Category: Uncategorized

This is one you can ignore most of the critics on. It’s a very funny movie that scored low but one you may laugh very hard at. As a teacher I found it relate-able and silly and stupid and lame and laugh-a-minute. Sometimes the stupidest comedies are the most fun. If you agree raise your hand and leave me a comment. Come join my club.

Fist Fight (2017)
R | 1h 31min | Comedy | 17 February 2017 (USA)

When one school teacher unwittingly causes another teacher’s dismissal, he is challenged to an after-school fight.
Director: Richie Keen
Writers: Van Robichaux (screenplay), Evan Susser (screenplay) | 3 more credits »
Stars: Ice Cube, Charlie Day, Tracy Morgan

It’s funny to see what people think about teaching in a film like this. It’s not a documentary and it’s likely the writers didn’t do much research about the profession apart from their own perception and experience. Good thing their view of the job is downright hilarious. There are other movies who are just ignorant and even unkind to the profession of teaching. This one just has a load of fun poking fun at a profession and an idea about it. Of course you know I am a teacher so I’m just a little more observant about the characterization and plot details of films about it. This one portrays very little in an accurate way but the jokes are so damn funny anyway. We’e ALL been students. What a funny premise that teachers get into a fist fight!

Ice Cube is a street level teacher. Charlie Day is the stereotypical dorky teacher. He drives a boring white minivan and his wife is pregnant. He’s at the same horrible school as Ice Cube but responds to the unruly students with his tail between his legs. There is an altercation that causes Ice to challenge Charlie to a fist fight, a parking lot brawl. This is funny because teachers don’t do this: kids do. It carries the air of an Adam Sandler movie.

The director Richie Keen is a director and actor, known for Fist Fight (2017), It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005) and Hooked (2006). Clearly he has a background in edgy comedy.

Final thoughts
Again, many films show disrespect for teachers amidst their comedy. I can laugh along with that, be a good sport and all. This film was a little insulting at times but so very funny at others. I went back to replay certain scenes for my wife when she had left the room and it was worth it to see her laugh like I did. It’s raunchy comedy and not for everybody but if you want a good belly laugh at teacher jokes, go see this one.

7/10

There Will be Blood is an epic film released in 2007 that gives a close look at a truly hateful opportunist. Having said that, believe it or not, it’s wonderful. It’s directed by Paul Thomas Anderson known for Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, and the Master. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, and Ciarán Hinds.

IMDB says it’s “A story about family, greed, religion, and oil, centered around a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.” The protagonist’s name is Daniel Plainview. He is a shrewd and relentless oil prospector who almost dies a couple times before he strikes black gold and untold fortune. There is hardly any blood in this movie so don’t let the title steer you wrong. It takes place around 1900 but there are scenes before and considerably longer after that.

Plainview is one of those characters you detest with all that is human but at the same time you can’t take your eyes off his journey. This film treats us to the life of one man. I can see parts of myself in him and at the same time, I see a heart as black as midnight I would never compare to my own. We learn early on he hates people. That should be a clue about what’s to come. The ending is horrendous and somewhat unpredictable. I imagine a lot of people hated the ending. As for me? I can’t really see a better way to complete Plainview’s story. The question lingers for me: is Daniel Plainview’s money worth the human cost? While great in my view, it lost points by not having much real humanity portrayed. One example is, there are hardly any women in it. It could have been stronger if it showed more ordinary life. That would have served to contrast and showcase Plainview’s twisted madness. As it is, that is all we see. It could be better, but it’s great as it is.

The Dark Knight Rises was a failure in my opinion, even in spite of its awesome motorcycle, due to boring and pointless scenes and under-developed characters. Excessively long and pointless scenes follow an initial airplane hijacking that is admittedly one of the few innovative and exciting scenes. Unfortunately however, the boring stuff begins immediately after that and really never stops throughout the course of its seemingly unending 2hr 44min runtime. I think a lot of these boring scenes are due to the fact that the director didn’t try as hard because it’s part of such a successful franchise. Once a franchise is famous like the Dark Knight, movie makers boosted my McDonalds Value Meal Deals, action figures, and clothing lines likely lose their inner conscience about just making a good movie. They think whatever they do under that banner will be accepted and will make money. It appears that is the situation in this case, which is unfortunate. I think movie makers should always strive to make a movie interesting and engaging, regardless of the coattails of its predecessor. I found The Dark Knight Rises to be uninspired and completely off the mark of the 2 other prequels.

Under-developed motives for Bruce Wayne also left me cold on this one. There is little or no chemistry or motive in his love relationship with cat woman. In fact, cat woman nearly kills him a couple of times. His response to this is to fall in love with her and make her his partner? Bruce Wayne’s fortune is another bone of contention with me. He has lost every cent at the hands of his enemy and yet he has the means to appear healthy and relaxed drinking coffee and winking at Alfred at the end of the movie. What money bought the latte Bruce? We are in this scene as well as so many others expected to suspend disbelief. I have to say I grew tired of that mental exercise after the first hour. Besides that, the return wasn’t much to speak of.

Based on my negative impression of this film, I am not planning on seeing the next sequel which clearly will contain a Robin figure. That’s right, believe it or not, I am still not interested.

Magic Mike is a film about Mike (Channing Tatum), a male stripper, and entrepreneur who takes a new younger stripper under his wing and teaches him the ropes. They have adventures that take them through waking up in vomit and meeting hot women with whom they take drugs with and sleep with. Mike wants to start a small business making furniture but the banks won’t lend to him because he had bad credit and a $13,000 stack of ones and fives. We are to assume these are his tips from stripping. Mike goes through a transformation in the course of the movie. Along the way, in between very predictable drama, there is actual stripping. We don’t see any penises but there are butts in thongs galore to keep the drunk women and gay men (I’m not saying all gay men will like the stripping), who go for that sort of thing, stimulated.

I was surprised that almost half this movie was not stripping. The commercials promoted it as a raunchy comedy for people who enjoy male stripping. My wife had planned to go see it with her girl friends but when they never went, I offered to take her since she seemed eager to check it out. It does have a dark story with bubble gum ending that at times is reminiscent of Saturday Night Fever. The characters are all flat and undeveloped and the stripping scenes are no more racy than what you’d see on a CSI episode.

In conclusion, I liked the way the producer and director attempted to give this film a story instead of just showing stripping for 2 hours. Unfortunately the story they gave us is unbelievable, slow, and most of all uninteresting. For that reason, I think this movie has very few people it will appeal to. It just wasn’t funny enough. By sheer demographics, it may not even break even on its budget. If it does do well, I’ll strip on Youtube for you. Here’s hoping it doesn’t!