What to be Excited About...

• Shailene Woodley has been confirmed to be portraying Mary Jane Watson in a small appearance in the next Amazing Spiderman film. It is also being said that she will be playing a leading role in the third film.

iTunes Movie of the Week

• This week on iTunes, The Evil Dead, one of the scariest yet at the same time awesome movies that I've ever seen, is able to be rented for only 99 cents. This is truly one of those movies that you have to see before you die, especially if for some reason you're on a horror kick or are just a fan of horror and haven't seen it yet. Sam Raimi did an excellent job directing this film, and with a 100% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it proves to be one of the greatest horror films ever made. Bottom Line: Rent It!

What To Be Excited About...

• Iron Man 3 trailer premiered on iTunes trailers yesterday. This third installment looks to be another epic movie under Marvel's belt. True, the previous Iron Man movies haven't been anything special, but this trailer has got me pretty excited. It seems like it'll be a dramatic stretch for the Tony Stark that we have all previously seen so maybe we'll see a more rounded story that doesn't rely only on the action. If you haven't seen it, you definitely should!           Trailer for Iron Man 3

T-Shirt of the Day

Jack's Nightmare

The T-shirt of the day from RIPT apparel is Jack's Nightmare, playing on Nintendo and The Nightmare Before Christmas. This design lasts for ONE DAY ONLY so get them while you can! Get the link below...

T-Shirt

The Walking Dead Deal

The Walking Dead Deal

The Walking Dead Season 1 Blu-ray is on sale at Amazon.com for $19.49 (originally $49.99) and the 3 disc Special Edition is on sale $24.99 (originally $59.99). Grab 'em now while the price is low!

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises - PG-13 (Warner Bros.)

Being one of the most anticipated movies of the year, I was expecting a lot from this film. And let me say...the movie definitely delivered. Christopher Nolan did a fantastic job with his final touch on the Batman franchise! The movie was well developed conceptually, and the actors did a great job portraying their characters.

First of all, I was not expecting this movie to span over the long amount of time that it did. I was expecting maybe a couple of weeks, not years, but I was surprised by how well it fit together. The writers did a great job of making sure that the jumps in time were fluid and meshed well with everything else going on at that present time. They left no mysteries in the time jumps that usually tend to bring up more questions than the writers intended. Also, speaking of fluidity, this film does a great job of holding the audience's attention throughout the entire two and a half hours. I'm usually skeptical when I see that kind of time...two and half hours is a lot of time and it usually means that the writers included a lot of background information. While this movie did lack with the background information, it did include long action sequences that tend to make the time fly. I enjoyed all of the characters as they were both fully and underdeveloped when needed. One of the best things that the writers did with this movie was they timed everything perfectly. You got background when you needed it, you got a chase sequence when you needed action, and most importantly they shocked you when you least expected it. 

The actors were fantastic! I must say I was skeptical that Anne Hathaway could pull off Catwoman (my first choice was Rachel Weisz, but then again, she's my first choice for any movie). And even though I'll always be a Michelle Pfeiffer kind of person, Hathaway did impress me and so I tip my imaginary hat to her. Needless to say Christian Bale was fantastic. With this being the final installment, Bale did a great job of closing off that emotional pain that Bruce Wayne has always dealt with. Being a huge fan of Marion Cotillard, I was extremely excited to see her character develop because it is an original character that is not in the comic books; she was, as always, fantastic and did not disappoint. I was especially impressed with Tom Hardy, who took a more sophisticated approach to Bane, than the previous Bane from Batman & Robin. He really was able to show both Bane's intelligence and his sheer brutality, being the only man to "break the bat" as the comics put it (you'll notice in the film the voice of Bane sounds very sophisticated and intelligent, while his outward appearance is that of a monstrous brute...very clever). Every actor, even the small, supporting ones, did fantastically well developing their characters and really getting into what and who their characters were and were feeling.

Overall, if I had to describe this movie in one word, I would say EPIC. It truly is a masterpiece of a film and, sadly, a conclusion. Christopher Nolan definitely can be credited with reviving the Batman film franchise and making it one of the best superhero franchises ever made. The film delivered, without a doubt, what it promised us...it was the epic conclusion to the Dark Knight legend.

Rating:

***** out of 5

Trailer for the Dark Knight Rises 

The Amazing Spiderman

The Amazing Spiderman - PG-13 (Columbia Pictures)

Where to start, where to start? I was incredibly excited for this movie and I guess the real sign that it was a success was that it truly exceeded my expectations. The story line is incredible and leaves a great cliffhanger. The acting was equally great; and best of all the action scenes were clear and well done. 


One of my favorite things about this film was that it stayed closer to the comic books than Sam Raimi's Spiderman did and honestly if you don't stay close to the comics, the story really isn't Spiderman. This Spiderman did a great job of appealing to a large audience, but also staying consistent with the overall, original story of Spiderman. I was a little worried that a great Spiderman wouldn't come around after Sam Raimi pretty much destroyed the Spiderman franchise. But, similar to Cristopher Nolan bringing back Batman after Schumacher gave him nips, Marc Webb does an excellent job of delivering a fresh story that isn't only entertaining if you've read the comic books. What really pushed this film to a greater level for me was that the action side of the story was equally as good as the dramatic side of the story. If you separated the two aspects, each could equally stand on its own; and for me, that is always a big plus with superhero films. Webb also did a great job of leaving the story open for future films that I hope will come out quickly. 


I was hesitant toward the film when I heard that Andrew Garfield, a British actor, would be playing the American hero. However, he did not disappoint. I always hear how Tobey Maguire did an incredible job of playing Peter Parker because he looked the part and was able to really sell Peter's geek aspect. I do think that Maguire did a good job with Spiderman's more reserved side, however I think he really lacked when he was supposed to be Spiderman. Andrew Garfield did a great job of both sides of Spiderman. He was not only believable as Peter Parker, but was also really great at being the self-confident, almost cocky Spiderman. He was, in my opinion, better than Tobey Maguire ever was as the hero. Now, if anyone reading this knows me personally, he or she will know that I absolutely love Emma Stone in anything she's in, so when I heard that she was going to be Gwen Stacy, I knew that I wouldn't be disappointed in her performance. Needless to say, she did live up to my expectations and even surpassed them. Even before I knew she was cast, the fact that they were going to exclude Mary Jane Watson and include Gwen Stacy made the film already great to me. Very few people realize that Mary Jane did not even appear in the comics until over a hundred editions into the series. Gwen came before Mary Jane and the fact that they chose to include Gwen really excited me. Emma Stone did an incredible job with developing her character all the way to the end of the movie; she was simply great. All the other supporting cast members were fantastic as well and did a great job embodying their characters. Rhys Ifans did a particularly good job as Dr. Curtis Connors as well as Denis Leary doing a great job as Captain George Stacy. The one thing that I was really disappointed with was that Uncle Ben does not say his famous line of "With great power comes great responsibility," which is really at the core of Spiderman, but that really isn't the  actors fault. All actors really did a great job with their characters and really drove and pushed the story to the best it could be.


One of the biggest problems you seem to run into with action movies is when the action is going on, directors try to use these innovative filming techniques that just end up looking confusing and making you dizzy. This was, fortunately, not the case with The Amazing Spiderman. The action sequences were great because they were complex and believable, but not so complex that the camera keeps switching to different angles and you start to get confused over what exactly you're looking at and what is happening. You really were able to understand what was happening, who was hitting who, and where they were, which is always a plus for action movies, especially for movies in 3D where things can really get muddled together. 


So, in conclusion, I thought this movie was incredibly well done and developed. The plot was good and was left open just enough to leave a cliffhanger, but not enough to leave you disappointed. The acting was phenomenal and all the actors did a great job of developing their characters and following through all the way throughout the film. The action was great and, best of all, it was clear. All-in-all, I would definitely recommend that everyone go and see this film if you want to know what the real, original Spiderman is all about, because, even though some aspects of the original comics were left out that the previous franchise did include, out of the two franchises, this one is, in my opinion, the better one.


Rating:
***** out of 5
Trailer for The Amazing Spiderman