Movie Review: The Last Witch Hunter

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland


















Michael's Movie Grade:D+

Review: A mediocre film that has a surprisingly well done climax.

The characters are extremely cliche, and none of them are truly interesting. Much of the plot also we have seen elsewhere and done better, though it is watchable here. In fact, nearly everything in this film has been done too much in other films.

However this film has a surprisingly good climax. It works, because director Breck Eisner, lets this scene be told just as much in the atmosphere as in the action. This scene is exciting, and very well done. It is unfortunate none of the rest of the film is on par with this climax.

A twist at the end feels unnecessary, and unfortunately brings the worst part of the film directly after the best scene. This is poorly handled and feels like the filmmakers are just trying too hard to play it safe.

Overall this is not that good of a film, but the climax is so good it may make it worth seeing.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: Goosebumps

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland


















Michael's Movie Grade:C

Review: Enjoyable time passer, nothing more, nothing less. This film is unspectacular, but nothing you will regret seeing.

The best thing about this film is Slappy the Dummy. The puppetry on him was fantastic, and he was voiced great by Jack Black (I preferred this performance over his live action one in this film where he has an accent that is impossible to guess what accent it is). While not exactly terrifying, he is legitimately creepy. Unfortunately with all the monsters in this film he is the only one given enough to do to be an actual character (though the camera seems to fixate on a clown that is barely given anything to do).

The romance is cliche and overly predictable, but harmless. The jokes are hit and miss, but those that do hit are surprisingly good. Unfortunately a twist on a twist happens near the end and without giving anything away is awful.

Overall an enjoyable time passer, but will never be remembered as a great movie.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: Walk in the Woods

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland




















Michael's Movie Grade:C

Review: Quite enjoyable movie, but I can't help but feel it could have been better.

The best thing about the film was simply seeing the beautiful scenery of the trail. This film simply captures the beauty of nature very well. Considering this film is a movie about people going for one last adventure, this enhances the film a lot.

The story is a quite good story, and the characters are quite likable. However both do feel like they could be better fleshed out. I simply feel I could have known the characters better, and could have been more emotionally involved in the story. However both are still likable. The acting is quite good, and defiantly adds to the likability of the characters. Robert Redford, and Nick Nolte, are very important to the likability of this film, Emma Thompson is also great though her character feels underused, and Kristen Schaal's character marks a definite highlight of the film (though I can't be the only one who couldn't help, but think about Mabel from Gravity Falls).

Overall this is a good film, but unfortunately it feels like it could have been better.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: Hotel Transylvania 2

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland



















Michael's Movie Grade: C

Review:Only occasionally funny animated comedy is helped by good characters and great animation.

The greatest thing about this film is that there is a lot of great character animation in it. The animation brings the characters alive, and brings a great energy to the film. It is very expressive, and very energetic and is just fun to watch.

If not as developed as they could be, the characters are quite likable. They may not be the most memorable characters, but they do have a real likability.

 The main problem with the film is that it is only funny at times, and it has more times where it is not funny than times where it is funny. None of those funny moments though are laugh at loud funny as they are kind of humorous. For a comedy there just weren't as many good laughs as there should have been.

Overall an enjoyable film with great animation, and good characters, but sadly fairly low on laughs.