Ben Affleck is the new Batman!

This is probably the biggest news as of recent. I really don't know how I'm reacting to it but I'm just gonna write my thoughts. I like Ben Affleck a lot, especially with his recent work in Argo and The Town. The guy really knows how movies work; he's a good actor, a great director, and an Oscar-winning writer. We know that he's a big player in the film industry. But is he right for Batman? The first thing that's probably coming to everyone's mind is the atrocity that was 2003's Daredevil. A lot of people don't like that movie, myself included, but we can't completely blame Affleck for it. The movie's real downfall was the horrible writing and direction. Affleck had nothing to really build on. And we can also argue that he's had a couple other bumps along the road, like the absolutely terrible Gigli among others. But it's no doubt that Ben Affleck has redeemed himself after those years. I'm not saying that he's the perfect Batman but I really wanna see the guy succeed. I mean, he's bound to play a good superhero; he has the perfect superhero chin!
Another thing I'm interested in is how he's going to interpret Batman. The general public right now is more or less only familiar with the incredibly dark and grumpy Batman from the Dark Knight trilogy. A lot of people I talk to aren't even aware that there were other Batman movies before that, or even that the amazing Adam West show even existed. Now that there's another reboot of the character, it's interesting to speculate how the character will be done this time. Batman is a character with a lot of layers; he's damaged, he's rich, he contemplates whether the mask is the Batman cowl or the face of Bruce Wayne. There's a lot to go with, and Ben Affleck can be a diverse actor, so this could be his time to really shine. I personally think that he could actually play a good Bruce Wayne. He could fit the role really well, but putting on the cowl is the real story. Is he going to be a great Batman? I have no idea. He's played layered, angry characters before but the Caped Crusader is going to be difficult to pull off. I have faith in the guy but I'm not 100% just yet. However, I really hope that he can prove all the haters wrong (including the small shred of doubt that I have) and just wow us all as the new Batman. I guess we'll have to wait until 2015 to find out!

Paranoia - Noodles Review

3 out of 10 Noodles

    What a misleading title for a movie? Nobody's even paranoid in this movie at all so calling it Paranoia doesn't really make sense to me. Instead, they could've titled it Generic Conveniences. Know why? Because everything in this movie is written in so conveniently for the characters to succeed in the most generic way. So, I guess you can tell it's not a very likable movie. Before seeing this movie, the premise sounded pretty cool. One guy is spying on a company for a rival company but not everything goes according to plan and then shit happens. Plus, the CEOs of the companies are played by none other than two of the best actors in the business! We got Gary Oldman, one of the most diverse actors of modern cinema, and Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones & Han Solo: 'nough said). On top of that, it stars Thor's brother, Liam Hemsworth, who's good in The Expendables 2 and The Hunger Games, but this could have been his breakout role as a leading actor! Sadly, it's not.

     Hemsworth's character in this movie is so unlikable; the only reason an individual would enjoy him in this movie is because he's an attractive guy. However, his acting in this movie is pretty bad. I found myself comparing him to Taylor Lautner's performance in Abduction but at least with that movie we knew it was gonna be bad. Just as bad as his acting are the choices made by his character. The whole plot is put into motion because he got fired from a company and then he decides to go out clubbing with the credit card that's issued by the company he got fired from that he still luckily has! How stupid is that! And then, through a sequence of events, they choose him of all people to be a spy; this irresponsible guy who just goes out clubbing after he's fired? Wow. The writing in this movie clearly is off-putting, but we'll get to that later. The chicks, too, that Hemsworth gets with in this movie are really weird as well. One tries playing hard to get even though he already got with her, while the other chick tries to seduce him while he's already trying to seduce her. The only semi-redeeming qualities of this movie are that Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford actually try in this movie. It's undeniable that they're phenomenal actors, and they are, for the most part, good in this movie for what they're given. Nonetheless, they're given crap dialogue and stupid plot points. I cannot bag on the writing of this movie enough; it is so bad. The dialogue is unrealistic and not enjoyable, while the plot is so convoluted and uninteresting that I kept wanting to stop watching the movie.
     Additionally, the directing of this movie is a huge weakpoint. It looked like a made-for-TV movie from the '90s. The directing and camerawork were horrible. Sometimes there was a person talking but half their face was off the screen. In another sequence, Hemsworth is running like a little girl, flailing his arms around and whatnot. There's no purpose for him to be running like that; who said that was okay? It's funny seeing how stupid it is, but it's not even supposed to be funny. And with it being a spy thriller with convoluted twists, you'd think that it'd be unpredictable, right? Well it's not. It had those cliche moments like when he has to break into a vault and he's failed two out of three attempts, with the next failed attempt triggering the alarms. And then it tries to build tension in that moment, but you already know he's gonna be alright and his last attempt is gonna get through. The movie has no suspense whatsoever, despite trying to be a suspenseful summer thriller. It's not suspenseful because you always know what's gonna happen and don't really even care for the characters. It's not summer because it's boring and uninteresting rather than being fun. And it's not a thriller because there are absolutely no thrills. The only thing remotely okay about this movie are the performances of Gary Oldman and Harrision Ford, and that sometimes even gets old since Ford never gets the chance to say "Get off my plane!" It's not worth seeing in the theatre or even worth renting. It's one of those movies that will be on cable and you'll have to think about if you actually have nothing better to do than invest your time in it. But you'll probably end up passing anyways because Paranoia barely gets 3 out of 10 Noodles.

Top 5 Movies of Summer 2013

Though I haven't written any reviews all summer, I have seen a bunch of movies. So to make up for it, I've decided to make a top 5 list for the summer (meaning June, July, August; I don't count May as summer), consisting of my favourite movies of the summer with mini reviews of each. I've decided to do it this way because making a full detailed review for every new movie this summer would just be too much work, & I really only want to talk about the ones I enjoyed. So without further ado, let's get started with the honourable mentions.

Honourable Mentions
This Is The End - A movie about the end of the world during a party at James Franco's house? Count me in. This movie is really funny and it's inevitable that you'll be entertained throughout the movie. It's not exactly groundbreaking, but it is seriously funny with some clever moments as well as some jokes pointed at the actors themselves. If you can get past the raunchy humour, you'll enjoy it.
The Wolverine - The elephant in the room here is that X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a huge disappointment. I, myself, am a huge comic book fan and love the X-Men comics, cartoon, and most of the movies. However, I pretend like Origins didn't happen. Good thing The Wolverine came around to help me forget the aforementioned piece of crap. This is definitely an awesome movie and it dives into some really deep shit with Wolverine's personal life. It could honestly be watched as a standalone movie because it's dramatic and has a central story. The action is great (except for the action scenes containing shaky cam) and so is the acting, especially Hugh Jackman's portrayal (we're at a point where he is the only man who can play Wolverine). It's a very solid attempt at giving Wolverine his own movie and I had a lot of fun.
The Conjuring - If you've read my Evil Dead review, you'll know that I'm not a big fan of horror movies. It used to be because I get scared so easily and it sticks with me, but now it's because so many horror movies nowadays are just absolutely weak in story, character development, acting, and all the technical components of film-making. Thankfully, The Conjuring was pretty good with those things, especially the directing. It had a really slow buildup with some good character development, which made me care about them when scary things happened and most of the scares were well done. And while I still wasn't able to sleep after watching this movie, I was joyed by how well it was crafted.

5. Pacific Rim

It was really between this and The Conjuring that were competing for the number 5 spot, but I just can't deny how much fun I had with Pacific Rim. The story is actually really simple, in which huge monsters rise up from an inter-dimensional portal in the Pacific Ocean. The movie drops you in the middle of it, in which it's been happening for awhile so we've created huge badass robots to fight the monsters. It's a decent enough premise to make the awesome concepts of battles between giant monsters & giant robots plausible. It's reason enough for us to get locked into this movie. The character development was alright, as was the acting. Charlie Hunnam plays the protagonist; and while I absolutely love him in Sons of Anarchy, he's not spectacular in the movie. He gets the job done and you root for him but you're gonna buy his action figure. Then there's Idris Elba. We already know he's awesome, because with every role he takes on, the film could be terrible but you know Elba is gonna perform greatly. However, not everyone comes to this movie for the characters. We came to watch giant robots battle giant monsters. And I'll tell you it's so awesome. The battles are so epic. The scale of these battles are humongous and it allows you to actually see the entire fight occur, as opposed to the Transformers movies where it's all in you face and you can't tell what's going most of the time other than the sound of clanking metal. No, with this movie you see it all, and it is absolutely awesome. 7.5 out of 10 Noodles.

4. The Hunt
This is a lesser known film (probably because it's foreign) but it's definitely a great one. The Hunt is a Danish film concerning the a man named Lucas, played by Mads Mikkelsen. You may know him as the Bond villain from Casino Royale or as Hannibal Lecter in the show Hannibal. He's a phenomenal actor and he really shows that here (I'd be surprised if didn't get nominated for this). In this film, he plays an innocent-minded teacher. What I love about this movie is that it's so grounded and real. You really believe that this guy, Lucas, is a real person and everything that happens in the movie is so believable. He's a recently divorced guy who's close to getting custody of his son; he's starting a new relationship; as a teacher, all the kids love him. His life is a pretty positive one at the moment, until... one little girl decides to tell a little lie and falsely accuse him of sexually harassing her. And even though there's no evidence of this, Lucas's life begins to crumble. It all happens so realistically and that's credit to the writing and direction of this movie. When I watched this movie, I literally sat forward in my seat, motionless, witnessing the events of the film unfold. There's no special effects or spectacular events; it's just pure raw emotion in an intensely believable situation. One of the best compliments I can give a foreign-language film is that I forget that I'm reading the subtitles because I'm so engrossed in what's happening. To me, this is one of the best crafted films of recent years. Not everyone can watch it because a lot of people would find it boring or uninteresting, but it is just beautiful to me. 9 out of 10 Noodles. 

3. Man of Steel
Truthfully, this and The Hunt are interchangeable at the number 3 spot because The Hunt is definitely a better movie but Man of Steel is just so entertaining. I mean, come on, it's not a bird & it's not a plane. It's Superman! Man of Steel was actually my most anticipated movie of 2013 and while I hate to say it, I was somewhat disappointed. I didn't get that special spark that I was hoping for, which I got from the Dark Knight movies. And I'm probably gonna compare it to that too. However, I still like this movie a lot. If you didn't know, Man of Steel is the reboot of the Superman franchise. It's actually a great start for the hero, but it's not perfect. Henry Cavill actually owns the role of Superman, and Amy Adams as Lois Lane is convincing as well. But the show is stolen by the fathers, Russell Crowe as Jor-El and Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent. Michael Shannon as General Zod was great, too, but he lacked the emotion and intensity that I was expecting to get from him (especially showcased in one of the trailers). He was great in the role, but he's not the definitive Zod. Nonetheless, this movie still housed a ton of awesome sequences. Essentially every fight scene in this movie is done well and I just can't deny how much I enjoyed every second of them. Director Zack Snyder's visual direction of this movie is so great. However, I felt at times that there was too many action sequences in comparison to how much time is spent developing characters and emotion and all that stuff. While the movie has it's emotional scenes, it's not wholly inspiring or at the caliber of emotion that I was hoping for. But it's more so on the level of action-packed summer movieness. But I still enjoy this movie a lot and I'm so excited to see where the franchise heads (especially with the inclusion of Batman in the sequel!). 8.5 out of 10 Noodles.

2. Despicable Me 2

I was seriously contemplating the high placement of this movie on my list, but I just have to stress how much replay value this movie has. I can honestly watch it so many times. There's never really a dull moment in this movie. If you liked the first one, I'm pretty sure you'll like this one too. Personally, I loved the first one and I might even like this one more. Despicable Me 2 is about the ex-villain Gru moving on from his life of crime and instead raising his family (of which the youngest girl Agnes is probably the cutest animated character. Ever.). Along the way, there's a spy conspiracy concerning a supervillain on his hands, as well as the outstandingly lovable minions. We all love the minions and the makers of this film realized and capitalized on that. There's so much more minion humour in this movie and it's great. Essentially all the humour in this movie is laugh-out-loud hilarious and the best funny parts are the really subtle things. It's actually rewarding in a sense. The second half of the movie is also filled with cool spy stuff (bear in mind that it's not Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol though) and it's all fun and entertaining, while still retaining all the laughs. It's fun for kids, teenagers, and adults: the quintessential family movie of this year so far and definitely the funniest. 8.5 out of 10 Noodles. 

1. Elysium 

I was really excited for Elysium since I absolutely adore writer/director Neil Blomkamp's first film District 9. It had a gritty, realistic feel to it; the character development and acting was great, as well as the action; and there were interesting themes of social commentary in it. Thankfully, Blomkamp has delivered that yet again with Elysium. This is one of those movies that you walk into not fully knowing what to expect. However, it all pays off since this is the best movie of the summer and possibly of the year. Elysium takes place about a century or two into the future and Earth is in a pretty bad, crumbling type, condition here. Don't expect the world of Back to the Future 2 because this Earth is overpopulated, polluted; it sucks. And in this film, there's essentially no middle class of society is really present. We have the poor class living on this tattered Earth. Then we have the rich class (politically "the 1%") living on this perfect habitat in a space station called Elysium. On Elysium, life is great: everything's clean, everything's high society, they listen to classical music and speak French. There's medical machines that can essentially fix anything (from fixing broken legs to curing cancer). Jodie Foster kind of runs the place. She's actually the secretary of defense, but you know she really runs things. We know she's a great actress, and she's good here. Some people may be bothered by the weird, almost unique, accent she gives her character but I kind of felt it added to her character. However, she's one of the antagonists of the film as she pretty much hates the poor people who illegally immigrate to Elysium.

   On Earth, we have Matt Damon's character Max. He's a really likable guy and easy to root for. He cracks jokes and kicks ass, but is also really determined to reach his goals. Matt Damon delivers here with probably his best performance since The Departed. Through a number of events, he's gotta get to Elysium so he gets an awesome robotic suit bolted onto his body. It's pretty graphic when this happens too, the guys who do it don't exactly look like professionals, more so like thugs in the slums. Also on Earth is Agent Kruger, played by Sharlto Copley. I have to tell you right now that this guy completely steals the show. He's an actor with incredible range, playing an innocent fidgety guy who becomes a determined fighter in District 9, and then playing an all out psycho (who is awesome) in this movie. He works for the Elysium government but he still lives on the slums of Earth with his guys. The entirety of Earth is essentially the slums and the movie spends a lot of time on Earth, which I actually enjoyed. The location filming is fantastic and the setting is incredibly engrossing. You felt like you were in this world with them and caring about what would happen. The action sequences were so cool too. It's not tame though, there's very detailed blood and gore. And there's the robots, too, whom I can't even tell if they're actual set pieces or special effects. Whichever it is, they look so real.
   Another real thing about this movie is the social commentary of it. Yeah, with District 9, Blomkamp gave us the themes of apartheid and racism, while wrapping them up in a really interesting and unique movie with aliens. In Elysium, we have the issues of immigration, healthcare, and class boundaries discussed in this movie. My dad would even point out how interesting they made it, like where a group of poor Earthlings take some illegal ships up to Elysium and Jodie Foster wants to deport them because they're technically illegal immigrants. It really makes you think about how society is in our world today. When a movie can do that, while still being an incredibly entertaining and engrossing sci-fi flick, you know it's gonna be awesome. And whether you agree with the societal themes or not, you have to admire how much passion Neil Blomkamp pours into this film. In 2013, it's pretty rare to see that and I really love it. Elysium is a fantastic sci-fi drama with some deep human elements, as well as some amazing action scenes and awesome sequences (there's a Bugatti spaceship... how is that not awesome?). 9 out of 10 Noodles.

Star Trek Into Darkness - Noodles Review

9 out of 10 Noodles

       Yup, I'm a Star Trek fan. Yes, I'm a Benedict Cumberbatch fan. How about we put those two together and see what happens? Well, this... the best movie of 2013 thus far. I loved the first movie (not the first Stark Trek: The Motion Picture) from 2009 that was sort of a reboot of the franchise but sort of not. The concept of it was that it opened a new timeline, sort of a parallel universe. This means that while everything in the original shows and movies did happen, all of the events in the new movies are also happening to the same characters in a different timeline (or parallel universe). This gives leeway for a lot of things as it gives the opportunity to the people making the film to create their own ideas for it, without altering any of the source material. Therefore, a lot of awesome shit happens in the new movies.

       The first thing you gotta talk about in this movie is Benedict Cumberbatch. He is absolutely awesome in one of my favourite shows, Sherlock, and he owns in this movie. He's menacing, smart, efficient; everything we need. One of my only gripes about the first movie was the villain. He didn't suck or anything but he just wasn't totally awesome and badass; and I understand that because that one was introducing the characters and the whole world. But they got it all right in this one because Cumberbatch = awesome. If he's in a scene, you even totally disregard anyone else in the scene because he literally steals every single scene just be being present. Overall, I think you get the point that he's intense. Kirk and Spock are awesome as well. There's a lot of really enjoyable moments concerning their relationship as shipmates. They banter back and forth, intentionally disregard eachother, and yet still work together and respect one another. That's a real buddy movie right there. Then there's Scotty who's the comic relief of the movie and Simon Pegg really does him justice. However, not all of the characters are as greatly important. It's not that they're irrelevant, but they aren't as perfectly fleshed out as they could've been (or Cumberbatch is just stealing all their talent).
      Speaking of talent, the director, J.J. Abrams showcases his pretty well in this movie. While some people don't like his many lens flares, I feel they add more to the film's style. One thing that doesn't need style to be great in this film is the action and epic things that happen. The movie is filled with adrenaline and barely ever gives you a breather. Plus, it's filled with tons of money shots! If you don't know what that is, it's a really awesome scene in a movie (usually depicted in the trailers) that you know costs big money but it just makes your jaw drop. Example from this movie: the scene in the trailer where the U.S.S Enterprise crashes into the lake. Yup, it's there and it is awesome. While there's awesome and relentless action, the story's pretty dense too. It's compelling, heartfelt, and fun. It even has layers, which we don't really see in action movies often today; while there's the action between the good guy and the bad guy, there's drama, politics, and other events going on that really add to the movie.
      If you know someone who says that they don't wanna see this movie just because Star Trek is dumb or nerdy, they are clearly either stupid or an asshole. This movie and it's predecessor actually make Star Trek a cool and entertaining thing for everyone to watch and undoubtedly enjoy. There's great and exciting action, a strong and compelling story, fun moments, and Benedict Cumberbatch absolutely kicks ass. Star Trek Into Darkness is, so far, the best movie of 2013, and it gets 9 out of 10 Noodles. 

The Great Gatsby - Noodles Review

7 out of 10 Noodles

        American classic of literature... The Great Gatsby... can somebody please tell me why this movie needed to be in 3D? The Great Gatsby is a very character-based story; the story can only proceed through how well the characters are portrayed, not the in-your-face style. Thankfully, the characters are most great too. Anyways, The Great Gatsby is a pretty simple story. There's an awesome rich guy, Jay Gatsby, whose pretty much the Hugh Hefner of the 1920s (although they were probably the same age in the '20s). He's in love with the narrator's cousin, who happens to be married to a douche with a lot of inherited money. That's some simple and classy drama there, right? Well, let's just add an insane amount of noise and a lot of green screen and now we have a movie.
       The first thing you gotta talk about with this movie is Leonardo DiCaprio. The guy's like one of the best in the business right now and personally my 3rd favourite actor. You just can't help but root for him in whatever movie he's in (hell, I almost even rooted for him in Django Unchained... but that would've been bad) and ya root for him in this movie. He kills it as Jay Gatsby. One thing that was great was the subtle mystery of his character (one really great film aspect is that he wasn't even shown for the first 20-30 minutes of the movie) The rest of the cast is good; especially Joel Edgerton who plays the dick so well, helping us to appreciate Gatsby even more. Toby Maguire (who we've all come to know as Spiderman) is fine in the movie as the narrator but I feel his role could've been played by anyone. Carey Mulligan, who plays Daisy (the girl Gatsby is infatuated with) overacts a little bit but I feel that's good for the character she plays and the style of this movie.
     The style of the movie is really one thing that's really crucial to its likability. For me, I like where they were going with it, but it's just too much.for the movie. Baz Luhrmann is the director of this movie. If you don't know who he is, imagine what would happen if Zack Snyder started making artsy movies. He's a very visual and striking director, which sometimes works but not always. They use a lot of noise and colors for this movie. It's, in a way, visually loud. So much is going on that its just like there's noise on the screen. And a lot of this movie is shot on green screen, with a lot of visual effects that don't really need to be there. I don't think there's much need for that in a drama about love. While it does work at some times, I didn't think it did much justice to the overall film. What I really liked are the scenes that take place in one room where people are just talking or arguing. You can feel the tension and emotion of those scenes really well.
     Still, The Great Gatsby puts a little too much flair into a simple character-based drama, creating an imbalance of style over substance. The acting was great and the script seemed like it was probably great too; but the way it was conveyed was a little too much. The clash between the premise of the movie and the ongoing visuals really compromised the overall quality of it. While it's an interesting and, in a respect, a unique movie, The Great Gatsby is not as memorable as I hoped for it to be. Nonetheless, I'm a little generous in giving this "old sport" 7 out of 10 Noodles.

Iron Man 3 - Noodles Review

6.5 out of 10 Noodles
8 out of 10 as a movie; 5 out of 10 as an Iron Man movie

      You might've noticed my scoring of the movie and that's because it's a very awesome summer movie. But if you're a fan of comics and superheros (which I hugely am), you might feel a little different about it. If you're a die hard Iron Man fan, you'll probably be disappointed. I'm not saying it's a bad movie because it DEFINITELY is not. However, there are some points in the movie that could alter the enjoyment of the film. Iron Man 3 was my 4th most anticipated movie of 2013 (after Man of Steel, The Hobbit 2, and Elysium) and I wouldn't blame anyone for really looking forward to this movie. The trailers were insanely incredible. While the movie doesn't pull through as well as the trailers, it's still somewhat of a treat.
       The premise of Iron Man 3 is actually quite interesting. It ties back to The Avengers in which Iron Man practically saved the whole world in the end. He gets anxiety and can't sleep at night because of his post-traumatic stress. The shit really affected him big time. Then, The Mandarin has to come about and just bring him even more hell. I really liked the idea and where they were going with it. Tony Stark sort of has to use his wits and go on without the Iron Man suit for a bit. I liked that idea but it was a bit drawn out at times. However, the dialogue is quite on point (from the writer of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Lethal Weapon so I would imagine so). Sometimes I felt the humor was a little overdone but, oh well, it's a summer movie, I'll deal with it. The humor does kind of have a purpose though. That's who Tony Stark is. He's a narcissistic badass who throws in one liners whenever he wants. Robert Downey Jr. obviously owns the role; he was born to play Tony Stark. Guy Pearce is an awesome actor and he pretty much owns his role but we'll talk about his character a little later. Don Cheadle was great and I was happy to see how much more developed his character was in this movie. However, I didn't really care about Pepper Potts in this movie as much as I did in previous movies, even though the movie tries to make you care about her. One character the movie did good at making you care about early on was The Mandarin. Ben Kingsley pretty much owns the role and I was expecting him to be awesome. If you don't get the gist of The Mandarin; he's the archnemesis of Iron Man, his most important villain. Joker to Batman, Lex Luthor to Superman, Green Goblin to Spiderman, Mandarin to Iron Man. You gotta do him well. However something happens that just completely splits the decision of whether or not you can enjoy the rest of the film. But I won't say it since this is a spoiler-free review; I'll only do a spoiler filled review if enough of you guys ask for it. Anyways, it's a pretty pivotal sequence in the movie. When you watch the movie, I guarantee you'll know what I'm talking about. It was a great move as a film. But as an Iron Man film, it just wasn't the way it should've been done.
         A lot of what I didn't like about the movie are spoilers, so I can't really elaborate big on them in detail. I'll say this: a lot of what happened was really cheesy and cartoony, while other things were cliche. That's the most I can say without spoiling anything. Additionally, there were some flaws in the conveyance of emotion, where I sort of felt for the characters but then something would happen that would completely change that. But still, the action is pretty sweet in this movie. Whenever the suit just latches itself onto Tony Stark, I feel like I've seen some of the coolest things in the world. And the final battle is awesome! And that's something we didn't get with the first two Iron Man movies. It was really entertaining and I was totally amazed until the end of it... another totally cliche scene occurred. However, I rolled with it and watched the rest of the movie, which ended up being a lot of important scenes, going through unnoticeably in about a minute or two.
        All in all, Iron Man 3 is definitely better than Iron Man 2 but can't quite get up to the level that the first Iron Man did. I'd say it's the most entertaining of the series for casual movie goers though. It has some awesome action and insanely cool special effects. There's subtle humor pretty much everywhere in the movie and Tony Stark is still a very lovable character. However, it does get kinda drawn out at some points, and cartoony at other times. As a regular movie, I give it 8 out of 10 Noodles. But, I can't deny my own feelings of the directions taken in this movie that really detracted from the experience for me, big time. It really doesn't compare to the level of emotion and amazement of the first movie, or the level of epicness that The Avengers reached. If adding the disappointing aspects of the movie as an Iron Man film, it's 5 out of 10 Noodles. I guess that averages it out at a 6.5, but in spite of that, I wouldn't really have a problem watching it again.
     

Pain & Gain - Noodles Review

4 out of 10 Noodles

         Sorry I wasn't able to post much recently; I've been preoccupied in other affairs. However, this movie isn't really much to wait for. I went into this movie hoping it would be Michael Bay's redemption. His early movies, The Rock and Bad Boys, were fun and actually good movies. Then he completely lost his shit. I was cool with the first Transformers movies, but the second made me lose all hope. Anyways, I really liked the first trailers for Pain & Gain. They made me feel like this would actually be a fun and stylish movie. However, their ads literally have hashtags in them. "#GetBig" made me immediately like this movie less before seeing it; but I still went in with an open mind. Regardless, I was still disappointed.
        Mark Wahlberg is obviously the star of this movie. He's fine as an actor but his character is so difficult and stupid to identify with. And it's hard to identify with any of the characters in this movie because it's so unfocused. There's inner monologue for Wahlberg's character and that's fine, but then there turns out to be inner monologue for a plethora of other characters. Now the movie has no focus and you can't really follow it or relate to anyone. Dwayne Johnson was kinda likable in this movie because he tries to act innocent, but he gets annoying sometimes. Regardless, he's a good actor but if we have to talk about the acting, I'd say Ed Harris is the best in the movie, and so is his character. That being said, there's not much else to really like in the movie.

        Michael Bay, one of my least favorite directors, tries to go for a weird type of style in this movie. The whole movie is saturated on blast, the colors are popping out at your face in extreme contrast. It's really annoying after the first couple minutes. I would be okay if they used that for a specific scene to make it interesting, but it's forced throughout the movie. Another thing forced is the comedy of the movie. I'll admit I did laugh some times, but the movie isn't really that funny to be memorable. I can't really think of anything memorable from this movie; and the funniness really isn't one. And one big issue with this is that it actually happened. These guys went out and tortured, murdered, and stole from people (not too long ago either); and they make it as a comedy in which the criminals are the characters you're suppose to follow and root for. And sometimes it gets so over the top that the movie literally tries reminding you that it's still a true story (literally, it says "this is still a true story"). I'm okay with comedy, I'm okay with style, and I'm okay with fun movies. But I'm not okay with Michael Bay. And I'm not okay with how this movie is blended together. 4 out of 10 Noodles.