Maze Runner: Movie Review

Basically, the first half-hour of the movie is a giant info dump where Thomas -- nicknamed "Greenie" -- gets to know the other guys in the camp. There's Alby, the group's appointed leader; Newt (who also played in We're The Millers which was hilarious), who's relegated to exposition duty for most of the film; and Gally, the forceful rule follower.

Ok, this movie was wayyyyy better than I expected it to be. Even though they got a couple things wrong, they did an amazing job making this motion picture. When I was in my Freshman year in high school I read these books and they easily skyrocketed into the top three best book series' I've read next to Eragon and Harry Potter. And when I firgured out they were gonna make a movie, I was ecstatic.

Here, Thomas learns the ins and outs of the Maze, along with its goofy, unending terminology. This includes the "Runners," which are the unlucky chosen few who run the Maze by day in search of a way out. A dude called Minho leads the Runners, and quickly befriends Thomas. Eventually, Thomas becomes a Runner too, and -- surprise, surprise -- he makes unprecedented discoveries that could lead the boys to freedom. Adding a wrench in their plans, the powers-that-be send the first girl to the Glade, Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), which spurs Thomas to double his efforts.

Now, I don't want to spoil the movie for those of you who haven't seen it yet, but overall this movie was spectatular in my opinion. The visual effects and even the acting (me saying this only because the cast mainly consisted of teens) was fantastic. I strongly recommend this movie to all viewers.

Braveheart: Movie Review

You know those movies that you would never even think of until it comes on television one day and
your like "whoa!!! I love this movie!!". Braveheart is one of those movies in my opinion. Costume drama, historical epic, large-scale action flick, and romance all rolled into one big, green, wet, plaid package-- that's Braveheart, the story of Scottish legend William Wallace, the man who fought off the English to regain Scotland's independence in the 13th century.

Yes, young William, played by Mel Gibson, who also directed the movie (which might I add is one of my favorite actors that played in a couple of great movies like all of the Lethal Weapon movies, Mad Max, Signs, and of course The Expendables), has seen England's tyranny close-up-- he walked into a barn full of locals hanged by the English, the day before his dad and brother were also killed by the English. (The English are bad.) So William travels the world for a while before returning as a grown-up to marry his childhood sweetheart played by the ever so stunning Catherine McCormack.

But in an effort to purge Scotland of its Scots, King Edward of Longshanks has granted his noblemen "first night" privileges, meaning sexual rights to any woman who gets married on her wedding night. When William marries the hottie and an English lord tries to cash his this new found privilege given to him on Williams girl. Then, William gets all "nuh-uh" and kills all the English in the village, but not before they kill his new bride.

With no wife and nothing to lose, and a healthy disgust with the way the English have occupied his country, William decides to keep this butt-kicking thing going and see where it leads.

Overall, this is a good movie, all three hours of it. It won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, and Best Sound Effects Editing, and it was nominated for five more.

Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack

As most of you know and have seen, I wrote a blog post a about a month ago on the fairly new movie that came out 2014 called Guardians of the Galaxy. In my personal opinion it was a pretty solid movie. It had everything I like in a movie, action, fantasy, even based of a classic comic book series, and the very occasional crude but hilarious humor. But I'm not here to tell you guys about how much I liked the movie because I've already done a post on that. I'm going to tell you about the one thing about the movie that really captured me which was the soundtrack.


When Disney released this new soundtrack called the "Awesome Mix Vol. 1" from the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, it quickly sky rocketed to the number one spot for soundtracks on iTunes. One of the obvious reasons for this was because of the movie's obvious success. But the more important reasons was because of the list of classic 80's songs found on the tape. These songs were well known by the majority of the public and loved classics that had been passed down from generation whether it be from parents or movies or events of the years.


Here is the list of songs from the album:

1. "Hooked on a Feeling" Performed by Blue Swede
2. "Go All the Way" Performed by Raspberries
3. "Spirit in the Sky"* Performed by Norman Greenbaum
4. "Moonage Daydream" Performed by David Bowie
5. "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" Performed by Elvin Bishop
6. "I'm Not in Love" Performed by 10cc
7. "I Want You Back" Performed by Jackson 5
8. "Come and Get Your Love" Performed by Redbone
9. "Cherry Bomb" Performed by The Runaways
10. "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" Performed by Rupert Holmes
11. "O-O-H Child" Performed by The Five Stairsteps
12. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" Performed by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

I found it extremely moving and really got me into the movie more that the soundtrack of songs were all actually a part of the movie on the mixed tape that Quill had received from his mother before she died that had included the many songs that her and Quill shared and loved in the little time that they had together. And on top of that, considering that I had a similar experience of sharing classic songs from the past with my parents on long car rides to see my brother was such a cherished memory to me, it made the movie and songs that even I knew all the better to enjoy.


The one song that REALLY got to me though, was right at the end where Quill finally opens the gift/new mixed tape his mother gave him right before she died. And it wasn't the revealing of the tape that got me, it was when he put it in his stereo and it started off with the first song playing "O-O-H Child". And everything finally fell into place for Quill and his life and "things are gonna get easier".