The Resurrection of Gavin Stone

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland











Michael's Movie Grade:A-

Review: Fantastic film that manages to both teach a good lesson and be very entertaining.

As a Christian myself, I am probably more open to this film than non-believers, but I have a feeling that even the strongest atheist could find something to like in this film. That is because at no point does the film directly preach to the audience, but rather the message comes fully from the story and characters. Despite this though the message is clear as can be. There is no doubt that many films with a message could learn something from this movie. If the point of Christian movies is to spread the gospel in a comfortable way, which I believe is the truth for the great majority of them, than this movie successeds brilliantly at that.

Besides the message, what really makes this film work so well is the main character. This is a redemption story, but why it works is that we like the character before he is redeemed and want him to turn his life around. The redemption remains completely believable and makes us happy to see him redeemed. Also helping is a lot of funny humor and a well thought out story.

The downsides to this movie are relatively minor. One is that the opening exposition seems forced, but that is so brief that it can't hurt the movie much. The other is that the film is quite predictable at times. However there is more than enough good stuff to make up for that.

This movie should not only be a joy for my fellow Christians, but for most audiences period.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Assassin's Creed

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland




















Michael's Movie Grade: F

Review: Horrible and annoying movie that gives you nothing to care about.

This film has horribly thought out characters. These characters either have bland movie stereotypes for a personality or no personality at all. Somehow even weaker than this is the story. The story is a rambling piece of nonsense that is no where near as smart as this movie seems to think it is. The story tries to be philosophical, but doesn't seem to even understand what it is trying say.

Even worse still is the technical filmmaking behind this. This has what may be the worst music score I have ever heard. It is so loud and distracting that even if this movie gave me something to enjoy I couldn't enjoy it. The music seemed to never fit with the action on screen, and was just so noisy as to be distracting. I had to cover my ears during parts of this movie it was so bad. The pacing is also very bad (though it can't even compare to the horrible score), the whole film is just going by much too fast. It never gives us time to breath or think. It seems to think that if it stands still for a second that the audience would be bored, while this pacing gives an even greater sense of boredom. To make this even worse the camera never stands still. This just makes the movie even more frustrating and obnoxious.

Some people talking after I saw the movie, said that they tried to fit too much of the video game story into an under two hour movie. Having never played the game I don't know if they are right, but maybe they should have adapted less of the story and gave it more time, or even better yet never made this horrible excuse for a movie in the first place.

Also this movie has the strangest McGuffin I've ever seen.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Why Him?

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland



















Michael's Movie Grade:D

Review: Unfunny vulgar comedy tries too hard to be funny, and misses the mark.

The real problem with this movie is that it just isn't funny. Maybe one or two jokes hit but most miss the mark completely. The film seems convinced that the more vulgar it is the funnier it is. The jokes are quite vulgar but rarely funny. Vulgar humor isn't funny just because it's vulgar, but rather for the reasons any type of humor is. In essence vulgar humor can be funny because of great timing, delivery, a good set up, by being clever, or any other why comedy is funny. This movie doesn't seem to understand that and thinks that this comedy is just funny because it is vulgar. When the comedy in a comedy doesn't work it is near impossible to make up for this.

What did though pleasantly surprise me is that the characters are quite likable. The boyfriend could have easily been an unlikable jerk, but he isn't. The guy always has his heart in the right place. This is a nice touch that I wish could've been in a better movie. The rest of the characters while maybe underdeveloped are quite likable as well. Unfortunately these characters are tied to a very unfunny movie, with a predictable been done a million times before story.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Passengers

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland















Michael's Movie Grade:C

Review: Good characters, great acting, some fantastic ideas and a absorbing atmosphere, but unfortunately a mostly bland predictable story.

What really works in this film is the characters and setting. Both the main characters are really well thought out. On top of this the chemistry between Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence is really great, and I want to see these two in more films together. This makes what is a rather predictable romance quite charming. The setting has a great look to it. It is obvious a lot of work went into making it. There is something fascinating to look at during every moment of the film. Besides this it is just fun to watch the characters react to this environment.

The story begins well as it is just the main character reacting to the well thought environment. This leads to a fascinating moral dilemma, which is actually quite thought provoking. Then it becomes much more predictable and less original, however it is still pretty well handled. However after that the story kind of goes through the motions. The story evolves into both a bland, predictable and forgettable disaster movie. During this section there is even a character who seems to simply exist to state exposition. The characters I like are no longer given the ability to be themselves, and kind of lose what was so great about them before, and go through the motions with the story. These scenes are really really boring. It is sad to see a film that was so good just fall apart, but during these scenes it kind of does. It becomes a movie we have seen too many times and are kind of bored with. Despite this though the movie ends on a high note that is actually kind of touching.

If you can't guess the film is very uneven. Watching this I both thought "This is a really good movie", and "This is pretty bad". There are things that are really good about this movie, but the bad stuff is equally as bad. For me though I enjoyed the good stuff enough that I am glad I saw it. So if you like me can enjoy a movie for it's virtues, despite it's faults see it. If big faults ruin a movie for you however, you probably won't enjoy it the way I did.

-Michael J. Ruhland