Now You See Me 2

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland




















Michael's Movie Grade: C-

Review: Entertaining time passer, but little else.

The characters are likable, but underdeveloped. The plot is entertaining but not much more. None of the twists though are that well devolved and too many of them are quite predictable. The effects look great. The acting is quite good. This movie is entertaining but I doubt it's going to leave much of an impression.

This is an enjoyable movie to watch, but it lacks any depth or anything memberable.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Warcraft

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland



















Michael's Movie Grade: F

Review: Extremely boring movie has all of the clichés of fantasy movies, but none of the charm of the better ones.

Even though I have only seen this movie once, I feel I have seen it many more times, and not in a good way. This movie is  simply a collection of tired movie clichés. Nothing new is added here, you are essentially watching a movie that rips off of every fantasy movie ever made, but without adding anything to it. To make matters worse the pace is so fast that I never felt that I got to know who any of these characters are. The characters seem to be nothing but plot devices.

This film might be better for those who have never played the game it is based off of. I have not played this game and I can say I found the movie horrible, and it is  not worth the time if you also haven't played the game, and it might be bad for those who have as well (I don't know).

-Michael J. Ruhland

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland


















Michael's Movie Grade: F

Review: Loud, obnoxious and just plain irritating.

This movie seems afraid to shut up. There is constant noise, whether it be loud music or just characters being obnoxious. This film seems to think if it was ever quiet for a few seconds people would lose all interest. The result is the film just being irritating to sit through. This also leads to another awful thing about this movie. The pace is to fast for us to care about a thing. We never stop and spend anytime with these characters, we never stop and see just how much is a stake. It moves from one scene to the next constantly to the point of just being obnoxious. Attempts to add drama fail horribly, because we barely spend enough time with these serious scenes to care.

To make matters worse this film has horrible villains. Be-bop and Rock Steady are just irritating and loud. Not enough time is spent with Shredder to see him as a real threat. Krang is given a horrible voice that is just a pain to listen to.

I am not expecting high art, but the turtles deserve better than this.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Me Before You

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland



















Michael's Movie Grade: C

Review: Quite likable if really predictable tearjerker.

The story offers nothing new. We have seen this story many times before. It is full of storytelling conventions that we have long accepted, and it knows this. The pace of the film rushes quite a bit, however that doesn't hurt the movie because we have accepted these story points and we know they are going to happen before we see them. However despite all this the film manages to be quite likable. This is mainly because of the characters. These characters are very charming and just a joy to watch. Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin have great chemistry. You truly believe the romance between them. On top of that with the fantastic settings this film is a joy to look at. This whole film looks beautiful.

This film seems to be really liked by audiences, but not so much by critics. I personally understand both sides. This film is very unoriginal and it lacks the depth it probably should have. On the other hand the acting is excellent, the movie looks great, and the characters are quite likable. Judge it for yourself whether you should see it or not. As for me I liked it despite it's problems.

-Michael J. Ruhland

The Angry Birds Movie

Michael's Movie Grade:D

Review: Just a very forgettable film.

This film has little to make it stand out. The story-line and characters have been done many times before and will be done many times in the future. There is nothing new this movie brings. Everything that is done here has been done better elsewhere. 

What really hurts this film is the humor. This movie assumes just because a joke is immature it is funny. There are jokes about farting, pee, poop, and burping. However there is seemingly no effort put into these jokes. They just assume being disgusting makes them funny. It is strange to think Jon Vitti, who has written some very funny episodes of The Simpsons could have been one of the writers for a film this unfunny.

This film does have some good points though. The main character is quite likable, and the artwork looks nice. However even these good points have been done better in other films.

Overall this movie sadly is just not a good movie.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland

X-Men: Apocalypse

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland


















Michael's Movie Grade: B

Review: Quite good film, it is not without it's faults, but what works about it really works.

This film is quite exciting. The action as well as the much of the story are very good. This film is heck of a lot of fun to watch. While this is not as great of character writing as there was in Civil War, it was still good enough for us to care about the characters. The story and characters are set up well enough for the big fight scenes to be just as exciting as they should be, and not have them seem like they are there just to be there. This film is a lot of fun to watch and is quite involving.

However this film does have it's problems as well. The story simply focuses on too many characters. Because of this much of the character development feels a bit rushed. Also some of the characters while likable, are very underdeveloped and it feels like we spend to little time with them to have as strong of an emotional connection with them as the film wants us to have. However they are still likable and understandable enough for us to get involved in the story. On top of that much of this movie makes it seem like we have seen this before.

Overall this may be a faulted film, but what is good about it is quite good.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Captian America : Civil War

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland















Michael's Movie Grade: A-

Review: Fantastic film, probably one of the best superhero films of recent years.

I personally like to think that this was made to wash the bad taste of Batman VS. Superman out of our mouths (though I know that's not true), because this film does right everything that movie did wrong. This film sets up why these characters are fighting. Many of the ideas in this film are actually thought provoking (something which too many superhero movies try for and fail). The characters are very well developed and we actually sympathize with them. And with all this happening the film still manages to fit a lot of fun in, even when the movie gets dark.

What I really like about this film is that despite how many characters it has it focuses on Captain America and Iron Man. This keeps the film from feeling to busy and allows us to really focus on the story. Speaking of the story I love that this film allows the story to drive the action, and allows the audience to actually care about the action scenes.

With how much superhero movies have been disappointing me lately (especially Batman VS Superman and Deadpool) it is great to see a superhero movie can still be this great. Overall this is just a fantastic film.

-Michael J. Ruhland