What's the magic word?

Do you believe in magic? This week I watched Now You See Me. This movie surprised me. I really liked the movie even though it was completely different from I what I thought it would be. One thing I enjoyed was the plot. The plot had a solid introduction, middle, and conclusion.

The introduction was probably one of my favorite parts of the entire movie. It began with a quote that made me think (I love quotes like that). "The more you look, the less you see. The closer you think you are, the less you'll actually see."  The tone of the movie was set. It implied to me that these magicians are going to be extremely tricky.

The middle of the movie was very interesting.  It was entertaining to watch the incompetent law enforcement officials. Wow, I guess they could have used the help of the N.S.A. The law officials made the mistake once of thinking that they were ahead of the magicians. However, the magicians were one step ahead of the law officials. This made the movie very humorous and interesting.

The movie begins through the eyes of an anonymous person.  This individual observes the magicians as they perform various acts.  One assumes that this person is responsible for bringing the  magicians together. When it was revealed at the end, it was not at all who I had thought it was going to be. I should have listened to the quote at the beginning of the movie because I was sure I knew who this person was, but it turns out I was completely wrong.

Character Development in this movie was very interesting. I'm not sure if I liked or didn't like it. At the start of the movie the characters magic skills were introduced, but their personalities were not developed. I was disapointed. I would have liked to have seen more background on the characters and more dialogue between the characters. There was some character development based on the characters' acts, but it was not enough for me. Someone, who I was talking to about the movie, made a valid point about the characters. Her point was that the writer may not have developed personalities because the movie is about magic. So, maybe the writer was trying to keep the characters mysterious. I do agree with this, but there still could have been a bit more personality in the characters. In conclusion, I think the characters are interesting and make the movie more mysterious. But, I would have enjoyed more character development.

 This movie deserves a 4.5 rating because everything was spot on except for the characters. I recommend this movie if you love to think and if you love big surprise endings!

Image courtesy of Collider

Are You Ready To Gamble!

Image courtesy of Pie Magazine 

If you enjoy acton and adventure movies with bits of comedy you would really love this movie.  This week I watched James Bond Casino Royale.  The movie was action packed to say the least.  It also had a great plot, and was very different form previous James Bond movies.  It showed a more human side to the character.  The movie had beautiful cinematography from all over the world.  Which added a little bit more for me to the movie.

Although this movie showed a different side of James bond; it still had the same basic plot of every James Bond movie, including a great opening scene.  The opening scene was so packed with adventure I was drawn in from the first moment.  Opening scenes in movies are very important; they can either hook or bore your viewer.  This opening scene, for sure, hooked me.  I loved the bits of humor that were added.  The lines provided relief in some slower scenes.  Although the slower scenes were very limited.  

For some reason I prefer this movie over any other James Bond movie I have ever seen.  There was one part in the movie that made me very uncomfortable, but it was a very effective scene.  This scene was when James Bond had been captured by the villain, and was being tortured.  That's all I'm going to say about that scene because I don't want to ruin it for anyone.  In my opinion that was the only inappropriate scene. Every other scene was very entertaining.

In addition there was one main element to the movie that I really enjoyed.  In contrast to other Bond films the character development was fascinating.  He seemed more emotional.  For example, he showed more attachment to other characters than he usually does.  It was a pleasant surprise.  I saw strong emotion in him as well when he was losing in a 10 million dollar poker game.  Yes, a 10 million dollar poker game that's just what you have to pay to get into the poker game.  In regards to the poker game the other players still had to gamble more money.  During these couple of scenes with the pressure of playing well.  He could not get over some of the awful things that had happened to him.  Overall, this movie was great, and I highly recomend you watch it some time.