Friday, June 24, 2016
The Shallows (Video)
The Shallows is the next shark survival thriller. Is it the next Jaws or is it closer to Sharknado?
Free State of Jones (Video)
Free State of Jones is a true story that features Matthew McConaughey as defected Confederate soldier Newt Knight who leads a group of rebels against the Confederate army.
Independence Day: Resurgence (Video)
Independence Day: Resurgence is a sequel to the 1996 White House exploding classic. Is it good enough to be considered a worthy sequel?
Friday, June 17, 2016
Look Who's Back (Netflix)
Look Who's Back is a fish out of water story that features Adolf Hitler who suddenly wakes up in 2014 having no idea what has happened since his death. He then stumbles his way through modern society while attempting to gain the influence he once had.
Look Who's Back is a 2015 satirical comedy based on a German novel of the same name. Although the premise does seem a little off putting at first, the fish out of water story with Hitler being the focus was enjoyable, funny, and extremely though provoking.
Another thing that I think should be mentioned is that the film is entirely in German. That means that everyone in the movie speaks German and English subtitles are throughout the entire film.
The Good:
The Premise. The premise itself is so utterly bonkers that it at least deserves a look to see how it is handled.
Oliver Masucci as Adolf Hitler is absolutely perfect. Occasionally he will give speeches to people; sometimes it is one person, other times it is a whole crowd, and just like Adolf Hitler, his speeches are intense and captivating. It was truly incredible how perfect he was able to capture the charisma of Hitler.
The improv. Much like in Borat and other documentary style comedies, Look Who's Back has moments where Oliver Masucci is walking around Berlin in full character as Adolf Hitler. Actual people interact with him and ask him questions. The responses are completely improvised and are perfect. Most of the movie is scripted, but these little nuggets are some of the best part of the movie.
The comedy. As I mentioned, the story is utterly hilarious. The way Hitler reacts to certain modern situations had me actually laughing out loud, even though I was watching it alone.
The thought provoking message. I don't want to give anything away, but there is a definite message in Look Who's Back and it is something that one should definitely think about. It even has a certain correlation to the US Presidential Election of 2016... not that I'm directly insinuating anything of course... just observing.
The Ehh:
The middle. There were moments in the middle where the story did get a little boring. There were still enough nuggets of hilarity to make it worth it, but it doesn't compare to how good the beginning or end was.
The Ugh-ly:
Nothing. Look Who's Back is worth your time and attention.
Conclusion:
Look Who's Back is a funny and ingenious movie and is definitely worth your time. Just remember that this isn't a casual viewing since you will have to pay attention enough to actually read the subtitles.
What did you think of Look Who's Back? And what other historical figure do you think would make for a funny fish out of water story? Leave your comments below and don't forget to check out my YouTube channel (here) for weekly movie reviews. Remember to always keep it unpopped!
Look Who's Back is a 2015 satirical comedy based on a German novel of the same name. Although the premise does seem a little off putting at first, the fish out of water story with Hitler being the focus was enjoyable, funny, and extremely though provoking.
Another thing that I think should be mentioned is that the film is entirely in German. That means that everyone in the movie speaks German and English subtitles are throughout the entire film.
The Good:
The Premise. The premise itself is so utterly bonkers that it at least deserves a look to see how it is handled.
Oliver Masucci as Adolf Hitler is absolutely perfect. Occasionally he will give speeches to people; sometimes it is one person, other times it is a whole crowd, and just like Adolf Hitler, his speeches are intense and captivating. It was truly incredible how perfect he was able to capture the charisma of Hitler.
The improv. Much like in Borat and other documentary style comedies, Look Who's Back has moments where Oliver Masucci is walking around Berlin in full character as Adolf Hitler. Actual people interact with him and ask him questions. The responses are completely improvised and are perfect. Most of the movie is scripted, but these little nuggets are some of the best part of the movie.
The comedy. As I mentioned, the story is utterly hilarious. The way Hitler reacts to certain modern situations had me actually laughing out loud, even though I was watching it alone.
The thought provoking message. I don't want to give anything away, but there is a definite message in Look Who's Back and it is something that one should definitely think about. It even has a certain correlation to the US Presidential Election of 2016... not that I'm directly insinuating anything of course... just observing.
The Ehh:
The middle. There were moments in the middle where the story did get a little boring. There were still enough nuggets of hilarity to make it worth it, but it doesn't compare to how good the beginning or end was.
The Ugh-ly:
Nothing. Look Who's Back is worth your time and attention.
Conclusion:
Look Who's Back is a funny and ingenious movie and is definitely worth your time. Just remember that this isn't a casual viewing since you will have to pay attention enough to actually read the subtitles.
What did you think of Look Who's Back? And what other historical figure do you think would make for a funny fish out of water story? Leave your comments below and don't forget to check out my YouTube channel (here) for weekly movie reviews. Remember to always keep it unpopped!
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
An AI-Written Short Film Is Surprisingly Hilarious
I honestly didn't think anything like this was possible, but Ars Technica has defied the impossible and has trained a computer to write a screenplay for a short film entitled Sunspring.
The way it accomplished the task was they had to first build an algorithm, which now calls itself Benjamin. They based it on text recognition and text prediction. Then they fed numerous sci-fi screenplays into the algorithm. After "learning" from the many different types of things that happen in a sci-fi movie, Benjamin was then given a few prompts to go on such as the title, a small scene, and an idea.
Then the impossible happens, Benjamin actually spits out a screenplay. The screenplay can be downloaded from Ars Technica's site (here).
Honestly what came out was exactly what one would expect from a text prediction algorithm. It is completely nonsensical and one of the worst things ever.
However, that isn't the most exciting part of this project because then a director and actors were hired to actually perform out the screenplay that was written by Benjamin. A lot of creative liberty had to be taken to make any sense of what was in the screenplay, but overall, the short film that was created is entirely based on what Benjamin created.
So without further adieu, I present to you the "Oscar caliber" short film adapted from the screenplay written by Benjamin the algorithm. Here is Sunspring.
The way it accomplished the task was they had to first build an algorithm, which now calls itself Benjamin. They based it on text recognition and text prediction. Then they fed numerous sci-fi screenplays into the algorithm. After "learning" from the many different types of things that happen in a sci-fi movie, Benjamin was then given a few prompts to go on such as the title, a small scene, and an idea.
Then the impossible happens, Benjamin actually spits out a screenplay. The screenplay can be downloaded from Ars Technica's site (here).
Honestly what came out was exactly what one would expect from a text prediction algorithm. It is completely nonsensical and one of the worst things ever.
However, that isn't the most exciting part of this project because then a director and actors were hired to actually perform out the screenplay that was written by Benjamin. A lot of creative liberty had to be taken to make any sense of what was in the screenplay, but overall, the short film that was created is entirely based on what Benjamin created.
So without further adieu, I present to you the "Oscar caliber" short film adapted from the screenplay written by Benjamin the algorithm. Here is Sunspring.
That is the weirdest yet most interesting thing that I have ever seen, and I can't wait to see what else Benjamin can come up with.
I watched it a second time while reading the screenplay along with it, and it surprisingly made more sense that time. I'm still 100% confused, but the overarching story was a little more clear... if there is an overarching story. Anyways, so definitely give that a try as well.
So what do you think of Sunspring? Leave your comments below and remember to always keep it unpopped.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Central Intelligence (Video)
A little Hart teams up with a big Johnson to help protect America from a national threat. Do they have what it takes to uncover the conspiracy behind it all?
Monday, June 13, 2016
June 10th Box Office: The Conjuring 2 Scares Away the Competition
Well thank you America! The Conjuring 2 brought in a whopping $40 million domestically, Warcraft had $24 million, and Now You See Me 2 rounds out the top 3 with $23 million.
With Warcraft being a popular video game franchise, it was pretty much a sure thing that it would dominate at the box office, and worldwide, that definitely was the case. Internationally Warcraft pulled in $261 million. $144 million of that coming exclusively from China. In fact, Warcraft has officially become the fastest movie to reach 1 Billion Chinese Yuan, beating out Furious 7 by about six hours. This is nothing short of a huge accomplishment.
As many may have noticed from my Warcraft review (here), I didn't think Warcraft was a terrible movie, but I did find it a little boring and forgettable. Of the 3 movies being released last weekend, I can't praise The Conjuring 2 enough (review here). So even though I was pushing for The Conjuring 2 to win at the domestic box office, I was pretty sure that a horror movie didn't stand a chance against a video game movie with a massive following.
Next weekend, with Finding Dory coming out, I'm sure that both of these movies will drop off dramatically. At least for this week it is nice to see that America has chosen a horror movie to be the highest grossing movie of the weekend.
What did you think of The Conjuring 2 or Warcraft? Did you think that Warcraft deserved more love than it got? Leave your comments below and remember to always keep it unpopped.
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