Hey folks this is a Movie Critic blog. It is run by Troy Mendenhall, Chris Daley and Jake Gifford. We will critique and rate movies as we see them. Feel free to leave comments about movies that you have seen and we will continue those conversations. This is for those who love movies and who want to know if some movies are worth seeing. Let your friends know about us and keep coming back.

Chris-let me just start off by saying that i have such a passionate and sincere love of movies. And i critque them enough with Jake and Troy that the next logical step would be too rate movies online. i as a movie critic vow to give evr movie i am reviewing a fair chance. i will study and watch related movies in the series. and will give my unbiased and biased opinion on each movie. also feel free to post if you agree or just wanna argue. i am quite good at arguing. thanks for following!

Alright this is Jake. I run this website with my good buddy Chris and my cousin Troy. I have a history of making movies that has given me the experience to know what makes a quality movie. I am also a huge fan of entertainment. I look at movies from a couple of different perspectives, 1) The quality of the movie, like the storyline, script, acting quality, cinematography, etc. 2) I look at the "entertainment" factor. The "Flash, Bang, Boom" of a movie, which can sometimes make up for the lack of good film making. I'm gonna rate the movies that I watch on both criteria and then do the combination of both. I am going to review all the new movies I see from now on, I will also do retro-rating for movies that have already come out. Here's to some Great movies.

Oye Gents and Lassies! Troy here . . shall I start by saying what a privilege it is being invited by Jake and Chris (2 of the coolest guys around) to have a part in this epic blog. Like Chris I like to debate and think I'm pretty decent at it - and like Jake I've made movies myself and have also learned to critique movies pretty much exactly how Jake explained. . nuff said about that . . Movies are my passion, watching AND making. My wife loves watching movies with me but she doesn't always like talking about the movies like I do - unless it's one she absolutely loves. This blog is such an amazing thing for someone like me who wouldn't really find the time to blog about anything else, not even myself. :)

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Teminator Salvation by Jake

Terminator Salvation, Rated PG-13; Starring: Christian Bale and Sam Worthington.
Directed by: McG
Written by: John D. Brancato, and Michael Ferris

Rating: Movie Quality: 9.5, Entertainment: 10, Overall 10

I'm a huge fan of the Terminator franchise and was ecstatic when I first saw this movie was going to be made. Months of waiting and anticipation led up to me sitting in the theater next to my compadre, Chris, and we weren't disappointed at all. This movie was amazing, despite all the critics and halfwits that say that this movie "destroyed" the Terminator franchise. The writers are pure genius and should receive awards for what they did here. They tied all the Terminator movies together to help the overall Terminator story make sense. Using lines from previous movies and eluding to things that happen in the past/future. This is probably why people didn't like it. I had a Terminator marathon a week before the movie came out, and that helped so much. If you haven't seen the other movies in a while then all the nuances of the writing won't make much sense to you. I suspect all the negative critics didn't pick up much on the old lines and the foreshadowing. I was worried how they were going to incorporate the classic Terminator lines of "I'll be back." and "Come with me if you want to live." into the movie without being cliche or tacky, but they did not disappoint there either. I was impressed with the way the roles of Kyle Reese and Marcus Wright were played. The movie had great acting and the action scenes were superb. Sam Worthington, in his first major role, proved to be a great action hero and has a big future in this genre. The action was great and kept everyone in the theater on the edge of their seats. Watching the two terminators fight each other was especially awesome. This movie had some of the greatest cinematography I've seen in a movie to date, the scene when Bale is piloting a crashing helicopter and there is one camera angle for the entire scene is one example. I am usually not a fan of having a "shaky" camera, a la The Bourne Supremacy, but if it is done correctly it can be very effective. The "shaky" camera was very effective in making you feel you were a part of the action without making you "sea-sick." The scene progression made the story easy to follow. McG is a highly controversial director, he doesn't have much talent and tries to be taken seriously. In this case, though, he did an amazing job. The directing in the movie was good and fit well for an action thriller. The only stains on this film are those left by Helena Bonham Carter and Moon Bloodgood. Two of the worst actresses to ruin a movie screen. I did not like the little psychic girl, it was just kind of random and didn't do much for the story. I hate when there are characters that are not needed but are forced into the movie. I was disappointed when I got the DVD and saw that they showed Moon Bloodgood topless in it as well. If there are two things that ruin a movie for me it is excessive swearing, and nudity. Those two things are examples of lazy ways to either fill seats in a theater or to fill time in a movie, I'd rather it be 30 minutes shorter than have to sit through your depraved mind (that was to the director). The movie ended with the crowd cheering and I still give the movie two thumbs way way up. Overall this is one of the greatest films of 2009.

Movie Quality: Great acting, cinematography, storyline (especially), and the action made the movie incredible. The female actors of the cast took half a point away from the movie. It is a solid 9.5

Entertainment: WOW! That is all I really can say about how entertaining this movie is. Prefect 10

Overall: If it weren't for Ms. Carter and Bloodgood this movie would be a sloid 10. I am going to give a 10 anyways, any more detailed than a .5 is going to far.

2 comments:

  1. This was McG's baby. And he made it the way he felt the Terminator franchise should start heading. Nothing but props to that man. Couldnt of said it better myself Jake

    -Chris

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  2. I agree 100% with Jake's critique . . One of the best films for me in 2009. It really bugs me when people don't see this movie for what it really is. I would affirm to anyone who is going to watch this movie to watch the WHOLE trilogy first to REALLY appreciate this movie. My wife didn't know anything about the Terminator Trilogy before, we watched it . . she thought they were ok. We watched Salvation and she LOVED it, and in return LOVED the trilogy too. Great and epic.

    -Troy

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