Top Movies of September!

Hey everyone, today is September 30th, marking the end of the month. Today's blog I will give you my top 3 movies of the month and my least favorite movie of September. There were really no great movies this month, but there were some very good ones, and of course some not so good ones. Please feel free to comment below and give your top 3 and least favorite movie of the month of September!



1) Black Mass
Cast: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Adam Scott, Corey Stoll

I really liked Black Mass and enjoyed it a lot. Johnny Depp and Joel Edgerton were amazing in their roles and every side actor brought it as well. Depp in particular, may have given his best performance in this film. The story of Whitey Bulger is nicely told and the movie has scenes that are so dark and disturbing, they make you sit back and decompress afterwards. The pacing issues prevented me from giving the movie a grade in the A range but overall it is a movie that is as close to "must see" as possible. This was in my top 3 most anticipated fall movies list, and it surely did not disappoint at all.

My Black Mass Grade:  B+



2) Everest
Cast: Jason Clarke, Thomas Wright, Martin Henderson, John Hawkes, Naoko Mori, Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhall

The visuals of Everest are astonishing and really help bring out the suspense and dramatic impact of certain scenes. Everest tells the true story of 2 expeditions in May of 1996 starting their ascent toward the summit of the great Mount Everest. One thing the movie did very well was make you care about what happens to the characters climbing the mountain. The performances were good but none really stood out. My few complaints about Everest were the pacing and the scenes that were too long or out of context that just took you out of the movie. Again, the visuals of this movie are something to be seen.
My Everest Grade:   C+



3) The Visit

Cast: Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie, Kathryn Hahn

"M. Night Shyamalan on a list for the best movies and not worst? This has to be a typo!" I cannot blame you if that was your thought immediately after seeing The Visit on my list. But in all seriousness, this is a movie I am actually looking forward to watching again. This does not mean I loved the film, because I definitely do not, but those last 20 minutes or so still have me feeling creepy and laughing. Even though I am not
a fan of the horror genre, this is a unique blend of horror and comedy. Even though they both do not really work throughout most of the film.....Those last 20 minutes though!
My The Visit Grade: C-





AND THE WORST MOVIE OF SEPTEMBER AWARD GOES TO........



Transporter Refueled!
Cast: Ed Skrein, Loan Chabonol, Ray Stevenson, Gabriella Wright, Tatiana Pajkovic, Wenxia Yu

This movie was god awful. I will admit that I have not seen any of the original Transporters and went into this movie with an open mind. Unfortunately, this movie has no plot and barely and great action sequences. There were really only two great action pieces and the rest were pretty generic and boring. The acting in the movie is flat throughout, with the exception of Ray Stevenson, starting with the main character. There are scenes that do not make sense, especially given what had happened in the scenes before. The film tries to look like a Fast & Furious movie but fails miserably. All in all, it was a waste of 96 minutes.

My Transporter Refueled Grade:  D -




If you want to read my more in depth *Non - Spoiler* reviews they are further down the page! 
Coming soon: My most anticipated October Films!
Remember to comment and share your thoughts!

Brute's "Black Mass" *Non-Spoiler* Review

Finally a movie worth talking about! While Black Mass is not a great movie it does a lot of things right to be considered a very good one.  Black Mass tells the story of Whitey Bulger (Johnny Depp) who becomes an FBI informant for his childhood friend, John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), to help take down the Italian mafia moving in on his turf. Unfortunately for Connolly, Bulger has in own agenda as well and uses his alliance to help himself become a kingpin.  Johnny Depp is sensational in his leading role as Bulger.  He brings both the psychotic side and evil side of Bulger and puts them together for a performance that at times will gives you the chills. His presence is felt so strongly on screen; it is by far the best part of this movie. Not to be outdone, Joel Edgerton brings another great performance to Black Mass. Edgerton’s Connolly shows so much unwavering support of Bulger, he becomes both naive and biased towards him even when the people around him tell him otherwise. Edgerton makes you simultaneously sympathize for him because he is being used and frustrated with him because it is clear and he is oblivious to it. The supporting cast also has few highlights as well. Benedict Cumberbatch (Billy Bulger), David Harbour (John Morris), and Jesse Plemons (Kevin Week) all are very memorable even though they do not have substantial parts in the film. Director Scott Cooper (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me) does a fair job that leaves you wondering that if they had a more experienced director, this movie could have been great. There were parts of the film that dragged on a bit too long and maybe a better director could have done a better job with the film’s pacing. Credit to him though, he left us with a very good movie.

Conclusion: Black Mass has some pacing issues but the movie itself is good enough to the point where they are forgivable. Black Mass is very heavy at points and will make you need time to settle down afterwards. But that is what a good movie will do. Johnny Depp gives one of his performances alongside an almost equally great Joel Edgerton, and a few others. Those performances are worth the price of admission alone. You will definitely be hearing about Black Mass and its two stars come award season. Black Mass is worth the watch.   

GRADE:      B+

Brute's "Scorch Trials" *Non - Spoiler* Review

If you are thinking about seeing the 2^nd installment of the Maze Runner franchise, be prepared for a couple of things: a lot of running, unexplained action and details, and questions such as if they are in the middle of the desert, how is there this random nicely paved road for them to drive on?  Without getting into spoilers, let me breakdown a few of those things. At one point in the movie, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) says to another character, “I’m done running”. My first reactionary thought was it’s about damn time. Thomas has been literally just running for the past movie and a half it’s about time they slowed it down. Also, when I say unexplained action and details, I mean there things that characters will either do or say and the movie expects you to just accept it and move on but all that does is leave you lingering questions like how was something done or what are they talking about. Other than all that, the movie was actually enjoyable to a certain degree. The action pieces that do make sense are fun to watch and some of the characters are very easy to like. As like it was in Maze Runner, Dylan O’Brian (Thomas) is again the brightest part of the movie. The characters of Newt and Minho (Thomas Brodie – Sangster and Ki Hong Lee), are also not to be forgotten in the shadow of O’Brian. They bring both levity and depth to both of their respective characters. Also, Aidan Gillen (Janson) plays a villain fairly well and puts together a good performance.

Conclusion: Scorch Trials unfortunately feels like only a slight upgrade over its predecessor. While some of the action and most of the main cast are good enough to watch, the movie itself has some glaring holes and weaknesses. There are moments when you will laugh with the movie…..and moments where you will laugh at it. I thought the first Maze Runner was just okay and that Scorch Trails could be much better. If you liked the first one you will probably like this one, in the end, I was left with feeling disappointed.

GRADE:   C - 

Brute's "The Visit" *Non - Spoiler* Review

The Visit, by M. Night Shyamalan, is not like most of his latest films. By that, I mean the movie is watchable. Just to inform you, I am no horror fan, but even I found this film somewhat enjoyable. Now do not let this fool you. The Visit is not a complete 180 degree turn for Shyamalan but it is a good first step to getting back on track. The Visit tells the story of two children (Olivia DeJonge & Ed Oxenbould) who spend the week with their grandparents, whom they are meeting for the first time, to try and connect with them.  As seen in the trailers, things get a bit weird for the two and the movie concludes with a fun and surprising ending. The aspects that work for this film are the jump scares and the classic Shyamalan twist. The Visit is listed as both a comedy and horror. Excluding a couple of laughs, the jokes in the film do not quite hit and for the first 70 minutes of the 94 minute run time, there is barely any horror except for the couple jump scares that are randomly thrown in. The last 20 minutes of this film are fun, creepy, and surprising. If only the hour and change before that brought the same energy, this movie would be an instant hit. Look at the bright side… at least it’s not The Happening, The Last Airbender, or After Earth!

Conclusion: M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit is a right first step on the path to redemption. The film’s climax is both entertaining and horrifying. Even though it does leave you wanting more from the first three quarters of the film, it does have enough redeeming qualities in that time to make it appeasable. While the comedy mostly falls flat and there are not enough scares, you will leave the theatre with no sour taste. If you are not a horror fan, I would tell you there is no need to run out and see The Visit, but if you are, the movie is worth a watch.

GRADE:      C-

About Myself

Hey Guys!

Welcome to Brute's Movie blog. My actual name is not really Brute. It was a nickname I was given back in my first year of High School and has just stuck ever since. Do not get confused though, I am by no means a brute, I am not savagely violent human being at all.

Now on to the main reason of this blog. I love movies and television, as you could have guessed. I have been a big movie fan since 2008. By that I mean, 2008 is when my passion for seeing movies flourished. I would go to the movies before 2008, but it would be only a couple times a year. The movie that got me started was Iron Man. So as you can guess, I am a huge superhero geek. I loved Iron Man when I first saw it and still love it to this very day. While superhero movies are my favorites, I do love other genres of films as well. Some of my favorite movies that I have seen over the years are no superhero flicks. Movies such as Snowpiercer, Gone Girl, Birdman, Whiplash, Wolf of Wall Street, and This is the End are all on my list of very good to great films. A film can be great no matter what genre it is in. The greatest thing about film, in my opinion, is it allows us to escape from our everyday lives and delve into someone else's story. That is what makes it so special, we can go into a theater having the worst day of your life, and then you leave that theater upbeat and joyful because movies can be great enough to have that kind of power and effect on us. The work by the director, screenwriter, actors, and everyone else involved is just so remarkable. They create these worlds and stories that we can become enamored by, that we will sit down and watch and sometimes even wish we were in them. So my goal is to have a review of a movie out for you every week. Depending on which movies comes out when, there may be more than one per week. My reviews are usually of the non-spoiler kind, but please let me know if you'd like an in-depth review of a movie.

Finally, let me tell you about myself outside of my movie going life. I am a 22 year old man from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I went to Marple Newtown High School and graduated in 2012. I am currently getting a Liberal Arts degree at Delaware County Community College. My goal is to become a professional movie critic and I am taking classes that I think will help me get there. I love my Philadelphia sport teams and am proud from where I came from. I played football for 9 years and baseball for 12 years. Writing is my passion and I will try and write the best blogs and reviews for you guys as much as possible. Lastly we will end on a fun fact. The fun fact is that I have a beard that is both brown and red. No I do not dye it. It is just naturally that way and I kind of like it.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy! Please feel free to comment on any of my blogs and share with your friends!


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