Breaking the Maya Code

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: 2008 Made for TV
Running Time: 1 Hour and 56 Minutes
Staring:  Documentary
Rating? Unrated
SPOILERS? YES

REVIEWS
IMDB: 7.5 of 10 Link
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics: N/A Audience: 75%
MY RATING: 10 of 10! Awesome

MY REVIEW:
Okay, full disclosure, I am a HUGE history and documentary nerd, so I went into this movie, knowing, neigh, believing that I would not only love it but learn something amazing. I was not disappointed.

Since, there is not really a plot-line, there can be no spoilers.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the film narrated by CCH Pounder. She lent a true voice to the production. I had read some about the Maya culture and knew that the Spanish had done some damage to their culture, but I had no idea the amount of information that was lost due to the Spanish conquest and their fervent religious beliefs.

The watcher begins with a guided informational  brief of the history of the Maya culture and their complicated artistic hieroglyphic, or glyphic, writing. Beginning in 1181, when an Englishman began to photograph the glyphs leading to more and more students of the culture into a desire to KNOW what it said.

Many years passed with very little understanding of the Maya language culminating in the greatest of all collaborative works that I have ever seen. The group of researchers were able to decode the Maya language and glyph system and reunite the modern Maya with their historic language.

I wholeheartedly give this documentary a full 10 Stars on the Michelle Scale of 1 through 10.

Creep

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: 23 June 2015
Running Time: 1 hour 22 Minutes
Staring:  Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass
Rating? R
SPOILERS? Yes, sorry about that!

REVIEWS
IMDB: 6.2 of 10
MY RATING: 9
(almost gave it a 10)

STORYLINE

When a videographer answers a Craigslist ad for a one-day job in a remote mountain town, he finds his client is not at all what he initially seems.

MY REVIEW:

I love wolves. because they love deeply, but they don't 

know how to express it, and they're often very violent and, quite frankly, murder the things that they love, and inside of the wolf is this beautiful heart.--Josef

That line stood out to me. Loved it!! I am happy that I watched this movie. I quite nearly didn't. It's a little gem that I found in a sea of garbage that is typically available in the Horror/Thriller genre. So the idea of this movie was pretty unique.  A freelance videographer gets a job to go film a man in his everyday life for 8 hours for $1000.00. The strait forward plot is the films strongest aspect.

You learn about both of these guys along the way, and they have a bizarre chemistry between them.

Josef and Aaron are awesome as the Creepy odd couple that got me hooked from the first minute.

Mark Duplass played this role to perfection as he slowly let out the crazy in the smallest increments where at certain points, it was indeterminate if he were really crazy. You don't see many performances like this in found footage films. Brice’s character has a little less to work with but he plays the part well. I wasn't always convinced that his actions in certain situations were believable. I mean, there are red flags all over the place and he still sticks with the guy. They do incorporate his trusting personality and nice guy attitude in to his actions. He's just a guy that feels bad for Josef and wants to give him the benefit of the doubt. The situation twists and turns through the whole film, and there are some genuine scares and creepy moments throughout. 

What I loved?

• Black Humor. There are some seriously hilarious moments but the movie never loses its sense of tension. I've seen the idea of the creepy stalker in so many movies in the past: Hand that Rocks the Cradle, The Cable Guy... This one really sets the viewer on the edge for the whole movie.
• The Actors: Josef played by Mark Duplass (from such gems as The League, Safety Not Guaranteed and Zero Dark Thirty) and Aaron pled by Patrick Brice (THAT GUY  -----> I do love a gingery-blond!!) I had never really heard of him until this movie was he was amazing! They were able to make it watchable and uncomfortable at the same time. It was an effective way to keep the Creep in this creepy movie. PLUS, he was the director!
• I love how this movie expects more from the average horror movie fan. This required thought and attention that most do not. I enjoyed not being led through a movie but having to lead myself through. I found that quite attractive.
• Found-footage style WITHOUT the shaky cam!! (Thanks!)
• The END!! I absolutely loved the climax. It was so simple and yet had such an amazing impact on the film that it was near perfect!! (Maybe Creep 2?)

What I did not love?

• Just wish the pacing were a little smoother. It's a simple plot, but it does at times feel a bit rough, but that could just be me!

The suspense is so delightfully intense and the performances are so well fleshed out, that the pacing can be forgiven. This is a top notch found footage film that truly made my skin crawl. Kudos to the film maker for deciding to simply call it Creep. Perfect title

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Jurassic World

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: 12 June 2015
Running Time: 124 Minutes
Staring:  Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Irrfan Kahn, Vincent D'Onofrio and others...
Rating? PG-13
SPOILERS? YES

REVIEWS
IMDB: 7.5 of 10 Link
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics: 71% Audience: 83% Link
MY RATING: 8 of 10!

MY REVIEW:
Okay, it's a sequel and we've all been programmed to compare them to the original. This was no different. I wasn't expecting an Academy Award Winner, but I was going into the movie expecting a dinosaur laden, fun romp on Dinosaur Island.

I went into this movie with low expectations. I was surprised! The plot of 1) heres the dinosaur 2) the dinosaur gets loose 3) the dinosaur eats people was a little more interesting with the addition of the crowd of tourists. I liked the fact that they were addressing the parks visitors "boredom" with the standard dinosaurs by creating a new hybrid called "Indominous Rex." Seriously? What a name. I am considering renaming my youngest kitten Isabella because of that!!

Bryce Dallas Howard plays the perfect "Auntie" who can't be bothered when her nephews come to visit Jurassic World and leaves them in the obviously incapable hands of a lacky. I thought the idea was a little obvious, but I do consider myself a pretty decent judge of plot lines. Then there's Owen, perfectly played by Chris Pratt with his boyish charm and occasional witty remark. Well cast. They make an odd couple in the end, but in the grand scheme of things, who are we to say who is right for another person!

I did appreciate the showdown of sorts at the end. I won't give IT ALL away but there is an old gigantic friend who makes a cameo in the last twenty minutes of the movie.

A few small issues:  They seemed to follow the script of taking the typical archetypes from the "How to Write Anything" book.. I mean, come on, tech nerd saves the day.. ex-military dude is an evil twat, cool ex-navy hero, cold but likable lost princess, etc..

In the end, it was a good summer flick. Lots of adventure and action and I enjoyed it, especially the third act!
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Insidious: Chapter 3

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: 5 June 2015
Running Time: 97 Minutes
Starring: Dermot Mulroney, Stephanie Scott, Angus Sampson, etc.
Rating? PG-13
SPOILERS? YES

REVIEWS
IMDB: 6.5 of 10 Link
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics: 59% Audience: 60% Link
MY RATING: 7 of 10

MY REVIEW:
Full disclosure, I do LOVE a good Horror flick! I feel like this one may have been the best of the Insidious movie franchise. It gave me exactly what I expected from this type of movie: Jumps, Scares, and some disturbing imagry.

I did relate to the story line. I lost my father and the idea of being able to talk to him has not been far from my mind for the last ten years. This pulled at every piece of my heart with the young girl, Quinn Brenner, played by Stefanie Scott and her interactions with her father Sean, played by my on-screen crush, Dermot Mulroney. This movie does an awesome job of dealing with horror movie cliches in a way that does not make them seem trite and overused.

The observing audience member is left unable to intervene even through every ounce of you wants to just hug that girl and make her feel better, it's to no avail. She attempts to see a psychic to talk to her mom, played by the AMAZING Lin Shaye. (Sister to Bob Shaye, the founder of New Line Cinema and behind the Nightmare on Elm Street series.) She tells young Quinn that she cannot help and not to try to speak to the dead because the all hear you.

Of course, Quinn DOES NOT listen and continues to try to talk to her mother and eventually becomes the desire of some baddies who live in the demon and spirit filled "Further." That's when all do the crazy starts to happen.

My FAVORITE part is when the family calls in some "Paranormal Ghost Hunters" who have some hilarity to them since they are so reminiscent to some of these shows on tv right now. (Also, they are the same two that are in Inisdious: Chapter 2 which is set AFTER this movie) Watching them fail is pretty humorous to me!

Ending was decent. I am not a fan of happy endings in scary movies, and this is by no means happy, but there is resolution and it's not with everyone being bludgeoned to death. I appreciate the effort that was put into the movie and the attempts to re-scare the tired watchers of EVERY other horror movie out there!  Good Show!

Avengers: Age of Ultron

GENERAL INFORMATION
Release Info: 1 May 2015
Running Time: 141 Minutes
Staring:  Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and many more.
Rating? R
SPOILERS? NO

REVIEWS
IMDB: 7.9 of 10
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics: 74% Audience: 87%
MY RATING: 6 of 10. Above Average

MY REVIEW:
I am not a comic book fan girl, or even a comic book reader in general. I will wholeheartedly admit to going to see this movie because it was my husbands turn to select the Friday night entertainment. I was not really thrilled that this was his choice, but I am a good sport and played along, and with a smile I might add!

I thought it was pretty good. There was a decent story line and a few unexpected plot points that seemed to further the story line and even clear up a few things for me from the other Avengers movies. (Yes, I saw those too and yes, they were likely my husbands night to choose the movie!)

The script seems a little lacking to me. There seemed to be some missing points. I would think that there would be some sense of stand-alone movie pieces for a movie such as this, but I literally had questions about who people were, why they were bad/good and a general whatever face during the whole of the movie.

There was a little too much predictable humor. Generally, that's not bad, but this was an action movie. Too many one-liners for me.