nowhere enough to prevent the actual qualities you need to a good movie from completely bombing even with O’Dowd’s classic jokes and little spurts of joy The Cloverfield Paradox just gets more and more pitiful by the minute. If you look at the paragraph on a whole scale there is not much joy in it with Gugu Mbatha-Raw really not fitting in the film, David Oyelowo being ruined by a bad script, Daniel Brül was blinded by the movie’s lack of smarts and finally Chris O’Dowd did have some decent laughs but he could not save the disappointing movie overall.

Quality

Here comes the real judgement to the movie, the overall quality based on all the qualities the film needs, the directing, the plot, the story, and the visuals/cinematography combination. Starting with the directing we have Julius Onah, a relatively new creator of movies. The directing was truly the worst part to the movie, Onah stupidly surprised released this muddled movie and filled it pure garbage, there is no story, plot, developed characters or well-written drama, suspense and horror making this poorly executed movie into a piece of trash; Again Onah does have some talents at least with brilliant casting, but that does not help the real concept that the movie was trying to make not only ruining the entirety of the movie, the whole entire cast just crashed; Though this might be the directors fault 100% you cannot blame the fact that Onah is a really new filmmaker that is just getting used to the process of all of these judgements despite him not working with the film in the right way, my final suggestion is they have gotten not just a more experienced director, one that has made some movies that consist of the same genre. The greatest treasure for all Sci-Fi movies, visuals, despite all the drama with the bad directing the special effects were one thing that the movie got right giving any audience a real creative, but simple world to imagine which even though is to be pretty bad considering that the rest of the movie is just pure boredom it might give some people the entertainment they need making this the strongest and only positive part about the movie which combining that with the amazing cinematography by Dan Mindel giving this handsomely produced, but muddled film a little life. Then there is the storyline and plot, really the whole creating experience to the movie. Despite the positives I had just stated about the movie’s keen visuals, there are many more problems to go with the most important thing to make a good film, smarts which of nothing consists to this awful movie, what I mean is no real storyline, the premise is quite spectacular given the fact that it is apart of a critically-acclaimed franchise does not really save the film from the bland writing, and really bad muddled, confused genres all mixed together into one pile of badness bringing the movie down a big fat notch; What I am really trying to say here is that Paradox has no smarts that ever have to do with the great premise and truly exciting synopsis. In the whole the quality might be the movie’s greatest weakness with directing as rotten as dirty underwear and too many confusing and complicated genres combined making it not only hard to follow, but just plain stupid.

Aging ‘The Shepherd’

The last paragraph contains of the also very important choice on whether this space trash is okay for the kids or not. The violence consists of many things your kids may not be consent with seeing including some very emotional deaths in semi-gruesome ways of main characters that consist of some disturbing bloody scenes that are a bit disconcerting at a couple of parts, but the director never quite pushes it to R-Rated levels and some gun shots, this really sums up any action or violence that lingers in the movie. Next there is some very mild bad language including one use of s..t, f...ing, hell and jesus christ, but nothing that strays to much from PG-13 Sci-Fi Horror movies. For the last piece, is there any sexuality or adult situations that are in the movie, to really get the overall perspective there is nothing that consists in the movie that has to do with sex bringing the level down to everything but knowing that there are relationships between characters.

Sci-Fi Smackdown

The Cloverfield Paradox 23% D-sour

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ☆☆☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 14+

Alien: Covenant 64% sweet/sour

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sex: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Age Rating: 15+
 

The Cloverfield Paradox 23% D-sour

Storyline: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Alien: Covenant 64% sweet/sour

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

News Related to The Cloverfield Paradox

The Surprise Super Bowl TV Spot Catches Everyone In Surprise for the New Cloverfield Release.

Paradox Wastes Big Surprise Release with Is Muddled and Confused Plot

'BLACK PANTHER' IS ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL MARVEL COMICS ADAPTION THAT DELIVERS SUPERHERO ACTION, AND ENOUGH EMOTION TO STAND GROUND

By: Keaton Marcus

The film we have been waiting for--the first African American led Marvel pic--Ryan Coogler's "Black Panther", who makes a terrific futuristic adventure with plenty of superhero action, laughs while providing incredible production design--like no other Marvel film--"people, the superhero genre has just made history." The pic does not just provide the casually dazzling special effects--in terms of emotional grounding--"Black Panther" stands far over any other flick in the interconnected multi-billionaire franchise. Furthermore, it is virtually impossible to forget the lead performances from Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan who both flip the switch on racial stereotypes. Really, the film is a Marvel-produced epic like no other.

Boseman, generally leads the talented, almost all African American cast--and that is not done without dignity and investment towards the role of the titular comics. Boseman's character was introduced in 2016's "Captain America: Civil War" which featured most of the Avengers, but the audiences never saw the iconic character enough to judge--in "Black Panther", Boseman is blazingly good as the role of T'Challa, the king of a fictional country called Wakanda. In Wakanda, the one image that everybody admires--is a man dressed in a panther suit--this may sound really, really ludicrous and irrelevant, but trust me--when Chadwick Boseman playing the character in the animal suit, there are no questions asked. The actor is fairly new to the business, had nice outings in "42", as Jackie Robinson, and especially in "Marshall", as the title character; and despite having barely any experience, Boseman digs himself so deep into the important role, I think of him as the Morgan Freeman of superhero films.

Forgetting Boseman's tremendous performance, you are allowed to bring out the real killer in the film, played by talented star Michael B. Jordan, who takes the "antagonist" part in this magnificent movie--Erik Killmonger--the character is trying to challenge T'Challa for the throne the entire film, as he is of descendant to the Wakandans also, and claims that he is the rightful air to the throne. Killmonger scars his body with intense notches every time he kills someone, these cover the actor's body with wonderful makeup--Jordan brings such life and intensity into the role, making him the most complex--and badass antagonist in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). Jordan--after making his first appearance in hit TV show "Friday Night Lights", the actor became a superstar with his role as Adonis Creed in "Rocky" sequel "Creed"--though his already solid career is still no match for the actor's raw outing in "Black Panther".

If you think that you're in for another male-led Marvel production--just forget everything--the female leads are more than a decent match for the leading men. Generally led by a vicious, and badass performance from Angela Basset who plays T'Challa's widowed mother--let's just say she can stand her ground--elsewhere in the cast, Lupita Nyong'o is just awesome as T'Challa's ex-love Nakia, who has blazing chemistry with the cast--and how can we forget the memorable Letitia Wright, who plays T'Challa's younger--and sassy sister Princess Shuri. Competing against many other--male--scientists for the coolest gadgets, there's no competition, Shuri is the ultimate smart, tough character who will become a pure role model for young girls in the future.

Also, "Black Panther" is not all drama--the film gives more than enough share of superhero action sequences--just way more impressive than most MCU efforts. The violence is coherent, complex--and just dazzling, booming with the incredible detail and texture of Ruth E. Carter's costume design, and set to the tune of Ludwig Gorranson's rousing score--with a hip-hop feel, provided by Kendrick Lamar, generally, who kicks up the entertainment level more than one notch. "Black Panther" (s) action sequences are also just paint-by-the-numbers--in terms of creativity, and things to differ from other superhero pics, "Panther" will always come out on top, providing loud, but beautifully filmed by Rachel Morrison, who defies gender stereotypes that "women can't film hardcore action"--well the film proves that it does not just take down racial stereotypes--the sexist trolls are going down for this one.

The final verdict is: "Black Panther" is as emotionally compelling as it is visually dazzling--the performances are top notch, along with the tightly-directed action sequences and the sheer defiance of racial and gender stereotypes make the film a powerful, but still deeply entertaining superhero origin tale...$PLURGE IT

Marvel Takedown

Black Panther 90% sweet

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 12+

Iron Man 82% sweet

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 11+

Black Panther 90% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Iron Man 82% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

film review “black panther”

Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) and T’Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) giving incredible performances in Black Panther.

Black Panther debuted with over 200M, before sliding just 45% to a second weekend topping 111M; The film ended with over 700M domestically.

Genre: Action/Adventure

Age Rating: 13+

Lemonradar: 90/100 "sweet"

A QUINN REVIEW: BLACK PANTHER

 BLACK PANTHER

(2018)

AGE: 12+

93% SWEET

Intro

After the death of his father, king T’Challa returns back to his technologically advanced kingdom to take his place as king, but is challenged by an outsider Erik Killmonger for the throne. 

Quality

I saw this film in IMAX 3D, and I was completely blown away! Black Panther was a huge step for Marvel and other superhero franchises, and here are my reasons. First of all the effects were, in my point of view the best of the franchise. It was spectacular to see how much effect quality has grown over the years and how amazing it is now, especially for this movie. Next the director Ryan Coogler who by the way has only directed two films Creed, (2015) and now Black Panther, (2018) and his view on what a Marvel film can be, and how it can be made was just astounding! He focused on making the film more dramatic and diverse than the previous Marvel films, and the scenes were directed very well. On the other hand, one scene at the beginning was so meaningless and very confusing, but other than that he did very well with everything. The film also stood out from other Marvel films for having so much drama. I personally thought it was like The Lion King (1994) because of the drama, and pretty much the overall story. Which is unique for a Marvel film because the franchise is pure action and maybe some comedy. Also the characters were very much developed in the film because each one had a story, and that story was let out by each character during the film as suppose to during the franchise. Which other Marvel films tend to do so that also makes the film unique. So if you are dying to see this film don’t walk, run to the theatre! To see this amazing film, and in 3D if you can.

How Was the Cast

Being an all black cast was very unique but diverse for Marvel but honestly I thought that the african american cast did better than the previous Marvel casts here’s why. First we have Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther. His performance was great, he could really get into character, and show the audience that he is Black Panther. In his scenes he could get into character almost immediately by staying in the moment the whole way through. Plus he was very entertaining and fun to watch through the movie. Next we have Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger. I thought that he was certainly one of the best bad guy in Marvel. His personal story was frightening, and when he played the character with that story he was frightening himself, and the best part was that you felt bad for the character as he performed. Overall he was entertaining through the whole movie. Next we have Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia. through the film she was dramatic and played her character well with Chadwick Boseman. Like him she could get into character and make the audience believe that she was that character. Overall she did a great job in this film. Finally we have Danai Gurira as Okoye as the general in the movie she had a hard role but played it as if she was a general for an african nation herself. I liked her in the film because in her performance she was fearless, and entertaining in a dramatic way. Overall these four stars in the film did very well in each of their performances.

Age Logic

This film had closer up fight scenes than other Marvel films with lots of violence, and aggression. There are lots of weapons in battles including laser guns, spears, and swords. The film also had many explosions in air combat. Plus many characters are killed in the film by spears or lasers. Also the middle finger is briefly shown in one scene. But this film also has fantastic role models. T’Challa is strong, brave and cares for his family and friends. This film is also more dramatic than other Marvel films. So overall it depends on what movies your child sees, and what age your child is. So for these reasons I gave this film 12+  

MARVEL SMACK DOWN!

Black panther 93% sweet

story 4.5/5

cast 4.5/5

quality 4.5/5

captain america: civil war 89% sweet

story 4/5

cast 4.5/5

quality 4.2/5

Black panther 93% sweet

story 4.5/5

cast 4.5/5

quality 4.5/5

Spiderman-Homecoming 90% sweet

story 4/5

cast 4.5/5

quality 4.3/5

NEWS RELATED TO 'BLACK PANTHER'

$plurge, $tream, $kip: Black Panther provides a stunning story, an incredible cast, and outstanding special effects... $PLURGE IT

A Keaton Review: Early Man

By: Keaton Marcus

Genre/Kids and Family

Age Rating/5+

Lemonradar/53% sour

Introduction

Hello, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing the new animation film Early Man. A caveman named Doug wants something more in life to just rabbit hunting, but just when they are about to switch it up a bit the Bronze take the Caveman's valley and banishes them out into the Badlands, Doug (Eddie Redmayne) challenges Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) to a sacred match of football to determine whether the tribe will take the valley back or will be banished forever.

How Was The Cast?

They really do not tend to have the greatest superstars play in these kinds of animation films which may be good or bad, but this was the first real star powered animation movie from the team of Wallace and Gromit. We have Eddie Redmayne taking on the main role as Doug the caveman and rabbit hunter. I really thought this was very unusual for him coming after Fantastic Beasts, Les Miserables, Jupiter Ascending and The Danish Girl, but who am I to judge Mr. Redmayne was actually quite good combining his good charm from his previous films and making it fun for kids and… some adults and also giving him a chance to go out of his real comfort zone and really his first animated movie, I mean it aint the best, but it is a solid start to hopefully many Redmayne animated movies to come. Then we got Tom Hiddleston also making his debut in animated movies. Okay here we go again, completely random on why you would pick Hiddleston for this kind of role looking at his recent movies, Kong: Skull Island, Thor: Ragnarok, The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, as you can see he is a really big-budget Marvel movie kid of guy, but does he have the guts to try out this very new character for his taste, well I thought that for a guy that lost his marbles about trying this movie, he was quite enjoyable as the villainous Lord Nooth, funny, charming and really quite solid for the type of guy who stars in Live-Action films and for a debuting animated movie star. Finally we have the young movie star Maisie Williams who made her big debut in Game of Thrones. REALLY DIRECTOR, another actor that really does not belong in this film, come on you do not want to put a Game of Thrones star into an average animation movie, what the hell; Okay she was not the worst of the worst, but she really did have some really shaky, uneven and distraught scenes that tumbled her down quite a bit, choppy narrative and nowhere near her comfort zone. On the whole the cast was crazy, there were many ups and downs Eddie Redmayne with his challenges and positives, Tom Hiddleston with his Marvel geekiness and Maisie Williams with her Game of Thrones, but overall the cast was not half bad creating a average diversion for younger kids.

Quality

Here we go, the real paragraph of the review, now we can judge the overall quality provided in this film starting off with the directing by Nick Park. I really thought though there were several funny scenes that were decently directed Mr. Park really was slumming it, I mean coming after the amazing Wallace and Gromit Franchise, Chicken Run and the new critically acclaimed Shaun the Sheep Movie, really just the best animated movies of all time, so tell me if you see those awesome films and think Early Man is one of them you really picked wrong, I know before I said that this was a decent movie; But certainly not for the great director of those acclaimed films, the story and plot were simple and thin, the cast was mostly wobbly and the movie lacked any real smarts to make such a movie to compare to his previous films. Now we have the amazing animation effects that shined in this average movie. Being the strongest point in the film the creative style of animation that the team has been using for years has never been so fine looking in this film, this is a good thing and a bad thing; Bad because this means the great animation and visuals take up more space than the smarts in the film making it a drop down against other movies in this style, however it is quite decent because it still means that this team really cannot go more imaginative than this, really the animation was still dazzling, but it took over too much of the movie. Now we come to the real smarts in the movie, how was the plot, story and overall creation of the movie. As I explained before, the plot and storylines for Park’s previous animation movies were amazing and really helped the film get all it’s amazing reviews, but this one you have to think once or twice about the quality, I imagined coming into the theatre that obviously you would get the cool visuals and the key story, but I left the theatre with disappointment on that particular section, the plot was too simple, the story was almost incomprehensible and really if the director was not Nick Park you would say, ‘oh, this is actually a decent kids diversion’; But since you know that Park is behind the movie, you think that Mr. Park has now made his by far worst film of his lifetime compared to his previous career. On the whole as you can see the quality was quite in the middle with dazzling visuals, simple plot, wobbly cast and so-so directing, now based on the information the movie should end up from about 60-70%, so between that makes my final score 65% sweet and sour.

Aging ‘The Bronze Age’

Now we got the final paragraph on our hands which is really judging if this new Nick Park animation movie is right for your kids or not. We have to start with the violence, even though there is some cartoonish violence and mentions of scary tyrants this movie is not do different from other Mr. Park movies although if you think your kid has not handled such topics maybe it is best to play a nice Pixar movie, however most 5 year olds and up have seen his previous movies even though there is some mild scares and funny, small action sequences. Next up we have any adult situations or sexuality in the film. Like other kids films there is almost no such thing even though there are countless flirts in Early Man which will go by any kids head. The bad language in the movie was also quite mild with maybe some rude humor with uses of brute, stupid and phrases including idiot; But really nothing over the top like some kids films do. On the whole if you look through the paragraph you may see there is some cartoonish, prehistoric action sequences, some flirting and rude humor, mostly Early Man takes it like other premature animation movies so I will recommend it to kids 5 and over.

Nick Park Animated Battle

Early Man 65% sweet/sour

Violence: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Language: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 5+

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit 98% sweet

Violence: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Language: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 5+

Early Man 65% sweet/sour

Storyline: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit 98% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

News Related to Early Man

Nick Park is creating another animation called Early Man with great cast including Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston and Timothy Spall!!

Early Man’s first reaction is so-so with us.

A QUINN REVIEW: MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE

MAZE RUNNER

THE DEATH CURE

(2018)

AGE: 13+

56% SOUR

Intro

Maze Runner: The Death Cure is the final chapter to the Maze Runner franchise. In which Thomas and his friends desperately search for a cure to the deadly disease known as the flare. As well as saving their friend Minho from the clutches of WCKD. To do so they must break into the legendary last city to find their friend, and save humanity.

Quality

Me and my brother were dying to see this film, and were overall satisfied by it. I thought that the effects were cool, and the cast was strong. Also the action and suspense were great in the movie. Plus the script was pretty good for most characters, and the overall plot was entertaining. But on the negative side they could have had so much less gore! It was like a zombie fest during the film. But not as much as the previous installment. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. Which was disgusting, and overall just a messed up film. Also I think it could have been a bit shorter than it was. Because after a while you’re like when will it end and why was it this long, and boring, but when you walk out of the theatre you do feel solidly entertained by the film. The film was also so different from the first one The Maze Runner. So making the film entirely different from the first is really hard. So director Wes Ball (who by the way is a beginner) had a challenging job, but he did a satisfying job on it. So overall the film was flawed but overall okay. I recommend this film for anyone who wants to watch a solid popcorn flick.

How Was the Cast

Overall I thought the cast in Maze Runner: The Death Cure was overall decent. First up we have Dylan O’brien as Thomas he was probably the strongest of the cast because he fit the character perfectly. He was serious and confident during his scenes, and put a lot of effort in to the action sequences. Next we have Thomas B. Sangster as Newt. He had some tough scenes but got through them surprisingly well. He put a lot of effort into emotion and the chemistry between the characters. Next we have Ki Hong Lee as Minho. his character was very interesting through the film, and he played the part perfectly summing up as a great young actor. Finally we have Kaya Scodelario as Theresa. Like the previous films she’s stiff with the emotion, and just overall acting. Plus her voice is like a robot, and I just think that they could have could have casted a better actress for this role. These people will never be superstars but they are solidly entertaining to watch.

Age Logic

This film was very gory, and there were several scenes of zombified humans known as cranks, and things get really bloody for them. There are many gunfights, and explosions, and an important character asks his friend to kill him. Plus the plot is scary to think about for younger ones. But the role models are strong. Thomas is brave and relies on his friends for help. Overall I think that this film is meant for tweens to younger teens. Because of the gore, and violence presented in the movie.

Ranking the maze

maze runner: the Death Cure 60% sweet/sour

story 3/5

cast 3/5

quality 3/5

the maze runner 80% sweet

story 4/5

cast 4/5 

quality 4/5

maze runner: the death cure 60% sweet/sour

story 3/5

cast 3/5

quality 3/5

maze runner: the scorch trials 40% sour

story 2/5

cast 2/5

quality 2/5

news related to 'Maze Runner: the death Cure'

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A Keaton Review: Maze Runner: The Death Cure

By: Keaton Marcus

Genre/Sci-Fi/Action

Age Rating/13+

Lemonradar/60/100 “sweet/sour”

Introduction

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing the newest film in the Maze Runner Franchise, Maze Runner: The Death Cure. When Minho is captured by WCKD with many other kids, Thomas, Jorge, Newt, Brenda and the team go to rescue them inside the WCKD complex in the ‘Last Surviving City’ with walls to keep out the Cranks and really a whole other labyrinth with answers which to his fellow Gladers such as a cure and many more reasons to completely destroy WCKD.

How Was The Cast?

Here we go now with the cast, the chosen cast of teenagers which really put the movie at risk in many ways, but is also always helpful to have young actors taking on the leading roles. The main character remains Thomas, the hero of the story played by Dylan O’Brien. I thought that Mr. O’Brien did do a very good, almost exceptional job on executing this very important role to the whole franchise, also I believe that O’Brien is quite brave when he got injured in The Scorch Trials and this very film and still was able to continue the franchise; A good script and directing help the star do a decent job, again before The Maze Runner he was only known for his role in The Internship and after this we know him as the great Thomas in the Maze Runner Series; Really overall Dylan O’Brien really has good talents in this Dystopian Series, with his pleasing appearance, attitude, and the overall character combining that with a decent franchise and solid directing. Next there is Newt who is played by Thomas Sangster. I was really thinking about this, really I just cannot believe how many movies Sangster was in before this with Nanny McPhee, The Last Legion, Love Actually and many many more which really means that Sangster is the most famous of the teens that consist in the cast, but the question is he the best??? Well out of the whole cast no, but on a few standards with his good charm, well constructed character and perfect fit making him not the best, but the best choice for the character of Newt; On the whole Thomas Sangster puts his great and well achieved acting in solid efforts making him another good member of the cast. Though yes I happen to believe that O’Brien and Sangster are good contributions to the cast, all good things must come to an end with side character Teresa played by Kaya Scodelario who was as stiff as a statue in the film; Although Teresa should have been a greatly interesting character, she was poorly done with an awful taste of lines, no passion or good emotion in her acting which makes you think why would they choose someone as daft as Scodelario to play this amazing character and completely turn it into trash giving the role no interesting qualities, again before The Maze Runner Scodelario made her roles in Clash of the Titans, Moon and Wuthering Heights which also concludes that she never had proof that she was really fit for the role of Teresa. Lastly in the cast of teenagers there is Brenda who is performed by Rosa Salazar which did pick up the cast a little by inserting some life and fun. Salazar will be making her new role in James Cameron’s Sci-Fi Alita: Battle Angel continuing her Dystopian taste, she acted in films such as Insurgent, CHIPs and Jamesy Boy, as you can see not the best movies of all time, but she really improved her career with the Maze Runner Franchise giving her all at the very special role of Brenda with her great performance, emotion and script I hope to see Salazar continue her career with this saga as her start. On the whole for a cast of teenagers this really improved the movie as an overall quality, O’Brien is amazing, Sangster is solid, Scodelario is awful and Salazar was fun giving the cast a decent quality.

Quality

The most important paragraph, the telling of the overall quality in the movie adding up all the judgements but first the directing by Wes Ball, was it any good?? For an extremely new director yes this is a solidly entertaining movie, but why did they choose such a new director for a very popular franchise giving this film a weak director was a very big mistake, but some good things did come out of the decision such as the fun entertaining storyline, plot, the cast was mostly spot on and the really creative, inventive Dystopian environment which gives the audience something to think about in this flawed but satisfying conclusion; However some of the challenges Ball faced was the execution of the movie-to-book kind of thing, the film strayed countless times from the book which can be good, but also is one of the problems because you must give the book fans some treasure that reverts back to the original storyline so even though it was cool to go away from the novel, it did end up a little bit of a challenge to get through. The main part to the movie, special effects, CGI everything that matters to the franchise. I thought that the CGI looked much less like a video game and more like a movie which is something that the franchise has been trying to improve and maybe because we have an easier setting and story than the previous two movies with non-robotic creative visuals that give the audience a real Dystopian YA visual of the book which compares from what the fans have been picturing to the real thing, you may know there is improvement in special effects because of it’s growing budget of 62M which means they are investing more in the films true heart and passion which is good and bad, it is good because it is a very pleasing experience to the eye, but they did take some real good from the actual story and plot which can make the film a one trick pony. Lastly the storyline and plot consisting in the depths of the movie. Really there were many pros and cons to this piece of criteria such as the little overuse of special effects instead of smarts, the lack of an amazing plot, although these things did way down the movie it is very common for this particular genre to go off on it’s own and forget about these qualities; But not entirely meaning that The Death Cure still managed to be more focused on emotionality, depth in the movie and even though the plot and story were shaky with it’s bloated running time of 2h 24m, it was still increasingly fun to watch with friends and family. Based on this info the film lands in the percentage range of 55-65% which puts it just at 60% sweet/sour which concludes my score.

Aging ‘The Last City’

The last paragraph consists of my judging on whether this movie is really for the kids or not. First we have the violence of action sequences. There are many explosions, gunshots, emotional deaths, and gruesome zombie like creatures that are infected with a serious virus called The Flare, car wrecks etc.; If your has seen related titles such as The Hunger Games, Divergent or even the previous movies he/she should be fine with the latest installment, but there are concerning things in this movie, the best thing to do is to really know your child's fears or anxieties. Next is any bad language in the film. There are uses of d..k, ass hole, bastard, bull s..t, holy s..t, what the hell and an exclamation of oh my god though it might be a little intense, the language does not stray too much from other YA Dystopian movies. Last we have any sexuality or adult situations in the movie. Really the franchise has kept the sex level to an all time low for Dystopian compared to similar titles, overall if you watch the movies the most you will ever see are some very quick non-passionate kisses between teenagers so you do not need to worry about this section. On the whole as you can see there is lots of violence, some intense bad language and a few kisses on the sexuality side so based on this information I conclude my age rating to be 13+.

Maze Runner Sequel Race

Maze Runner: The Death Cure 60% sweet/sour

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 13+

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials 55% sour

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 13+

Maze Runner: The Death Cure 60% sweet/sour

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials55% sour

Storyline: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

News Related to Maze Runner: The Death Cure

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A Keaton Review: Paddington 2

By: Keaton Marcus

Genre/Kids and Family

Age Rating/4+

Lemonradar/90% sweet

Introduction

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing the sequel to the critically-acclaimed children’s film Paddington. It is Aunt Lucy’s birthday in a few days and Paddington wants to give her something very special, when he finds a pop-up book of London in an antique shop he knows that this will be the present, though the bear must work and earn lots of money for the book so Paddington ends up going from job to job until one day he has the right amount of money, though that night a thief unexpectedly steals the book and everyone suspects Paddington, once he is sent to jail he must go on an adventure to capture the thief and expose him/her to the police.

How Was The Cast?

In this second paragraph I will be telling you if  the cast in the film was any good or not. For our first main character we have Paddington Bear who is voiced by Ben Whishaw known for various James Bond films. I thought that Mr. Whishaw was as fun as ever, he worked well with the clever storyline and improved his performance by a long shot from the original, he was not just cute for the kids but sometimes you could even call it a compelling performance which shows that Hollywood just finally made a good quality kids film. Overall Mr. Whishaw was a good contributor, improved his performance from the original and really just gave a surprisingly amazing performance as the beloved character, Paddington. For our second main character we have Phoenix Buchanan played by beloved actor Hugh Grant. I could not believe how good he was, usually villains in children’s movies just do not work, but this character actually had a good script, charming humor and a real sense of acting, I have not seen a better performance in a long time and this really hit me as the best comedic children’s villain I have ever seen, not to mention just laugh out loud kind of funny, he should be in further sequels for the growing franchise and other children’s films yet to come because of this amazing, charming and overall spectacular performance. Overall Mr. Grant is an amazing actor, but this was the game, he really got a nice role to be himself, I thought he really was the movie’s strongest point. For our third main character we have Knuckles who is played by Brendan Gleeson known for Harry Potter. I thought he was the next best thing, giving a fun and really great performance full of humor and real heart, what I am saying is that Mr. Gleeson really worked hard to make this a great role for him and he absolutely succeeded in every way possible. Overall Brendan Gleeson was funny, awesome, and he fit into his character taking his performance to the top. On the whole the cast was amazing and added even more charm and fun than the original film.

Quality

In this third paragraph I will be telling you if the overall quality of the movie is good or not. First we will start with the directing of the movie. I thought that Paul King did a fabulous job on creating another Paddington film and making it a long improvement on the first movie, bringing a fresh new story filled with fun ideas and bringing just amazing, classic entertainment to not just kids, but all audiences. He worked well with the cast, a decent, simple but fun plot with well developed charming and new, fresh characters. Overall Paul King was amazing and the movie surprisingly was a blast. Next we have the storyline quality in the movie. I thought that the storyline was actually very well thought through and I came in to the movie thinking it was going to suck and came out of the movie wanting to see it again, and that is all because they managed to give audiences a fun, happy and simple movie that is really fun for all to watch as a family. Overall the storyline was quite good, which came in with a clever plot that was fun for kids.

Aging ‘Paddington Bear’

For the fourth paragraph I will be telling you if the movie is for kids or not. First we will start with the violence in the film. Not really anything to worry about, first of all the original was much more frightening for kids than the sequel, there are a couple chases, the bear is forced into prison, but nothing that will get your kids on the edge, maybe not for your youngest ones, but certainly made for kids. Next we have the language in the movie, there are some uses of rude humor, but no bad language at all, again this film is strictly made for kids. Last but not least we have the sexuality in the movie. There are some uses of flirting between Ms. and Mr. Brown, one use of sexy but nothing else and not really compared to the still little amount in the original movie. Overall the film has very little sprinkled everywhere, but it is for little kids. Based on this information I give the movie an age rating of 4+.

Paddington Face-Off

Paddington 2 90% sweet

Violence: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Language: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 4+   

Paddington 79% sweet

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Sex: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Age Rating: 6+
 

Paddington 2 90% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Paddington 79% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

News Related to Paddington 2

Sweet News: Paddington 2 is better than the original!!

A Keaton Review: The Post

The Post (2018)

Genre/Drama

Age Rating/12+

Lemonradar/87% sweet

Introduction

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing Steven Spielberg’s newest released film, The Post based on a remarkable true story. When The New York Times tries to publish a paper that contains top secret files on the Vietnam War the Supreme Court bans The Times from publishing anymore papers due to their secrets that have to do with the War, however The Post; A regional, small and local paper still has the permission to publish therefore The Washington Post steps up and publishes the ‘Pentagon Papers’ to the world and becomes a national, even worldwide paper with it’s ingenious owner Kay (Streep) which made the world realize that the government has been lying to them about the War all along, this remarkable woman saved countless boys from continuing the awful Vietnam War.

How Was The Cast?

After the previous War-like drama Darkest Hour, another talented cast arrives with actress Meryl Streep headlining as Kay Graham. More of the cast includes Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee and actor Matthew Rhys as Daniel Ellsburg. As I said firstly we saw actress Meryl Streep known for Into the Woods, Mama Mia!, Florence Foster Jenkins, The Devil Wears Prada etc. as Kay Graham. I thought that Mrs. Streep really had it going throughout the whole span of the 1hr 45min of this movie, after her brilliant acting and singing voice in Into the Woods she really did deserve another great film, the actress really made the audience believe that we were listening to the real woman. I mean Streep could not be more remarkable as this character with her good charm, appearance and overall robust talent for these kinds of roles. Again from her Mama Mia! performance to The Devil Wears Prada I have never seen Meryl Streep in better shape for a film. Secondly we have Tom Hanks known for Big, Cast Away, Forrest Gump, The Terminal, Sully etc. as Ben Bradley. I thought that even though this may not be a usual role for Mr. Hanks and he is not the most important role, the actor takes the little lines that he had and then turns it into an amazing and iconic role with his talent therefore Tom Hanks proves once again why people go to see him perform every day. For our third, final main character we have Matthew Rhys who plays the extremely important character of Daniel Ellsberg. I really was not expecting the greatest acting from this guy, not a lot of lines, few scenes in the movie, but that did not seem to matter with Mr. Rhys who carefully made his scenes the most important in the entire film making him seem like the main character, I mean Mr. Ellsberg is the guy who practically saved the Vietnam War from going on too long, I mean he was so great that you felt like you had to pay attention to just him sometimes throughout the movie. Overall Matthew Rhys was a convincing, talented actor that played one of the most remarkable men of all time.

Quality

A magnificently fitting choice for director Steven Spielberg, The Post is another modern classic that adds  We have to start with the directing I mean what a big turn for Spielberg, I mean he was really going out of his comfort zone and when I got into that theatre I really did not know what to expect from a very different director; Spielberg did do another drama with Tom Hanks, The Bridge of Spies which was quite brilliant and that proof really helped him make this Tom Hanks drama just as good and it also proves that Steven Spielberg is truly the best director of all time really because he is great in every genre you could think of; The Post’s story and plot was just on the right angle, the film was really well directed, the cast shined and it really ended up a piece of truly entertaining Spielbergian drama. Now comes the whole thing behind it, the story, plot and the convincing level of the movie compared to the true story. This was maybe the best section of the movie, a great, powerful, emotional, entertaining, heartfelt storyline which comes with a good plot that combines with the cast’s good efforts which concludes an amazing film that ranks just with it’s even more amazing true story. On the whole the overall quality in the movie really is up there with the best Spielberg movies such as Bridge of Spies, E.T., Close Encounters with the Third Kind, Minority Report and even Jurassic Park.

Aging ‘The Washington Post’

In the final paragraph I will be deciding whether this movie is for kids or not. First let’s go with the violence. In the very beginning of the film there is a 5 Minute Sequence of a battle in The Vietnam War, deaths, explosions and guns, but nothing bloody or scary otherwise the rest of the movie contains no sort of action or violence at all, the real thing you have to think about is the movie itself, it can be very frustrating and hard to sit through for kids who like exciting Spielberg movies, what you must do as a parent is see if your kid is even interested in this kind of very mature and complicated stuff. Next we have the sexuality in the movie. In this section there is nothing to worry about except you do know there are some relationships between the main characters in the story, but nothing concerning at all. Last we will cover any bad language in the movie. There is one use of f..k,  plenty of uses of s..t, a use of hell, ass, Jesus Christ, oh my god and one use of son of a bitch, though nothing unusual for dramas. Overall as you can see there is not a lot of violence, but lot’s of mature content, some language and no sexuality at all.

Spielbergian Drama Clash

The Post 90% sweet

Violence: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Sex: ✩✩✩✩✩

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 12+

Bridge of Spies 93% sweet

Violence: ⭐⭐☆☆☆☆

Sex: ✩✩✩✩✩

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 13+





 

The Post 90% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Bridge of Spies 93% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

News Related to The Post

The Post is Great Spielbergian Drama.

The Post Ranks Among Top Spielberg Movies.

A Keaton Review: Darkest Hour

By: Keaton Marcus

Genre/War/Drama

Age Rating/12+

Lemonradar/93% sweet

Introduction

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing Gary Oldman’s newest film, Darkest Hour. In the midst of World War II, when Neville Chamberlain, the current prime minister of England becomes in-capable of leading the nation during the war and must resign by the order of King George VI. The next man in line must be Winston Churchill whom everybody dislikes and cannot get over with. Churchill must not just deal with the stupidity of the Press but must prove to Europe that he will find a way to stop and win the war.

How Was The Cast?

Most of the cast were very interesting choices, almost all-British and very talented including superstar Gary Oldman as the famous historical part of Winston Churchill. More of the cast includes Ben Mendelson as King George VI, Lilly James as the famous typewriter Elizabeth Layton and even actress Kirsten Scott Thomas as Churchill's wife, Clementine. As I have said we saw award-winning actor Gary Oldman known for The Dark Knight trilogy, Robocop, Lawless, the Harry Potter franchise, the Planet of the Apes franchise etc. Really making the portrait of leadership come to life, Oldman delivered one of his most brilliant, most thoughtful and touchingly real performance of his career with wonderful surrounding cast members and talented director and a dramatic, even funny script that works infinitely with the fact that the actor was an interesting and risky choice as the plump Prime Minister.Then we have actor Ben Mendelson known for Ready Player One, Rogue One, The Dark Knight trilogy etc. as leader of the time, King George VI. All though sometimes having the spotlight taken with Oldman's stunning performance, but Mendelson holds his own with deep character development, clever script writing and a wonderfully-fitting accent as the King, and while there have been better carnations of the famous historical figure, the actor manages another satisfying take on the character. Thirdly we saw young actress  Again a very odd choice by director Joe Wright but surprisingly resulted in greatness and extreme believability and realness and bravely taking on the unknowingly spectacular person Layton was seeing Lilly James’ famous role in Cinderella not to waste as she molds her genius script, familiar appearance and joyful attitude into this well-done, simple, but wide role helping the movie up a great notch even when the narrative stutters a little. Lastly we have British actress Kirsten Scott Thomas known for Mission: Impossible, The Invisible Woman, Only God Forgives, The Party etc. as Churchill's wife, Clementine. With earlier veteran-like performances in many acclaimed movies, the actress immediately wows the audiences with her downright charming accent, colorful charisma and having more than enough conviction and talent to carry the extremely important role, and although not the biggest character in a movie full of them, the role of Clementine happens to be just as realized to the audience as other parts because of the actress behind it giving another cherished and unforgettable performance to her career.    

Quality

Although there are much better choices for directing than debuting filmmaker Joe Wright, this accomplishment gives Wright an amazing debut and a hopeful start to a lengthy and successful career. Working with a talented (and hard-working) cast, stylish production value, a wonderfully constructed story and plot, and enough sense of old-fashion charm that it does not only tower over most War movies, in the future it will become a certain classic as many other related films have become including Patton, Bridge Over the River Kwai and The Great Escape which all are a level down from this magnificent acheivment. Starting with the directing we see unexperienced Joe Wright at the wheel. Storytelling wise, Wright's brilliant directing, ensemble cast, chemistry and handsomely produced film does more than enough to cover up for the slow, although not too overlong running time. Also clever enough to beat most War classics, as I have said before, Darkest Hour is a true modern classic that should ring true to everyone with the strength to carry it in, and although it is not as exciting as some, it is more constructed and sophisticated than other Action/Thriller War flicks. 

Aging ‘Churchill’

Finally this review will come to an end with the final judgement on whether this movie is right for the kids or not. Beginning with the violence you see no bloody or grisly battle or war scenes, but in small two minute sequences throughout the movie there is some explosions coming from German bombs, soldiers firing guns and some dead men on the ground which could be a little tear raking, but overall there is not a lot of violence you would normally see in War films so instead in judging over that you must think about whether your kid can handle such a long, hard to sit through movie with almost the whole span of the movie consisting of talking. Concluding that you will witness some heated language, but nothing abnormal for slow dramas with common uses of s..t,  good god, up your bum, god damn and bugger so as you can see nothing to much to worry about. Lastly there is nothing much to say about the sexuality or adult situations level in the film limited to known relationships between Churchill and his wife and one quick scene where Ms. Layton catches a quick glimpse of under Churchill’s robe when he sits up. Overall you limit it to maturity for any sort of violence, some mild uses of language in arguments and nothing to worry about in the sex level and basing off of the info I give an age rating of 12+.

Drama Smash Down

Darkest Hour 95% sweet

Violence: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 12+

The Post 90% sweet

Violence: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Sex: ☆☆☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 12+

Darkest Hour 95% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Post 90% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

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