Transformers: Age of Extinction Review

Jon Pardew Movie Review: 1/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 20%

Rated: PG-13
Sexual Content: 3/10
Violence: 7/10
Profanity: 5/10
Drugs/Alcohol: 3/10

All transformers are now being hunted down by humans and destroyed.  Their parts are being salvaged and studied.  A company in the U.S. has now unlocked the secrets and can build their own transformers.  Optimus Prime is discovered by Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg), who is a junk yard inventor.  Much to his daughters disagreements he helps the barely alive Optimus Prime.  When it is discovered by the government where Oprimus is located; Cade, his daughter, and her boyfriend get mixed up in a terrible transformer movie. 

A few months ago we bought a new vacuum.  We had heard about the quality of the Dyson brand and we were excited to try it out.  When I had used for the first time I was very impressed with how much dirt it sucked off the floor.  Transformers: Age of Extinction sucked much deeper then our vacuum.  In fact it was like watching a Transformer movie being sucked up a vacuum and hitting the cyclone tube.  The movie was all over the place and much of it didn't make sense.  The dialogue was even worse as the silly one liners could make you squirm.  It was as if they all took Horatio Cane's lines from CSI: Miami, chewed on them and spit them out.  The VFX were...okay with the exception of one part were there was a demonstration of some new technology.  It was being shown how they can now turn a ball of transformer material into anything and it didn't look real at all.  It looked like a cartoon!  I was surprised to see such low quality on a movie that had an extremely large budget. If there was one thing good about this movie, I would have to say the explosions.  Although the explosions were big and spectacular, they still just reminded me of the mess the

movie was.

There was one part where they ended up at The Hole in the Rock Store located close to Moab Utah. I had to laugh as I have been by this store many times.  It was fun to see it in a movie.  I just wish it was in a better movie.

Written by: Jon Pardew       

Jersey Boys Review

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Jon Pardew Movie Review: 7/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 50%

Rated: R
Sexual Content: 4/10
Violence: 4/10
Profanity: 8/10
Drugs/Alcohol: 7/10

Jersey Boys follows the life of Frankie Valli (John Lloyd Young), Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza), Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda), and Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen) as they come together to create music.  Tommy DeVito, who is heavily involved with the mob in New Jersey, puts together a singing group with talented Frankie Valli and bass singer Nick Massi.  Later they bring in the key to their success Bob Gaudio who can write, sing and play the keyboard.  Bob wrote chart topping hits for the group such as: "Sherry", "Walk Like a Man", "Big Girls Don't Cry" and many others.  Jersey Boys covers the rise of The Four Seasons.  You see what they went through to become legends.  You also watch their experiences as issues came up and bad feelings are developed toward one another which ultimately leads to their fall and breakup.    

The cast of Jersey Boys was fantastic.  They could not have got a better group of talent for the job.  The actors sing all the songs in the movie, they sound just like The Four Seasons and they got that Jersey accent down perfectly.  The story flowed well with one exception towards the end where the movie jumps back in time to cover some issues that developed and then jumps forward again.  Nick Massi's rant at the end was great as he finally lets out years of built up anger towards the group.  The makeup at the end was not very impressive when they jumped forward to the 90's, at a time where the characters were much older.  Maybe it was an artistic move since the movie is based on the play, but they looked like young men with makeup on instead of genuinely aged men.

I was impressed with Frankie Valli's attitude throughout the movie.  Who knows if this is how it really happened, right? "Everybody remembers it how they need to".  But in the movie, Frankie took responsibility for all of Tommy DeVito's mess.  Tommy got into a lot of trouble and it was admirable what Frankie did.  He demonstrated true friendship without asking for anything in return.  He felt that although Tommy had a lot of problems he was the one that got him off the streets of New Jersey and that was enough.  Frankie had his back no matter what even when Tommy was stabbing him in the his own back at some points.  Life was rough for them, but the ones who worked hard came out on top in the end and gave the world great music along the way.  I still am unable to get "Can't Take my Eyes Off of You" out of my head.

Review Written by: Jon Pardew

How to Train your Dragon 2 Review

Jon Pardew Movie Review: 9/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 92%

Rated: PG
Sexual Content: 1/10
Violence: 3/10
Profanity: 2/10
Drugs/Alcohol: 1/10

How to Train your Dragon 2 continues the adventures of Hiccup and Toothless.  Not interested in the new games that the village Burk invented, the two are out charting new territory.  They run into other people who trap dragons and later Hiccup has a run in with his long lost mother who is also a dragon lover and trying to save them from the trappers.  Hiccup and Toothless join his mother in her efforts, The village of Burk joins in as well as they have epic battles with the trappers.

How to Train your Dragon 2 is visually stunning.  As you watch your breath is taken away at the scenery and the art.  It makes you want to be there with Hiccup and Toothless.  The way the snow looks, I would say that it is better than the snow in Frozen.  Hard to believe, but the art and animation really are amazing.  The story is darker than the first and opens up for a 3rd movie to make the franchise a trilogy.  Hiccup's story becomes more interesting as he and Toothless discover more about themselves and who they are.  

Sometimes it is required of us to step up and do difficult things.  Stoick is urging Hiccup to be the leader of their village.  Hiccup doesn't feel that he is good enough or strong enough to do it.  We can relate to that as we are given opportunities to do hard things.  Truth is, you never know what you are capable of until you put yourself up against the difficult task at hand.  You might even surprise yourself at how strong you really are.  It is the experiences that strengthen us.  Of course it is always nice to have good friends to stand by you just like Hiccup has Toothless.  So next time you are confronted with a difficult responsibility, take courage and trust a little in yourself.  It is amazing what people can do.

Written by: Jon Pardew   

Edge of Tomorrow Review

Jon Pardew Movie Review: 8.5/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 90%

Rated: PG-13
Sexual Content: 2/10
Violence: 6/10
Profanity: 5/10
Drugs/Alcohol: 2/10

Edge of Tomorrow is an action packed sci-fi war movie, and it is awesome!  Major Cage (Tom Cruise) does not want to go to the front line of battle against the alien army.  He is arrested and forced to go anyway. Though very inexperienced as he is he manages to kill some aliens before he dies.  He then wakes up at the beginning of the previous day.  Something happened that caused him to be trapped in a time loop.  He then tries to find Rita (Emily Blunt) every day for training.  It is up to Cage to find a way past the enemy on that looped day and destroy them.

Edge of Tomorrow is loosely based on the Japanese military science fiction light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka with illustrations by Yoshitoshi ABe called All you Need is Kill.  They even pay homage to the book by naming the main character Cage.  The character in the book is named Keiji, but the Americans pronounce it Cage. All you Need is Kill was published in 2004 and it was Sakurazaka's breakthrough novel.

Edge of Tomorrow is a great summertime movie.  There is a time loop but you don't lose interest because it is executed very well.  Tom Cruise does an excellent job at taking you through the time loops and making you wonder how many times he has been through this even though it is your first time seeing it happen.  The actors do a good job to bring you into the movie and experience real battle with aliens.  The design of the aliens were magnificent.  They are creatures that will haunt you.  The movie was also surprisingly but pleasantly funny.  There were about 5 or 6 times that the theater had a good laughing moment and a few more times when everyone cheered making it fun to be there.

This movie does not ask you to think much.  There is no deep philosophical idea behind it but it does make you want to have the ability to start over every day until you are able to complete a task perfectly, like a video game.  Imagine if you could have a redo on taking your final exams until you got a perfect score, or repeating a job interview until you come out doing it right and getting the job.  Perhaps you are in the middle of a huge battle with an alien army. Another interesting thought, today marks the 70th anniversary of D-Day. I wondered how much that was planned for the release of Edge of Tomorrow since the human army attacks the aliens on the beaches of France and it looks much like a D-Day type invasion. Coincidence? Probably not.    

Written By: Jon Pardew

The Fault in our Stars Review

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Jon Pardew Movie Review: 8/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 79%

Rated: PG-13
Sexual Content: 6/10
Violence: 3/10
Profanity: 6/10
Drugs/Alcohol: 4/10

The Fault in our Stars is the love story about Hazel Grace and Gus.  Hazel has cancer and she is talked into attending a support group.  Not very interested, she goes and that is where she meets Gus.  Gus is a cancer survivor with a prosthetic leg.  They soon start dating and fall in love through shared adventures including a trip to Amsterdam to meet Hazels favorite author.  

There is not much to criticize about The Fault in our Stars.  Except that it made it rain inside the theater...but through much of the sobs and tears you often find yourself laughing at the witty dialogue and subtle jokes. The movie is about a serious illness which gives it a very real life feel.  To see how one can stay positive in the midst of excruciating pain made me think.  Made me think about my life and how I get so mad when the guy with the license plate that says L8ER cuts me off on the way to work.  I get so mad and yet it is over something so small and so insignificant.  

Love is infinite and so are memories.  In our lives, we get the opportunity to love.  Even if we are only given a short amount of time to love somebody, it is still infinite. In The Fault in our Stars Hazel talks about infinities.  About how some infinities are bigger than others.  If you look at all the numbers between 0 and 1, for example: 0, 0.1, 0.12, 0.121 and so on.  You can see that there are infinite numbers in between.  The numbers between 0 and 2 are also infinite but it is a much bigger infinity.  Even a short moment with a loved one can stretch forever.  That infinity is not as long as other infinities, but it is still infinite.  Confusing?  I know, but the movie tells it better than I do.  At one point in the movie Gus tells Hazel that even if she broke his heart, it would be an honor to have his heart broken by her.  He knew that his precious moments in life are only worth living if he made the memories that would last forever and found a love that would stretch beyond time.  Those were his intentions, and it didn't matter that Hazel was terminally ill.  If he found infinite love, then death would not cause that love to stop.

I don't like most chick flicks, but this one held my attention and gave me some things to think about.  I found it to be a much better experience than I originally thought.  

P.S. Today is my sweethearts birthday!  Happy birthday Ali May!  Just want to say that I infinitely love you!

Written by: Jon Pardew