12 Years A Slave

This movie was one of the hardest movies to watch, and for obvious reasons.

I have never seen such an intense depiction of slavery in my life. It's so incredibly horrible, you can't help but not look away. This tells the real life story of Solomon Northup, a black man who was born a free man during a pre-civil war America. A noteworthy violinist, he is conned by some trusted colleagues into leaving his home and traveling South to Washington D.C. for a performance. After the performance, they go out for a celebration where his colleagues get him drunk and he is subsequently kidnapped by slave auctioneers and sold into slavery. And being the time period that it is, no one believes him when he claims who he really is.

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup in arguably his most significant role to date. Directed by Steve McQueen (No, not that Steve McQueen), together they show the brutal, terrible truth of slavery in all of the awful, cringeworthy details. Rather than cut away from inhumane acts, McQueen forces you to watch the actions taking place in long, uncut takes making you feel as emotionally, physically and mentally drained as possible without actually putting you in the characters shoes (or lack thereof).

This was, without a doubt, the most stressful 

time I've ever had watching a movie

With amazing performances by the entire cast, "12 Years a Slave" has by far one of the best ensemble casts of 2013. With such big names as Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Giamatti, Michael K. Williams, Scooty McNairy and very randomly, Taran Killam from "SNL", each and every actor gives a fantastic performance worthy of the recognition they're obtaining. "12 Years a Slave" is well worth a watch. But be prepared for a stomach churning story.

My Grade: A

World War Z

Brad Pitt went to visit an audience for the movie at the Movie Theatre I used to work at...

I have never wanted to work there again so badly in my life than that day.

Based on the book of the same name by Max Brooks (Mel Brooks' son), "World War Z" tells the story of a man who is asked by the UN to escort a Doctor around the world to find a cure for the virus. From what I've heard, this movie is nothing like the book. But since I haven't read the book, I can not say that is a good or a bad thing. This movie starts off very fast and doesn't slow down much. From within the first five minutes it has you tensing up waiting for the zombies to pop out.

As you can see, I struggle with writing reviews about OK movies, mainly because there is little that stand out. While I did enjoy it, there isn't much to write about it. It was good. Not terrible. Not great, just good. So I apologize for this being such a lack luster review. Please forgive me.

Especially Evan, James, Kristin and Devin. I love you all.

Oh, and surprisingly Matthew Fox has a very small role in the movie. I thought that that was weird.

My Grade: B-

Killing Them Softly

I had such high hopes going into this movie. Brad Pitt starring and Andrew Dominik directing. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is my favorite movie and has been since I saw it in 2007. (If that seems random, Brad Pitt Starred in that and Andrew Dominik directed). But this movie just didn't meet my expectations.

With undertones of the Recession being shoved in your face at every scene and nothing really quite flowing, Killing Them Softly is about greed and the effect the recession has on Mob bosses and their employees. Interesting concept, but it comes off as everyone just being a whiny little bitch (excuse my French).

When three nobodies rob a mob controlled game and frame one of the card sharks for it, The mob bosses bring in an enforcer, played by Brad Pitt, to control the situation. And he does. But the entire time, everyone is just complaining about the recession and how it has affected times. But they're mob bosses in a non-Martin Scorsese gangster movie, so you don't care about them.

This is another case of a movie trying to be something that it's not. It couldn't decide what it wanted to be. It wanted to be a gangster movie but also have a deeper meaning, while also pointing out how bad President Bush was (We get it. He's the reason your life sucks, now move on!).

If this film had just been a gangster movie about a hit man hired to take out the idiots that knocked over the card game, it could have been great! But that wasn't enough.

This movie wasn't completely bad, though. It had great acting by everyone involved, and very good cinematography. Although, the writing and story left something to be desired.

My Grade: C

But, as always, form your own opinion. You may enjoy this movie more than I did.

ATTENTION! I WILL BE RELEASING THE NOMINATIONS FOR THE MIKEY AWARDS JANUARY 10th COINCIDING WITH THE ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS! I WILL POST THE WINNER ON FEBRUARY 24 DURING THE OSCARS!