Film Reviews
How To Make Money Selling Drugs (2012) is a documentary discussing the lucrative world of drugs and drugs dealing and how people get involved in the world, and, essentially, what should change to make the business less attractive. In a 90-minute feature, director (and melodramatic narrator) Matthew Cooke interviews a multitude of people among which musicians and actors like Curtis Jackson (50 Cent), Susan Sarandon, Woody Harrelson, Marshall Mathers (Eminem), a whole bunch of drug traffickers among which Brian O’Dea and Freeway Ricky Ross, people from the law enforcement, both pro and against the War on Drugs. I went into this movie without any prior knowledge.
In The Purge, a happy, wealthy family gets ready for the annual night of the Purge, a 12-hour period during which all crime is legal. This new way to fight crime has been very successful – crime is at an all time low, as is unemployment. Moreover, it is supposedly an easy way to rid society of those who do not contribute.
In Elysium, the world has gone to shit. It is heavily polluted and poverty has risen to extremely high levels – the ghettos stretch as far as you can see. This is where the poor working class lives.
In Dead Man Down, Colin Farrell plays Victor/Laszlo (whom I’ll just call Victor henceforth), a Hungarian gangster who’s part of an organized crime syndicate. We soon find out he is not who he pretends to be. The movie opens with a talk about children, which nicely sets the mood and foreshadows some of the movie’s story.
Mobsters are trying to get a foothold in the City of Angels, and good cop John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and his gangster squad come to the rescue. We are introduced to L.A.
The Place Beyond the Pines tries to be an interesting movie, but above all is just very confusing. We start off the story with Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling), motor stunt rider. He finds out he got a baby with a woman, Romina, in one of the towns he visited during his circus travels.
Watch Plurality now, an awesome sci-fi short that quite blatantly refers to criminological theories. Directed by Dennis Liu.
Most people I tell about THX 1138 have never heard of it before. When I tell them it was George Lucas’ first feature-length film, they look at me dumbfounded. Though, if you’d have told me about THX a few years ago, my reaction would probably have been the same.
The director of Training Day (2001) (a respectable movie to say the least) has made the most hilariously ridiculous, cringe-inducingly bad movie I’ve seen in some time. Boasting a cast of renowned actors like Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Basset, even this ensemble could not save it. Olympus Has Fallen opens on Christmas eve, showing a happy president, a happy first lady, a really happy kid, happy bodyguards – until something awful happens (of course).
Side Effects is a movie about the business of psychiatric medications, fraud, insanity and the failure of the criminal justice system. It’s a complex movie with many plots and twists, and is captivating from start to end. From a very creepy, melancholic opening, we are taken three months earlier into the story.
Bronson chronicles the life of infamous British prisoner Michael Peterson, a.k.a.
Robert Downey Jr. returns once more as the extravagant Tony Stark and Iron Man. In this third installment of this popular super hero franchise, Tony Stark faces a pretty tough terrorist with (really cool) super hero powers of his own.