Geek For E!

Geek For E!

Creators of the TwitView! Reviews in 140 characters or less.

Movie Review: The Wolf of Wall Street

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Coke!  Ludes!  Booze!  No, it’s not the yearly Geek for e holiday party.  It’s a slice of the 90s stockbroker lifestyle highlighted in The Wolf of Wall Street, and it’s it’s tacky, glorious excess carries on for almost three hours of hyperactive money-binging and awe-inspiring overindulgence.  The Wolf of Wall Street, with it’s beautiful views and addictive storyline will make you sad that you missed the party, and truly happy that you did.  Because really, unless Martin Scorsese is directing your life as brilliantly as he does this film — and you’ve got a guy editing the crap parts out — anyone who really lived like that back then?  Has great stories no doubt, but probably no longer has the use of all his/her faculties.  Hey, you give some you get some I guess.  But it’s a better idea to simply watch this stunner of a film and leave the real excess to folks that don’t mind the body busting (and jail time.)

The one thing you’ll need to know before, during and after this film?  That this story is true.  The details?  Maybe a little fudged, a bit blown up for Hollywood.  But Jordan Belfort , his partner Danny Porush and their “firm” Stratton Oakmont are all the real deal.  Remember the 1987 film Wall Street?  This real-life story makes Gordon Gekko and his cronies look like altar boys.  No wonder Leonardo “King of the World” DiCaprio wanted to play Belfort.  It’s a role any actor wanting to go a little crazy would kill to play.

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TwitView: 12 Years A Slave

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Ejiofor is brilliant.  Nyong’o is a revelation. McQueen directs flawlessly. See it. SEE IT.

 

What is a ‘twitview?’ We at GeekForE! pioneered the idea for the short attention span world.  Movie Reviews in 140 characters or less.  Follow us on Twitter to get the latest movie reviews every Friday!  And read more about 12 Years A Slave after the jump!

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TwitView: Gravity

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– Fantastic visuals & acting lift a stressful story to the heavens. Clooney is a hoot, Bullock is smokin’ at 49!

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What is a ‘twitview?’ We at GeekForE! pioneered the idea for the short attention span world.  Movie Reviews in 140 characters or less.  Follow us on Twitter to get the latest movie reviews every Friday!

Movie Review: Prisoners

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Prisoners has gotten a huge amount of positive buzz, and it’s absolutely justified. With top-notch acting, a killer script that doles out thrills and heartbreak, not to mention the great visual style, it’s a film that brings awards season in with a bang.  This is a grand old roller-coaster, the kind that winds up and up, only to send you spiraling down with your heart in your throat. And it begs you to ask the hard questions, giving no easy answers.  The maze in the title art is a good indication that this film will be dealing with a story that twists and turns. You might get lost in the details, but the award winning cast makes it a puzzle you can’t help but try to solve for yourself.

Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) is a hard working guy with a family he adores. He’s good friends with neighbor Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard), and Kelley’s wife Grace (Maria Bello) is besties with Franklin’s wife Nancy (Viola Davis). So when they all get together and the Davis house for Thanksgiving, it the usual rumpus of amped kids, sloshed adults and food comas. Later in the evening, the adults notice their little girls are missing. A frantic search leads to the town oddball Alex (Paul Dano), a man with the “IQ of a ten year old”, but did he do anything? Keller knows Alex is hiding something, and when police detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) has to let Alex go, Keller decides to get to the bottom of things himself.

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Movie Review: Insidious 2

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Remember how amazing The Exorcist was? Well, Insidious wasn’t exactly at that level of awesome, but it was pretty damn good. Remember how crappy Exorcist II: The Heretic was? Oh yeah. Same thing here. An amazing opening salvo, then a convoluted, sloppy mess of a sequel. It’s a shame, to see a Fangoria magazine Chainsaw Award-winning horror film devolve. It’s especially rough to see quality actors giving their all to a movie that feels like someone forgot what the plot was halfway in, and then just told everyone to wing it.

The initial premise of Insidious is that a demon has been hunting Josh Lambert (again played by Patrick Wilson), and being unable to possess him, tries it’s luck with his oldest son Dalton (Ty Simpkins). Wife/mother Renai (Rose Byrne) has to deal with all the demonic fallout, while trying to keep her other young children safe. When we last left the Lamberts, psychic Elise had been killed, presumably by Josh while he was possessed by…something. Lights out, credits roll.

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Movie Review: The Conjuring

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“From ghoulies and ghosties. And long-leggedy beasties. And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!”

The Scots have a great prayer there.  And for decades, real-life couple Ed and Lorraine Warren did their level best to help folks who suffered from beyond-the-norm problems.  The Conjuring is a film that gives the couple the big screen treatment…and it’s a throwback to the good ol’ fashioned scare-you-pantsless spookfests of the 70s.  Loved The Changeling, Ghost Story and The Amityville Horror (which, by the way, is also a case the Warrens worked on…)?  Baby, you’re gonna love The Conjuring.  This film starts off with an opening sequence that takes off with a serious case of spooky, giving the audience a heads-up; this is gonna be a bumpy night.  Oh yes, yes it is.  Okay I’ll say it; The Conjuring is looking like the best horror film of 2013.  And yes, that’s taking into account the Evil Dead remake earlier this year, the fact that a new Carrie is coming to town for Halloween, and that Director James Wan’s Insidious: Chapter 2 hits theaters this September.

The story is simple; a couple (Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston)  sinks their savings into a house that’s roomy enough for them their five girls.  Said roomy house starts with the creepy occurrences almost right off the bat.  After one particularly harsh night of bangs, thumps and physical attacks, the family call on paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) for help.  But the Warrens have handled a few cases that have taken a toll on Lorraine — including a creepy doll that tried to kill it’s owners — and this may be one too many.  And even so, it’s going to take a lot to figure out what’s going on at the Perron house, along with the why, and how to get it to stop….

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Movie Review: Pacific Rim

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Big-ass monsters!  Ginormous robots!  Tons of things getting crunched, blown up and otherwise decimated!  Then why didn’t I love Pacific Rim?  That’s the question that rattled around in my head as I left the theater.  For all of it’s glorious spectacle — and there’s an awful lot of glorious spectacle here — Pacific Rim is like the giant “Jaeger” robots that the film focuses on; beautiful, awe-inspiring but hollow.

That’s not to say that there isn’t fun to be had here.  This is the perfect movie to turn off your brain (seriously; giant mechanical robots fighting kaiju?  It’s the perfect summer blockbuster) and dig into the Good ‘n Plentys.  But if you’re searching for heart and soul in this robot, you’re outta luck.  Pacific Rim plays it straight throughout it’s 2 hours plus, which lets a lot of the fun leak out of the film.  What this movie needed was more tongue-in-cheek.  Yes, there are a few bits of humor here and there, but when it happens it feels more like a transplant from a different film than an integral part of the story.

And the story has definite promise.  It’s the year 2020, seven years after gigantic creatures started to rise from the depths of the Pacific (probably the super-deep Marina Trench, though I’m not sure if it’s ever pinpointed).  “The Breach”, as it’s called, is a rift between worlds that allow these kaiju (Japanese for “strange beast”, for those not in the know) into our world.  And these ginormous Godzilla nightmares have one thing on their mind; the destruction of the human race.  Naturally.

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Movie Review: Despicable Me 2

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I coudn’t wait to see Despicable Me when it came to theaters.  Mostly because I met a minion; actually I met two.  Yep.  Walking down the streets of DC, I saw two minions just hangin’ around the area theater.  Of course I had to give ’em a hug.  Because they’re awesome.  The great thing about Despicable Me was that even beyond the minion-ness, it was a great story about how a man becomes who he was always meant to be.  A dad to three adorable kids.

Well, these kids are a little bit older, but the minions are still the same.  Does Despicable Me 2 bring the funny?  Yes.  Is it as good as the first film?  Well, yes and no.  With retired super-villain Gru now a nice guy, there’s no wondering if he’ll be good or bad.  Gru has joined the Anti-Villain League and is spending most of his time trying to make jams and jellies.  Instead, the story focuses on a “will he or won’t he” romance with his secret-agent partner Lucy.  But the folks behind DM2 know what you want, and bring it to you in spades.  So if you’re wanting a new minion fix?  It’s gonna be your lucky day.  If you’re looking for a story beyond the basics, you may be a little nonplussed.  But hey; minions!

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Movie Review: White House Down

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Oh Roland Emmerich.  I love you and your absolutely crazypants way of channeling the American psyche.  The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, Independence Day…hell, I even enjoyed your Godzilla.  Because even with all the preposterous bombastic goings-on, your movies have heart.  Now, with White House Down, you’ve whipped up another mix of patently unbelievable but still compelling and enjoyable fluff.  Dude, thank you.

With White House Down — not to be confused with Olympus Has Fallen from earlier this year — there’s the typical President-in-peril plotline.  The Prez is at risk, and it’s up to someone who has never reached his potential to save the day.  Though I find it hard to believe that Channing Tatum has never reached his potential.  Phwoar.

Tatum plays Cale, a DC cop that is looking to become a Secret Service agent.  He scores an interview, along with passes to the White House so he can bring his President-fannish daughter along.  But wouldn’t you know it, just as soon as Cale gets the heave-ho from his interview (it didn’t help that he was being interviewed by Agent Finnerty, a woman who knew him back in his crazy frat-boy days), a group of scary paramilitary psychos take over the White House.  The psychos kill everyone that’s holding a gun, leaving Cale, Our Hero, to save the day.  But how’s he gonna get the Prez and his own daughter out of there alive?  The best way America knows how; superior firepower baby.

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