Movie Review - The Invasion

Hope everyone had a wonderful break! Welcome back tigers and happy humpday to everyone else! This week I am reviewing The Invasion, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  There’s a lot of zombie and ghost themed thrillers going around right now and I thought this movie was a good way to break it up.  It’s in the category of Sci-Fi Thriller but i thought it was a nice break from the typical thrillers coming out.  

The movie is about a psychiatrist and her young son in the middle of an alien invasion of sorts.  Instead of a typical alien takeover it is incorporated as an unidentifiable virus that takes over a person and relinquishes power of the person over to the alien control.  So there is no true alien coming down but it is kind of a freaky way to bring in the zombie/alien side. The interesting part is that it doesn’t change the appearance of the person, it just takes over their mind so it blends into crowd until it is too late. The aliens also have no emotions or feelings, they only work to achieve their agenda, which is to take over the human race.  The movie follows her journey as a psychiatrist slowly realizes what's happening to people and her ex-husband, the head of the CDC, is behind infecting millions of people because he is one of the first people infected.  

I would give this movie a 9/10 because I think it broke away from the mold and did a really good job tell a different story.  It was fast paced and kept me guessing, which for me is key.  The actors did a great job portraying their characters, especially when they had to become the aliens because the whole idea of the aliens were that they had no emotion or feelings.  

The Invasion (2007) 1 hr 39 mins long  

Movie Review - The Woman in Gold

This week I took a look at The Woman in Gold and fell in love, with both the painting and the movie.  If you are a history buff you will probably really enjoy this retelling of an amazing true story. If you are really interested look up the story of the painting before watching and it will give you some good insight on the characters.

The Woman in Gold shows a beautiful and emotional story of an Austrian woman working to get back her families property that was stolen by Nazis during the holocaust.  Maria Altman's family was persecuted by the Nazis in Austria which caused Maria to flee to America during the holocaust.  The movie does a great job really showing the emotions and memories of Altman as she challenges the Austrian government to get back the painting of her aunt Adele, which was painted by a very famous Austrian artist of the period.  The movie is a retelling of the fight for restitution for this woman and her family to reclaim what was stolen so many years ago.  

Overall I really enjoyed the movie and did a little research after I watched it to see what the painting looked like and see if the details matched up.  I would give this movie a 8/10 only because of the slow pace. The actors did a great job really portraying the emotions of these characters and the flash backs of Altman's memories were perfectly placed so you could slowly piece together the whole picture. This movie is a little long but it is great to watch in pieces, so its perfect to break up studying (which is what I did), its slower pace makes it great to use for a study break.

The Woman in Gold (2015) 1 hour 49 mins long 

Movie Review - The White Helmets

I’m coming at you for a second time this week to tell you about a movie that won the Oscar for Best Documentary, Short Subject this Sunday! The White Helmets gives us a look into the efforts of a group of first responders in Syria who work to save the lives of their fellow civilians as repeated airstrikes hit their nation. These first responder’s aptly call themselves The White Helmets for their identifying headgear.

The White Helmets are responsible for saving the lives of tens of thousands of Syrians caught in the conflict, and have been nominated for the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts. At only about 40 minutes long, the documentary isn’t going to be too demanding on your busy college schedule. The White Helmets offers a good opportunity to see into the Syrian conflict in a short period of time.

Given the content of the documentary and the sensitivity of the subject, I am choosing to not give this movie a rating, but simply say that I encourage you to take the time to watch. If you are interested in becoming more informed on The White Helmets beyond the film, I encourage you to check out their website, www.whitehelmets.org/en.

The White Helmets (2016) 41 min long

Movie Review - Finding Dory

Looking for a chance to blast back to your childhood for a bit? Escape the stress of college and pretend to be a kid again? But maybe you still want something new, yet… nostalgic? Well do I have good news for you! Just this month, Finding Dory hit Netflix!

Finding Dory is the long-awaited sequel to the childhood favorite Finding Nemo, coming thirteen years after the original movie. If you missed Finding Dory in theaters last summer, I highly recommend taking some time to watch it now. It’s a great blast of nostalgia with some of the familiar faces we grew to love years ago as well as some new, lovable characters who are sure to grow on you.

I must say though, I think we can all agree, this R-rated version of Finding Dory may have been just a bit more interesting. Even if it is toned down from this, I have to give Finding Dory a solid 8/10. It’s fun, nostalgic, and heartwarming, just as you’d want from the sequel to one of our favorite childhood movies.

Finding Dory (2016) 1hr 45min long

Movie Review - Knowing

I’ve been holding off on watching Knowing for a while now because I was a little uncertain about it.  It turned out to be much better than I expected.  The movie began with a subtle hint towards aliens and the unknown. The father John Koester and his son Caleb are out star gazing and you get a feel for their close but strained father-son relationship.  There is a flashback to fifty years ago which depicts a young girl writing out numbers on a piece of paper. She is unable to finish as the teacher tells her that wasn't the assignment. All of the papers are sealed in envelopes with their names and put in a time capsule not to be opened for fifty years.  The whole premise to the movie is that Koester’s son receives the same paper fifty years later and John has to interpret what it means for him and his son.   I thought that the acting overall was pretty great.  I think Nicholas Cage did a great job mastering the intelligent professor trying to make sense of everything that has happened so far.  I saw a lot of Adam and eve and religious tones mixed in which I found pretty interesting because it really wasn’t where I was expecting the movie to go. It’s very sci-fi meets religion in the way that they go about revealing what the numbers mean and who is behind them.  Overall I think I would give the movie an 8/10, it was pretty interesting and I am glad I did finally watch it. I’m not one for these types of movies but there was enough action and surprise to keep me interested.

Knowing (2009) 2hr 1min long 

Hey everyone, here is my first review! Let me know what you think and what you'd like us to review next!
-Bridget

Welcome!

Hello everyone!

We are a blog for college students by college students! We will be doing weekly reviews on all the Netflix movies that maybe you aren't sure are worth your time! Send us some ideas on movies that you want us to check out but don’t have the time to do yourself!