22 Jump Street - the Hilarity of the First One but Better!

Before watching this movie, I watched 21 Jump Street so many times. It was a genuinely funny movie. I love the chemistry between Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. It's hilarious. I couldn't get enough of it.

And I can't believe I waited so long before seeing this one.

22 Jump Street tells the story of Morton Schmidt and Greg Jenko, played by Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum respectively, tackling on the new assignment given to them by Captain Dickson, played by Ice Cube, of going to college and cracking down on the new synthetic drug called WHY PHY that students are getting exposed to.

The one thing that this movie does a very good job of is the recurring jokes. The first of many of these jokes is the whole idea that the same plot from the first movie will be the same plot of this movie, which is what I imagine many people anticipated off of a Jump Street sequel. I mean, they pushed this joke so far up until the very end of this one (I'll stop talking about this now because of potential spoilers).

Anyway, as I said before, there is some really good chemistry between the two stars of the film, especially considering their positions in 21 Jump Street. Not saying that it is a must to see 21 Jump Street to watch this film, but I'm pretty sure a vast majority of viewers did see the first then see this one, of course.

Yes. Familiar faces, new faces, same situations. This all plays a role in the comedic element of this movie. This was definitely a bit more explosive than the previous film in terms of location and action elements, but I believe that that explosive nature further escalated the respect that I have for this film in particular.

I would love to relive this experience over and over and think back to the first movie a bit as well. Even the minor details that I started to doubt about this movie were addressed.

I give this movie a 4/5.

The Wolf of Wall Street - The Opulence is Something Extra

Before watching this movie, all my friends told me that the movie was hilarious given its recurring cussing, sexual reveals, and more. I knew that Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill were in this movie.

Wow. Loved it. Just plain loved it.

The Wolf of Wall Street tells the true story of Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, a stock broker who builds a sort of stock market empire with the help of his team of stock brokers and assistants.

As far as the actors, I could not ask for anything less. After all, a lot of great actors appear on the casting for this list. Mark Hanna, played by Matthew McConaughey, for instance, was hilarious, being the inspiration for the sumptuous and drug-inducing life that Jordan Belfort ends up leading. Donnie Azoff, played by Jonah Hill, was also hilariously portrayed in this movie as Jordan Belfort's best friend.

The craziness in Jordan's life is really shown in this film. At some times, I felt it was a bit too much, considering all of the nudity and violence. I read on another article about the real life Jordan Belfort saying that the movie might not all come together if one does not see the point. I felt that at the end of the movie, I felt complete.

"Sell me this pen."

I liked the ideas that this film portrayed. I have heard that after a sales pitch, the first person who talks loses. I felt nervous every time that Jordan Belfort's lifestyle transformed into something higher and higher for himself. I wanted to see how far he went before he imploded on himself.

The idea is that everything that goes up must come down.

When I think about it, all that the movie portrayed was the sumptuous lifestyle that Jordan Belfort made for himself, but it is all the little things that one must pay attention to. Watching this movie is in a sort of way like watching Goodfellas.

I give this movie a 5/5.

Moneyball - Statistics Will/Will NOT Pull Through

To start off, I knew nothing about this movie other than that Jonah Hill and Brad Pitt were featured in it. I admire Jonah Hill because of his comedic element and Brad Pitt is always a thrill to watch.

Post actually watching the film, I have a couple of words to get across.

So the story of Moneyball goes that scout Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, wishes to turn the Oakland A's inside out to feature the best of baseball even without major players that the team just lost. Beane recruits a man by the name of Peter Brand, played by Jonah Hill, to be his assistant general manager and crunch some numbers to create the perfect team out of the little money the Oakland A's have.

For one, watching the first ten minutes of the movie made me think about hope. Well, actually that's a lie. The first ten minutes of the movie had me thinking, "Why on Earth would I be watching a baseball movie?" I mean, I didn't like those Sandlot stories that I always saw on VHS growing up. I didn't like baseball movies that Disney had to offer. So what made me think that there would be some sort of baseball movie that would not gouge my eyes out?

However, this story does not even begin to take on the Sandlot stories that I saw that bored me to death. No. This story takes the soul of anyone watching the film and leads it on through the entire movie. Never was I bored; every scene had its purpose and made sense as a whole.

Now about hope. Brad Pitt does an amazing job getting across the character of Billy Beane, always showing the mix of both distraught and aggression. From the beginning, we see that he has this element of hope that he holds dear to himself. Even the younger actor who played young Beane got across that same element of hope that you could see on Brad Pitt's face.

Peter Brand at first seems like an awkward character, only there to give Billy Beane statistical advice. However, throughout the story, Peter Brand becomes a necessary feature of the film as a whole. The reason behind the character of Peter Brand is to give the friendly reminder that Billy Beane could have been at a higher intellectual level, almost as that of Peter Brand himself.

This film gave me a more particular view about the world behind baseball. Slugging a bat around was all I saw; now I see the more executive views on baseball and the causes and effects about everything that happens behind the scenes.

I give this film a 5/5