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War Horse

Written by Tyler K

War Horse tells the tale of a horse (duh) that is used in World War II and is sort of a tribute to the forgotten animals of the war. The story plays out straightforwardly. We follow a horse through its life up till the end of the war.

war-horse-poster

The movie starts out right at the beginning: a horse being born and a young lad who watches on happily at the thought of one day owning that horse. The movie proceeds with the horse’s upbringing and it being eventually sold at market to a drunken farming man who spent far more than he could afford on the horse that he thought was worth every cent. But unfortunately…the young stallion isn’t much of a work horse.

The wife of this drunken farmer is upset and the landlord threatens to toss the family out if the farmer can’t produce rent from the harvest. But the farmer’s son is happy. Because he’s the boy who watched the horse be born.

Anyway, the movie plays out from there. The boy and the horse develop a close bond with one another, the horse does work in the field, but then disaster strikes in a violent storm that destroys the crops and the chance of ever getting rent paid. And then war strikes the country. Horses are needed for the soldiers and the army is paying a very good price for young stallions.

Having no other options, the farmer decides to sell his son’s horse (because that’s how it worked out) to pay rent to not lose his home, much to his son’s dismay. The son tries everything to convince the commanding officer to let him have his horse, but the officer says that he can’t do that and eventually takes the horse with him off to war.

The rest of the movie plays out as the horse moves from one war camp to another and the movie does a good job of keeping the audience entertained throughout. The people the horse meet all have unique stories and the movie does a good job telling you those stories. The action is fierce at times, and it drops off at times to take a more emotional tone at times as well, which creates a good balance for the movie.

All in all, War Horse is a great movie that’s bound to entertain you at least once and I highly recommend it.

Hugo

Written by Tyler K

Hugo takes you into a world, not very much different from our own, full of wonder and mystique. Its premise is simple to understand, but fantastic in its presentation. A small boy who lives in a train station tries to rebuild a small puppet like machine that he and his father started building years ago. To do this though, he unfortunately has to steal for the parts he needs and is eventually caught. This is where the movie begins its tale.

hugo poster

While the premise of the movie is simple, Scorsese does a marvelous job of constantly upping the excitement of the film until we reach a captivating climax before being let slowly back down on a wave of euphoria.

The way the movie blends imagination with reality is breathtaking and the visuals of this movie demonstrate why. Everything looks beautiful. It’s obvious the painstakingly little details that the movie makers put into their work and it really shows.

The movie’s plot also pays a small homage to films of the past and how easy it is to forget the pioneers of the industry, which is a nice touch and makes a viewer think about actually looking up some old films and watch them.

All in all, this movie is a fantastic piece of film and I would highly recommend seeing to anyone who loves movies that let you get back to a simpler time and place.

The Descendants

Written by Tyler K

Watching The Descendants is like watching a neighbor next door for a period of a few weeks. It can be interesting at times, other times it can be extremely dull. That’s the sort of feel you get when watching the film. Some parts of the film are intriguing and pull you into the scene, other parts are. . .well, dull and lifeless and you kind of just want to get to the next part already.

descendants film poster

The plot of the The Descendants is fairly basic. A father whose wife has been sent into a coma from a boating accident is now saddled with two daughters to take care of on his own, while also trying to cement a land deal that his family has owned for generations. Oh, did I mention that this father lives in Hawaii?

Anyway, the movie plays out as would expect for a drama/comedy movie. George Clooney’s character faces hard times in a time of his life where almost everything just isn’t going along as planned. His oldest daughter barely gets along with him, his wife may never wake up from her coma, the land deal becomes increasingly more frustrating to deal with as everyone has an opinion on it, and to top it off, he has to deal with other family members.

While the movie does a good job keeping this admittedly normal situation entertaining, there are a lot of times it really does just feel like you’re watching someone else’s life. Which some people may find perfectly captivating, but for me, I don't really find that much entertainment in watching something I could easily look across the street and see. The story’s setting is relatively new for the story, but it’s something almost all of us have already seen before. And there’s not really anything new to take away from it either.

All in all, even though it did receive a Best Picture nomination, I’d easily say that unless you really like dramedies, that you could probably just skip this one.