Childhood Movies

I'm sure that every one of us has specific movies that we remember fondly from our childhood, and every time we re-watch them nostalgic memories will come flooding back. Anyway, I though that I would compile a relatively short list comprising the most memorable movies from when I was younger. These movies aren't neccesarily favorite movies of mine; they're simply the ones that really stand out in my memory from when I watched them as a child. I do want to note though that as I am still a fairly young person, these movies may seem pretty recent in the eyes of many people reading this list. If any of you want to share your own "favorite childhood movies" list, don't hesitate to leave a comment. But without further ado, here is my list of the most memorable movies from my childhood:

The Pacifier

The Pacifier was a movie that I loved when I was younger, and I remember watching it numerous times. In all honesty, this film would probably be a hit with just about any kid simply because it's directly marketed for a younger audience. I actually just recently looked this film up on Rotten Tomatoes, and was pretty shocked to see that it only had a 20% rating. I know The Pacifier isn't an amazing movie, but it certainly delivers on providing a pretty good family film that clearly resonated with my childhood self.



National Treasure

I think it's safe to say that National Treasure was probably my favorite movie growing up, and actually still remains one of mine today. This adventure movie clearly appealed to my 8-year-old self, as I remember watching National Treasure many times with my family and truly loving it. Much like the previous film on this list, it has a fairly low rating of 44% on Rotten Tomatoes, but this just goes to show that movie critic reviews clearly have no impact on the mind of a child. Kids just like what they like!




The Core

As a child, I thought The Core was the most epic movie ever. After recently re-watching it, I can truly say that it's probably one of the cheesiest sci-fi movies ever. That's not to say that I don't like it anymore; on the contrary, it's probably my favorite "bad movie." I know that there are so many elements of The Core that make it truly ridiculous, but I can still watch it today and really enjoy it probably because I liked this movie so much as a kid.




The Last Samurai

Okay, now I can fully acknowledge that The Last Samurai is probably a fairly unconventional movie for a young child to watch (it is rated R, after all). But I honestly don't remember being bothered by any of the scenes in this movie when I watched it as a kid. In fact, I remember really enjoying it as a film, and in retrospect this seems a little strange. The Last Samurai is certainly not a film that attempts to appeal to young kids, but for some reason I loved it as a child and still enjoy it today as well.




Left Behind

I don't know where to start with this film. Perhaps the first thing that I should acknowledge is the fact that my childhood memory of watching Left Behind is that my family had it on a VHS tape, and we actually had to rewind it when we finished the movie! I know, right? I'm truly from the age of the dinosaurs. But anyway, in terms of the movie itself I cannot say that I enjoyed it as a child, but it's probably one of the most memorable. When I first saw this movie as a kid, I remember thinking it was a bit strange and really funny. Now, I haven't seen Left Behind in years, but if my memory serves me correctly than I don't want to re-watch it. As an innocent child it seemed like a comedy to me, but today I realize that this film is truly messed up in a number of ways. Left Behind is certainly a memorable movie from my childhood, but maybe that's not a good thing...

Movie Review: It Follows

I made the very hesitant decision to go see the 2015 horror flick It Follows a few nights ago. Although I don't consider myself a huge fan of horror movies in general, every now and again they can surprise me and so I decided to give this one a chance. And overall, I can come to the conclusion that it did indeed deliver on this promise.
The film It Follows focuses on the character of Jay, who after sleeping with her boyfriend Hugh is informed by him that she is now haunted by a curse where she will constantly be followed by people who are trying to kill her. She is told that in order to stop herself from being cursed, she must sleep with someone else and pass it along to them. Although shaken from the experience, it's only until Jay starts to notice strange people walking slowly towards her that she starts to believe Hugh. She confides in her sister and friends, who all agree to help her try and put an end to the curse.
My overall impression of It Follows was a good one, and I was thoroughly entertained through the entirety of the movie. I do want to note that for me personally, this movie builds. After the opening scene of the film I was sitting in the theater rolling my eyes at the absurdity of it, but the movie markedly improved as time went on and the plot progressed. But despite the many positive elements that I thought this movie delivered on, it had its fair share of shortfalls as well.
Wanting to end this movie review on a positive note, I'm going to start by explaining what did not work well in It Follows. First, I feel that the overall plot of this movie fell a bit short. Although It Follows certainly delivers on presenting a unique plot that I haven't seen any other horror movie have, it could have been executed much better. Just the fact that this movie is entirely based on a curse that's spread by sex seems ridiculous, almost a bit juvenile. In my opinion it takes this movie down to a slightly lower level than what it had the potential to achieve. Another element of this movie that may be perceived as a negative to some is that It Follows was not scary at all. To me, I would almost classify it as a thriller instead of a horror movie for this reason. To me, a horror movie should make your skin crawl, and give you scares that will make you jump out of your seat. This was not at all the case for me watching It Follows. Although it had an eerie quality to it and could maybe pass for creepy, this movie is nowhere near the level needed to be scary.
Okay, now onto the positives, because there are actually a lot in It Follows. First up, I did appreciate that the plot was refreshingly different from other horror films. Although I think it could have been tweaked a bit to make a better movie, to a degree the unique storyline is a positive element of It Follows. Also, all of the actors were above par in the film, and I especially thought that the lead actress who plays Jay did a good job portraying the uneasiness and fear that her character has throughout the film. But without a doubt, my favorite elements of It Follows are both the visuals and the music. The whole movie has an awesome old fashioned vibe to it, and this adds a really unique filter to the film that somehow makes it seem a bit creepier. Adding to this, I think the decision to film It Follows in Detroit was a great choice. The establishing shots of the dilapidated neighborhoods that are rampant in the area just suited the whole feel of the movie perfectly. One last positive element of It Follows that I want to emphasize is the soundtrack. This was probably my favorite part of the whole movie, just because I've never seen a movie use music in the manner that It Follows does. The music, composed by Rich Vreeland, makes up a huge part of this film. It gets to the point where the soundtrack is in-your-face loud during certain scenes of the movie, but it works well. The music also carries a distinct 80's vibe to it, which perfectly suits the visuals of It Follows.
Ultimately, this movie would not be nearly as effective of a film without its soundtrack.
So to conclude, although I personally enjoyed It Follows I wouldn't recommend it to everybody. However, if you are a thriller/horror movie fan or are just looking to see a movie that's a bit different from most today, I would highly suggest you give it a watch. If nothing else, just go listen to its soundtrack.

Rating: R

Genre: Horror/suspense

Run Time: 100 minutes

Release Date: March 13, 2015

My Rating: ★★★☆☆

Movie Review: Cinderella

A few nights ago I went and saw the newly released 2015 movie Cinderella. As I am not a huge fan of fairy tale films in general, I did not have very high expectations for it but I can happily say that it was a pretty enjoyable movie overall.
Cinderella follows the same storyline as the classic fairy tale, but I'll quickly summarize it anyway. The movie begins with Cinderella's mother falling ill and dying, and her father eventually remarries. Her new stepmother and stepsisters start treating her worse and worse as time goes by, and she is left alone to live with them after her father also dies. One day while riding a horse in the woods, she meets a young man who turns out to be the prince of her kingdom. The movie centers on the prince trying to figure out who she is, and Cinderella attempting to escape the control that her stepmother has over her.
As I stated earlier, I am not big on fairy tale movies and thought this would be a half-hearted attempt to "modernize" the classic Cinderella story. But to my surprise, I found that a lot of this film's elements were really well done and deserve to be recognized. To begin, I want to mention that the plot isn't altered at all from the original fairy tale, which in my opinion isn't a positive or negative aspect of the movie. On one hand I kind of wish that the story had been changed up some to give the audience a little surprise, but on the flip side I'm happy that they kept it the same and didn't ruin the movie by over-complicating it.
One thing I did like about Cinderella was how well it was made to suit a wide range of audience members. It's certainly an innocent enough movie to take young children to see, but it's also a movie that people of any age would enjoy watching as well, much like myself. Another positive element of this film is the acting. I feel like all of the actors put a lot of effort into perfecting their respective roles, and I especially though that Cate Blanchett fulfilled her character of the cruel stepmother particularly well. One last note that I want to mention about this movie is how well done the staging, makeup, and costume design components were. These elements all helped immensely in turning Cinderella into a much more colorful and vibrant movie.
Ultimately, Cinderella is a whimsical feel-good film that I think most people, old or young, would enjoy. It does lack a bit of substance although this is to be expected, as it is a lighthearted fairy tale aimed at younger audiences. I was not completely blown away by Cinderella, however I was happy that I spent the time to watch it and overall I would recommend this movie to anyone thinking about seeing it.

Rating: PG

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

Run Time: 112 minutes

Release Date: March 13, 2015

My Rating: ★★★☆☆

Movie Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service

The recently released film Kingsman: The Secret Service happened to come to my local theater, so I decided to pop in and watch it. I didn't really have any preconceived notions about this movie, so my mind was totally open to taking it for what it was. And it was weird...
But first I'll give a quick summary, for those who have not seen Kingsman yet. The movie centers around the character Eggsy, a teenager whose father died during a mission when he was young. The same spy agency that employed his father recruits Eggsy into training to become one of their members. Meanwhile, tech-genius Richmond Valentine is plotting to take over the world with his mastermind plan, and Eggsy and the spy agency are the only ones who can stop him.
Overall, this movie did not impress me. I found the entire plot to be mind-numbing and extremely predictable. It was just like any typical action movie, with a bad guy that the good guy needs to stop. I also didn't like how Kingsman seemingly switched its entire aura about halfway through the film. It begins as a decent action movie with some really well-done comedy thrown in, but suddenly morphs into an overblown comedic fail of epic proportions. In other words, this movie didn't know whether it wanted to be an outrageous comedy or an action spy movie, and it bridged the two very poorly. Adding to this, the comedy in this movie was another negative aspect of it for me personally. To a degree, it worked, but especially towards the end of the movie it was just ridiculous. As someone who is very picky when it comes to the use of comedy in movies, I was not impressed with many of the funnier elements that they decided to include. I can't go into detail here without spoiling the plot, but let's just say that there were several things that were blown way over the top for me.
So after all that negativity, let me note that this movie did have some positive elements too. First, I thought that the fight scenes were very well done. They were choreographed well, and were visually impressive. I also rather enjoyed the character of Galahad, played by Colin Firth, and for me he was the only character that I really enjoyed in this film.
So, on an overall scale of things I was fairly unimpressed by Kingsman, and was disappointed with most of the aspects of it. Although it does have some positive elements, they are far outnumbered by the negatives. Perhaps if you have a different outlook when it comes to over-the-top comedy in movies you will enjoy this film more than I did, but for me personally I would not recommend Kingsman.

Rating: R

Genre: Spy/Action/Comedy

Run Time: 129 minutes

Release Date: February 13, 2015

My Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Book Review: Hysteria

Before I really get into reviewing the book Hysteria by Megan Miranda, let me preface by saying that this was quite a page turner for me. Does this fact automatically mean that I enjoyed it as a book? Not exactly, I'll get into all that later in my review. But Miranda has a certain way of writing that really got me caught up in the "what's going to happen next?" of this book. I probably read Hysteria in only three or four days, tops, due to this.
Okay, so what is this book about? It's written from the first person perspective of Mallory, a high school student who has killed her boyfriend Brian. Mallory's parents decide to send her to a prep school called Monroe, where she meets several people who know the secrets that surround Brian's murder. This ultimately puts her in grave danger, as someone is out to get her. The events relating to Brian's murder are unknown to the reader at the beginning of the book, and gradually the pieces are put into place as the plot progresses.
So, I don't really know where to start with Hysteria. To begin I will highlight what I did really like about this book. First of all, as I stated above, the pacing was done very well and I couldn't seem to stop reading. At the end of each chapter, something else is introduced into the plot that you just can't close the book on. The plot was yet another strong point of this book, in my opinion. There was some unnecessary baggage attached to the main storyline of Hysteria, but the meat of the book directly involving Brian's murder was a really unique concept for a plot. A third aspect that I also really enjoyed about Hysteria was the way that the main character of Mallory was written. Also, the relationship between her and her mother, her best friend Colleen, and Reid were all well-developed and believable as well.
Okay, so now for what I did not like about Hysteria. First of all, I felt like some of the characters were very predictable and one-note. For as developed as the main characters in Hysteria were, some of the minor characters didn't fit well within the overall context of the plot. For me, this was specifically the characters of Jason, Krista, Taryn and Bree. The plot of this book was a really intriguing, unique one that I feel was hurt by having rather juvenile-acting characters like these in the story. Also, the romantic aspects of this book took away some from the plot for me. At times it worked, but occasionally the romantic interests of Mallory, the main character, didn't really help to bolster my interest in what was happening.
So overall, this is a good book. Although it certainly has its issues and in my opinion fell short of its potential, I really did enjoy it and I read it rather quickly. I would most likely recommend Hysteria to anyone who enjoys a good teenage mystery/thriller, but don't expect to be super scared. Even though the plot makes this book a page turner, it's not necessarily a blood curdling thriller that offers a lot of plot twists or hair raising surprises. What Hysteria does offer is a decent young adult mystery that is a good read if you've got a little extra time on your hands.
Author: Megan Miranda
Genre: YA Mystery/Psychological Thriller

Pages: 326

Year Published: 2013

My Rating: ★★★☆☆