Brick Mansions - Unexpected Turns Make An Unexpectedly Good Action Movie

Before watching this movie, all I knew was that Paul Walker was in this movie and that it has to do with him free-running with some other guy.

I liked it. Not my favorite, but it was still good.

Brick Mansions tells the story of Damien Collier, played by Paul Walker, a cop in Detroit who is after a man by the name of Tremaine Alexander, played by RZA, the head of a gang in an abandoned area of Detroit known popularly as Brick Mansions. Damien enlists the help of convict Lino Dupree, played by David Belle, to bring Tremaine to justice.

I liked the back-story that this movie formed behind Damien Collier and his sudden interest in pursuing Tremaine. Even though this was a bit long and draged on for a while, I think it was necessary to understand where Damine Collier is coming from.

In terms of the cast, I liked them. Paul Walker of course still maintains that sort of cop attitude that he has in Fast & Furious, but I felt that everything seemed believable.

Oh wait, except for those actions scenes where Lino pretty much knew every nook and cranny of Brick Mansions. Oh yeah, and those times where Lino jumps over buildings and crashes into windows and Damien comes crashing in after somewhat. The action scenes were a bit too exaggerated, but I think I liked that over-exaggerated.

I liked that usage of Damien Collier's grandfather in the beginning and the end of the movie. It felt like the entire movie was brought home with that one solitary moment.

It's s sort of feel-good movie that features action and philosophy about trust.

I give this movie a 4/5.

Frozen - Classic Disney Movie With Ice

Before ever thinking about seeing this film, I thought about the stupidity of the trailer due to the idea of Olaf the Snowman, voiced by Josh Gad. Right off the bat, I knew that this would be a film solely for kids, that adults or teens won't get the same laughs from the movie as much as the kids do. And once again, I was proven wrong.

Frozen tells the story of Anna, voiced by Kristen Bell, and Elsa, voiced by Idina Menzel, a pair of sisters who love and wish to play with each other all the time. An unfortunate event happens, however, when Elsa accidentally freezes a piece of Anna's hair, given the warning that Elsa must stay away from Anna. The story revolves around the idea that Elsa must hide who she is in order for the kingdom nor Anna not to know.

I do want to go ahead and say that the whole "true love" element to the story kind of sucks. It is, yet again, another one of those Disney elements that you have to prepare for before seeing this movie. Characters don't learn their lesson; they just regret something that they did, cry about it, and then get what they want anyway. Disney does not reflect real life. In real life, if you screw up, you screw up.

I did like the majority of the musical numbers in Frozen, but there were some that made me go, "Why the hell am I watching this again?" And then I remind myself that this is a Disney movie and anything can happen, so I just went along with it. Of course, "Let It Go" was one of my favorite musical numbers of the movie.

The character of Olaf was necessary actually to keep our spirits up in Disney movie standards. Kristoff, voiced by Jonathan Groff, reminded me of me, so I have some bias towards him.

All in all, I did like the plot twist at the end, I did like the little trolls that Kristoff introduces as his family, I did like the concept behind Frozen. The only reason I wouldn't give Frozen that 5 status is because it isn't exactly a movie that I would sort of live by, if that makes sense.

I give this movie a 4/5.

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