Whose Line is it Anyway

                Whose Line is it Anyway is an American show that was originally hosted by Drew Carey but is now hosted by Aisha Tyler. The show ran from 1998 to 2007 and then got revived in 2013 with the change in hosts. This show is a spin-off of the British show which is also called Whose Line is it Anyway. The show features Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady as regular performers.  All three of these guys were also on the British version. These three are joined by a fourth guest panelist.

                This show is a show of comedy improv sketches which are made up on the fly by the four performers. The host of the show, Aisha Tyler, gives out points to people she thought did a good job on the sketches. However these points don’t really mean anything and are just given out as a joke. They also often bring out celebrities and have them help out with some of the sketches.

                Overall this show is a very funny show. The four performers are very good comedians and never fail to make people laugh. However one thing I don’t really like is when the bring guests out. If the guest is an actor then it isn’t bad however if it is anyone else it can feel really awkward if they don’t know what they’re doing. One of my favorite parts of this show is when Wayne Brady and another performer sings. For being a comedian he is actually a really good singer and is really good at making up songs on the fly.

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Noah

                Earlier this year, the movie Noah came out. This movie was released in March and was distributed by Paramount Pictures. This movie grossed over $362 million worldwide. It was written and directed by Darren Aronofsky and starred Russell Crowe as Noah.

                Noah is an epic that is based off the biblical story of Noah’s Ark. In this movie, as well as in the biblical story, Noah receives a message from God. This message says that God plans to destroy the Earth with a flood to get rid of all the bad people who broke away from God. The message also says that Noah must build an ark that will hold two of every animal on Earth. God wants to save the animals because they are innocent and haven’t done anything wrong.

                Noah and his family start to build an ark with the help of the Watchers who are fallen angels that are trapped in stone. When they are getting close to being done with it, animals come in giant groups to board the ark. When they get on the ark they are put to sleep. When all the animals get on board, the rain starts to fall. When this happens a gigantic army of people who are supposed to die in the flood, come and try to forcible get on the ark. The Watchers manage to hold off the army until they are swept away by the water. Noah’s daughter-in-law gets pregnant on the ark. However since Noah believes that God wants all humans to die, including them, he says that he will kill the child if it’s a girl.

                This movie was interesting because it is based off a story that almost everyone knows. However seeing the story made into an epic that has action and drama makes you look at the story in a different light. The creators of this movie did a really good job of sticking to the story of Noah’s ark. They had all the facts right including small things such as the names of Noah’s kids. Even though they stuck to the story they were still able to throw some Hollywood flair on it. They were able to make the viewers be engaged throughout the entire movie. They did a really good job of making their movie not be just a boring bible story.

                There were some weird and kind of awkward editing decisions in this movie. Especially in the beginning, it felt to me like there were a lot of cuts to a black screen. A cut to a black screen can be very effective in adding to the tension of the movie and creating more suspense. However if it is used too often it seems repetitive and pointless. In the beginning part of Noah, it felt like the screen cut to black every 30 seconds. To me it felt really dumb and took me out of the immersive experience that movies are supposed to be. However this only really happened at the beginning of the movie and the rest of the movie’s editing was good. 

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MockingJay Part 1

It’s been a while since the debut of The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Pt. 1, but I decided I would blog about it now. It seemed to be really popular and get a lot of attention in my area and there was even a midnight and special 8pm the night before the world premiere release at my local theatre and it’s still currently showing even though it’s been almost a month since its original debut. For many people who didn’t read the books, it definitely had some parts that would take people by surprise and I could even hear some audible gasps from the audience which were indicative of who had read the books and who hadn’t. I am a fan of the actors Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson. They both played their parts really well even though some parts of the movie felt kind of cheesy to me. But to be fair it is kind of hard to make such an over the top movie like this without it coming off as cheesy.

Something that might make some people upset, as it certainly made me was the fact that it is indeed split up into two movies. Even if it made sense for literary purposes to split the movie into two, it is annoying to be left on a cliff hanger especially if you’re someone who hasn’t read the books and don’t know what’s going to happen next. (Some spoilers here) To me this movie doesn’t really have a clear ending that really wrapped up the movie. The ending scene of the movie is a large group of people deciding that they are going to go do something. They are all cheering and it definitely makes you excited to see what they do. However then the movie just ends. It leaves you thinking, “Wait, why would they end the movie right there? I want to see what happens next.” The second movie also had this problem as that ended with them saving Katniss but then taking her to district 13 and leaving many of the plot points still open and many questions still unanswered. To me making this movie into two parts is just another way for the companies to make more profit on ticket sales, merchandise, and even tempting people who haven’t read the books to buy a copy and find out what happens next.

Forgetting about how the movie was split into two, I really liked the movie. All of the hunger games movies have been really good. This one was kind of different from the other movies as there was no actual hunger games in this one. This movie just focuses around Katniss leading the revolution and getting people to fight with them. It was really cool to see the way the different districts rebelled and how they grouped together. The promotional videos in the film felt very real. They were very emotional and felt like they were actually trying to get people to join a revolution.

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Hancock

                Hancock came out in 2008 starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, and Eddie Marson. This film was directed by Peter Borg and presented by Columbia Pictures. Hancock was originally written by Vincent Ngo in 1996 but didn’t go into production until 2007. It was rated PG-13 after they made changes to it to get it lowered from an R rating. This movie made more than $620 million in the box office.

                This movie is about a man named Hancock that has superhero powers such as the ability to fly, invulnerability, and super-strength. He is also an alcoholic and causes millions of dollars of damages to the city when he stops criminals because of his constant intoxication. Hancock once saves a public relations person named Ray Embrey. Embrey then tells Hancock that he is going to try and help improve Hancock’s image.

                Embrey convinces Hancock to turn himself in for all the damage he caused. However when the crime rate in the city goes up, the Chief of Police gets Hancock out of jail so he can help them stop a bank robbery. Hancock manages to stop the robbery without hurting anyone and gets applauded because of it. Hancock then becomes popular again and doesn’t have to go back to jail. Hancock soon learns that Embrey’s wife has the same powers as him and threatens to tell Embrey if she doesn’t tell him where she is from. She explains to Hancock that they have been alive for 3,000 years and he doesn’t remember this because he got knocked out in an alley 80 years ago.

                This movie is unique which is almost always a good thing. Most movies tell of superheroes who are perfect and that everyone looks up to. However Hancock tells the story of a superhero who no one likes even though he is just trying to help. Hancock is also an inspirational story of someone turning their life around. He starts out as an alcoholic and ends up being a much better man.

(Word Count: 338)

Interstellar

                Just a few days ago, a new movie called Interstellar came out. This film was directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Jonathon Nolan. Interstellar stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. So far the film had made over $132 million.

                This movie takes place on Earth after billions of people had died because of lack of food.  Earth can no longer sustain humans and we are required to find a new planet to live on. Cooper and his daughter finds the secret NASA hideout and they ask Cooper pilot their spaceship to find a new planet to live on. Cooper decides to do it which makes his daughter Murph very mad at him. Cooper leaves Earth and goes through a wormhole to another solar system which supposedly has planets that would be suitable for humans. Ten years earlier NASA sent out a group of scientists that each landed on their own planets and reported back to NASA on whether or not the planet was livable. Cooper was sent to look at some of these planets and save the scientists there.

                This movie’s story was very original which is weird because most of the movies nowadays are remakes or sequels of old movies. There are many movies of humanity trying to survive after something bad happened but there aren’t really any like this. In those movies the people don’t really go into space to try and find a new home. Also there aren’t many movies that show space travel realistically like this movie did. The only other movie I can think of that did realistic space travel was Gravity (which I never saw but I heard was really good.) Another thing kind of freaky about the story in this movie is that it could someday actually happen. Someday the Earth might not be livable and we will need to figure out how to survive elsewhere.

                This film was long but still very good. It was about three hours long but still engaging throughout the whole thing. There were problems that arose that you never would have expected to arise. Some parts in this film were kind of depressing. Like the part when Cooper leaves and Murph gets really upset with him. And then later when he’s on the ship he gets messages from his kids which is also really depressing.

                Even though it is a science fiction movie, most of the science seems to be real. And the film producers do a really good job of explaining this science to the public. A lot of the science in the film is very advanced and complicated and most people in the general public wouldn’t understand it. However they do a good job of making it simple enough that someone who has never had experience with this type of science could understand it. For example, they use a really good analogy to explain wormholes. People who have never even heard of a wormhole before could understand how it works.

(Word Count: 498)

Wanted

                  Wanted is a movie that came out in 2008. It was based on a miniseries of comic books also called Wanted. Wanted is directed by Timur Bekmambetov and stars James McAvoy. It made about $341 million in the box office.

                This movie is about a normal guy, named Wesley that is taken into a secret group of assassins called the Fraternity. Wesley is told that his father, which he never knew, was one of the best assassins the Fraternity had. He is told that his panic attacks are actually a rare ability that, if trained, can be turned into superhuman strength, speed, and reflexes. Wesley then gets trained by the Fraternity until he can master his power. He is then shown this special loom that gives out the name of a target that they are supposed to kill. These people didn’t necessarily  do anything wrong, however the loom supposedly sees tragedy in the future and killing these people is supposed to stop that from happening.

                Wesley is sent on a mission to kill Cross, the guy who supposedly killed his father. During this mission Cross reveals that he is Wesley’s real father and the only reason Wesley was recruited was because he was the only person Cross would not kill. Wesley also learns that the Fraternity was nothing more than just paid killers after the leader started manufacturing his own targets. Wesley decides to stop the Fraternity from hurting anyone else.

                One of the coolest things about this movie was how the assassins could curve their bullets. They were able to curve them around cover to hit someone that was hiding. They were able to curve them around a pig and hit the target right behind it. One of the best examples of this was when Angelina Jolie curved the bullet around a circular room killing everyone including herself. She did this because she followed the original code of the Fraternity very strictly and she discovered that everyone’s name, including hers, had come up.

                The assassins in this movie are just incredible. They are able to do stuff that doesn’t seem possible. At the beginning of this movie, one assassins leaps from one skyscraper to the next. While he is flying through the air he is able to shoot and kill many enemies that were in the next skyscraper. The assassins are so deadly and so accurate that they are able to shoot the wings off of a fly.

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Draft Day

                Draft Day came out in 2014 and was directed by Ivan Reitman.  It starred Kevin Costner who played the general manager of the Cleveland Browns. This film grossed about $29.5 million in the box office.

                This movie is about the general manager of the Cleveland Browns (Kevin Costner) deciding what he should do in the NFL draft. He trades with the Seahawks to get the first overall pick so they can get the reigning Heisman winner, Bo Callahan. However Costner isn’t sure that he wants to pick Callahan and looks into why he shouldn’t take Callahan. When the draft starts Callahan decides to pick Vontae Mack who he was going to choose at his original draft spot. Later Costner trades with the Jaguars for the sixth pick. He then trades with the Seahawks to get his original picks back and a punt returner. Costner then is able to get Ray Jennings in the next pick.

                Most of this movie is just people on the phone. However they handle the phone scenes very well. The way they split the screen is kind of interesting. They didn’t just split the screen in half; they brought the people who were talking into the foreground. The place they were talking looked more like a background for them.

(Word Count: 215)

Taken

                Taken is the first movie in what will be a trilogy. It came out in 2008 and was directed by Pierre Morel. This movie grossed over $225 million in the box office. This movie stars Liam Neeson and is often seen as the film that changed his career and redefined him as being more of an action star.

                Taken is about a former spy for the CIA who is played by Liam Neeson. His daughter asks him if she can go to Europe with a friend. He reluctantly agrees even after he finds out that she plans to follow a band all over Europe. When she and her friend get there they meet a supposedly nice guy who asks them if they want to go to a party. Later when Liam’s daughter is talking to him on the phone some men break in and take her and her friend.  Liam then goes to Europe to rescue his daughter. He is told that he only has 96 hours to rescue him before he would never see her again.

                First Liam finds the scout that talked to his daughter but he dies before Liam can get any information from him. Liam then meets with an old friend who doesn’t help him much but does point out where a gang prostitutes women. He then goes there and follows one of the gangsters to a brothel at a construction site. He saves the girl wearing his daughter’s jacket and then asks her about where she got the jacket. He goes to the house she tells him about and finds the person he talked on the phone with. He wounds him and kills all the others. He later tortures this man to discover who they sold his daughter to. Then he goes to the home of his old friend and gets him to give Liam the address of where his daughter was sold by injuring his wife. Liam then goes to this mansion and manages to find to the room where the women are being sold. He recognizes one of them as his daughter and forces the man in front of him to buy her. He is soon knocked out by the owner of the mansion but when he wakes up he is able to free himself and kill everyone. He then chases a yacht where his daughter is being held. He kills the boats guards and the owner of the boat, freeing his daughter.

                Liam Neeson is just awesome in this movie. He plays his role very well. He understands the type of drive that a man would have when trying to save his daughter and is able to portray this on screen very well. In every part of this movie he looks like a man on a mission. He also does very well with the action scenes of the movie. He makes it look just so easy. Taken is a very good reason and I believe that Liam Neeson is the biggest reason why.

                This movie has some very memorable moments in it. There were some moments that were randomly comedic. For example it was kind of funny when the person is running and he thinks he got away and just randomly got hit by a truck. Another kind of funny part was at the end when the man who bought Liam’s daughter his holding a knife to her throat. He tries to talk to Liam and tries to make a deal when Liam just shoots him in the face. One of my favorite parts in this movie is also one of my favorite parts from any movie I’ve seen. It is near the beginning when Liam talks to one of the kidnappers on the phone.

(Word Count: 625)

Impractical Jokers

                Impractical Jokers is a show that premiered on TruTV in 2011. It is a hidden camera, practical joke reality series that is directed by Peter Fowkes. The stars of Impractical Jokers are the four members of the comedy troupe named The Tenderloins. Their names are: Brian Quinn, James Murray, Joseph Gatto, and Sal Vulcano.

                Impractical Jokers consists of the four members telling each other to do public pranks while being filmed by hidden cameras. The group sometimes has challenges they have to do. For example, sometimes they have to get someone to repeat a made-up word or get someone to admit that they know them. However while trying to do these challenges the joker has to listen to the other three and do what they say. If they don’t complete the challenge or they refuse to do something the other guys tell them to do, they lose. They do around 3-4 challenges each episode and whoever has the most losses at the end of the episode is the big loser for the whole show. This person then has to do something very embarrassing or something that they would never want to do. This is chosen by the other three guys and one of the rules of the show is that they can’t say no. They have to do what the other guys chose. This can range anywhere from being forced to sing at the beginning of a minor league baseball to taking a lie detector test in front of an entire school.

                This show is very funny but sometimes it seems like they take things a bit too far. Especially on the final challenge for the loser. Sometimes they would take the fears of the person who lost and use that against them. They sent someone who hates getting scared through a haunted corn maze. They forced the person who is scared of skydiving to go skydiving. Sometimes the thing they force the other person to do is just gross instead of embarrassing. They once hid someone’s keys in a big pile of elephant poop and forced them to search for them. Another time they told someone that they put their phone somewhere in a large pile of trash on a barge. The barge then started floating away while the other three guys reveal that they had the guy’s phone the whole time.

                This show’s authenticity, like many other shows on TruTV, is doubted by many people. Many people believe that the show is scripted and the people that they prank are actors. However the actors have said themselves that it real and the reactions are completely genuine. Also you can tell that it’s real because some people have their faces blurred out. They are blurred out because they didn’t sign the waiver that lets the show put their faces on TV. If the show was scripted it wouldn’t be near as funny and I would probably not watch it.

(Word Count: 493)