Maleficent Review (SPOILERS) 7.5/10

Growing up with a lot of these classic films like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, I am a big fan of the new trend of these "Disney made dark" films. Which are mainly focused on the villain. Snow White and the Huntsman is a good example of a previous one. Which was mediocre all around film, great performance by Charlize Theron, poor story and brilliant special effects. Maleficent was no different.
  Casting Angelina Jolie was the best thing Disney could have done. Jolie portrayed Maleficent so perfectly, capturing how misunderstood the character is and really showing all of the hurt this character has with her performance. She definitely was born to play this character and most will agree has the best performance in the film.

The story is not horrible don't get me wrong. There are just a lot of parts for kids and it is a family movie nonetheless so you just have to remember that when you go into the theater. One thing I really didn't like about the movie is the king. I wasn't sure where they were trying to go with that character. First he was a loving father turned mad king, which worked but the thing he was obsessed about was his daughter being safe because he loves her so much, then when he finally sees her 16 years later he doesn't hug her back after she puts her arms around him and locks her up out of his sight? Basically the character progression didn't make sense.

Another thing I absolutely could not stand about the film was the fairy godmothers. They were extremely annoying and ultimately useless to the movie. They were supposed to watch the princess but they couldn't have ADD or something. Even leaving the baby outside crying at one point. To sum it up they are worst possible people to have watch your child ever. Besides Maleficent, who by the way, WATCHES THE KID HER WHOLE LIFE. 

Great job fairy godmothers!

I really really loved the back story of Maleficent. I thought it was a great and fresh new look on the classic Sleeping Beauty villain. Even teaches at the end when Maleficent is the one who actually falls in love with Aurora and is actually her true love over the prince that girls don't need a prince to be happy. They just need someone to support them through life's lemons. I enjoyed the importance of Maleficent's wings. From the moment the king cut them off of her you find yourself rooting for her. Hoping that one day she gets them back. Jolie's performance and emotions beautifully delivers that. 

 Like I said before, this movie is visually breath taking. Disney never fails to capture the magic in anything they do. As Maleficent is soaring through the this magical world you get that child-like sense of wonder that Disney is known to bring out in adults.

Elle Fanning is growing into a fantastic young actress. I thought she played a Princess Aurora perfectly and was exactly the princess you'd picture from the fairy tales. I have always liked her performances so far. It'll be nice to see her grow as an actor and to see where her career leads her.

Overall I'd have to say this movie is a good all around movie but a great family movie. Definitely go check it out if you get the chance.

                                                        7.5/10

Let me know how you feel about this review or the movie in general in the comment section below! Thanks for reading!  

3 Days To Kill Review (SPOILERS)- 5.5/10

One of my favorite movies ever is Taken with Liam Neeson. It has kind of given me a soft spot for bad ass old guys who can kick ass, so I was really excited to see this movie. I'm a big fan of Kevin Costner and Amber Heard and I thought it would be awesome to mix her sexiness with his bad assness.

Nope. This movie was pretty bad. Before I go in to it I just want to say that it was in no way Kevin Costner's fault. He was good in it and so was Amber Heard but the movie was so badly written. I found myself forcing my way through the movie. Gah. So bad!

Amber Heard's character has absolutely no depth to her. She is basically a horrible caricature of a secret agent woman. As soon as Kevin's character Ethan got into the car with her so they can "take a ride" she went like 80mph everywhere in the city and said smart ass comments the whole time. Also, you can never really tell if shes good or bad. One minute she seems like a genuine good person with her "miracle cure drug" and one minute you don't know if shes going to shoot him in the face or not. Such an under-developed character.

My problem with this film is that it has way too many emotional stories that fail at going anywhere. One story is him dying and being a secret agent. Another story is of him being a secret agent and connecting with his daughter. Another story of him dying and using the time left to connect with his daughter, and this very random African family that are "squatting" in his home? You see them once at the beginning of the movie and a little boy somewhat through out and then at the end when one of the women has a baby and its supposed to be emotional. The film would have been 10 times better if you take out Amber Heard's character and that squatter family. Just have him being a secret agent and trying to connect with his daughter. Another problem I had was that Ethan got his family WAY too involved with his secret agent life. On a dangerous level. You are never supposed to to tell the bad guys your real name or hand them a phone and say, "talk to me daughter Zooey."

Oh and the saying "3 Days to Kill" had nothing to do with anything! The significance of it was that Ethan said to his daughter, "Your mothers not going to be back until Wednesday (I'm paraphrasing the day)" and his daughter says, "well looks like we have 3 days to kill." BOOM.

I'm not going to bash on the movie the whole time though. There are some redeemable parts in the film. Ethan is pretty bad ass when he has to be and some of the fight scenes and shoot outs were cool. Like I said Kevin Costner is a great actor. I hold no fault to him. I thought the Hailee Steinfield did a good job. Amber Heard wasn't bad but her character was just awful.

If you loved the movie that's great and I'm glad somebody did but for me it was a miss. If you haven't seen it yet then....I don't know, rent it? Wait for it to be on Netflix? Definitely don't buy it.

                                                         5.5/10