Chuck's Movie Breakdown

       Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, with just two days left in Tarantino Week , today we'll be looking at yet another Western written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. That Western is 2015's The Hateful Eight . A film that, due to a controversial script leak, was almost unmade, but became so talked about that Tarantino went ahead and made it. So, let's take a look at the eighth film by Quentin Tarantino: The Hateful Eight.        The movie is set in the snowy mountains of Wyoming, where bounty hunter Marquis Warren is taking three dead bodies into the nearby town of Red Rock. Looking for a ride, due to his horse being dead, Warren asks stagecoach driver O.B. for a ride. However, another passenger in the stagecoach had already paid for a private trip, so O.B. suggests Warren speak with the passenger, who is famous bounty hunter John Ruth, who earned the nickname of "the Hangman":due to his proclivity for bringing bounties in alive to be...

            Hey guys, Chuck here. After taking audiences to Nazi-occupied France with Inglourious Basterds , Quentin Tarantino's next destination was a pre-Civil War American South with his 2012 Western flick: Django Unchained .          Released in December of 2012, the movie starts in 1858 Texas with brothers Dicky and Ace Speck, who are driving a group of shackled slaves on foot. They are stopped by German dentist-turned-bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz, who is looking for a slave from the Carrucan plantation. The slave is Django, and Django confirms that he can identify and recognize three former Carrucan overseers: the Brittle brothers Big John, Ellis, and Roger (Lil Raj). After killing Ace and disabling Dicky by shooting his horse, Schultz purchases Django, as well as Ace's horse. The two then ride off and stop in the town of Daughtry. After coming to an agreement that if Django helps Schultz find and kill the Brittle brothers...

       Hey guys, Chuck here. After the release of Kill Bill: Volume 2 in 2004, Quentin Tarantino worked on two more projects with Robert Rodriguez. One of them was a 2007 double feature called Grindhouse , which featured two films: Planet Terror , which was directed by Rodriguez, and Death Proof , which was directed by Tarantino. The other project was directing a single scene in the 2005 film adaptation of Sin City , which was directed by Rodriguez and Sin City creator Frank Miller. In 2009, however, Tarantino would return to the big screen with the World War II film, and subject of today's review for Tarantino Week , Inglourious Basterds .         The movie, set in Nazi-occupied France, opens with SS Col. Hans Landa interrogating dairy farmer Perrier LaPadite upon the whereabouts of a Jewish family: the Dreyfus family. After deducing that the Dreyfus' were under the floorboards, Landa summons his men into the house, where they open fire at t...

       Hey guys, Chuck here. After the success of Pulp Fiction in 1994, Quentin Tarantino would go on to direct an episode of the television series ER , write and star in the Robert Rodriguez directed vampire flick From Dusk til Dawn , as well as write and direct Jackie Brown , an adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel Rum Punch . However, it wouldn't be until 2003 when we would see a completely original story by Tarantino, which would combine elements of several genres of film, and with a story so long and complex, the film would be split into two. So today, as part of Tarantino Week , we'll be taking a look at Kill Bill .         Volume 1 starts off with The Bride, who is shot in the head by her former boss Bill. The Bride, it turns out, was a member of a group of assassins called The Deadly Vipers, and her code name was Black Mamba. However, she left the squad without a word, and Bill, their leader, wasn't thrilled. After tracing her to a c...

       Hey guys, Chuck here. Today, as part of Tarantino Week , I'd like to take a look at a film that truly made Tarantino a household name, as well as started a long-standing working relationship between Tarantino and actor Samuel L. Jackson, who would continue to appear in Tarantino's films, with only two major exceptions. Ladies and gentlemen: Pulp Fiction .         The movie, set in Los Angeles, is told in a very non-linear way, as we actually start off with a pair of thieves, Ringo and Yolanda aka Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, talking about the dangers of robbing liquor stores, and discuss robing the diner they are eating in. After the opening credits, we meet Jules Winfield and Vincent Vega, who discuss the differences between things in America and things in Europe (for example, the McDonald's Quarter Pounder w/ Cheese is instead called a "Royale w/ Cheese" in Paris). Jules and Vincent are tasked with picking up a...

       Hey guys, Chuck here. This week for Throwback Thursday , I thought I'd take a look at not only one of my favorite filmmakers at this time, but honestly one of the greatest filmmakers of our time. That filmmaker is Quentin Tarantino. Now, it only feels right to start reviewing his films by reviewing his first feature as director: 1992's Reservoir Dogs . Featuring a stellar cast, brilliant writing, and violence that is truly unforgettable, Quentin Tarantino truly hit the ground running and showed film fans everywhere that he was a filmmaker to watch. So, let's take a look at the first film of the icon known as Quentin Tarantino: Reservoir Dogs .         The film focuses on a group of six career criminals brought together by crime boss Joe Cabot and his son Nice Guy Eddie, all of whom go by an alias due to the nature of the job they were brought together to pull off. The six are as follows: Mr. White, Mr. Blonde, Mr....

          Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, we talked about the original 1982 classic. Now, let's take a look at the 2017 sequel to Blade Runner : Blade Runner 2049 . We have a new director this time, with Denis Villeneuve, and a lot of time has passed since the events of the original film. So, let's talk about those changes.         Thirty years have passed since the events of Blade Runner , and the Tyrell Corporation, after the murder of their CEO, has moved into the next phase of replicants with the Nexus-8 models. Nexus-8 replicants have an open-ended lifespan, and implanted memories to help make them seem more human in nature. Unfortunately, after a violent rebellion that resulted in the blackout of 2022, replicant production was banned, and Tyrell Corp. goes bankrupt. Some years pass, and entrepreneur Niander Wallace, of the Wallace Corporation, has successfully created artificial crops and livestock, aver...

        Hey guys, Chuck here. This week for Throwback Thursday , I'll be taking a look at a classic of the 80's that, while considered a classic now, was not seen as such upon initial release. However, upon various midnight screenings, a director's cut, and a more definitive "Final Cut," has been seen as a classic of science fiction that would inspire many other films in what we now know as the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, That film is director Ridley Scott's 1982 classic:  Blade Runner .        The movie starts off by telling us that in the near future (2019 as of the release of the actual film), the Tyrell Corporation has advanced robotics to the next evolution: the Nexus phase. The Nexus series replicants were bioengineered artificial life forms, designed to appear identical to adult humans, but with superior strength, speed, agility, resilience, and in some cases intelligence. At the time the...

        Hey guys, Chuck here. Hope everyone is enjoying St. Patrick's Day, because I've got quite the review for you guys today. However, before we get into that, a quick bit of housekeeping. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic across the globe, many movies that I had planned to review for you guys have been postponed for later releases. This includes films like A Quiet Place Part II, Mulan, Black Widow , and No Time to Die . So, for the time being, all reviews on my blog will be off-the-shelf reviews. Any films that I have available to watch in my home, whether on DVD, VHS, Blu-Ray, or on streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ will be my main focus for now. This will include this week's Throwback Thursday review of Blade Runner , and possibly my review of the live-action remake of Disney's Lady and the Tramp on Disney+. Now, with that out of the way, let's get into today's review of The Boondock Saints .       ...

             Hey guys, Chuck here. This week for Throwback Thursday , we'll be looking at a Universal Studios film that, due to two of the film's lead stars as well as the writer and producers of the film, was highly marketed by Nickelodeon, a TV network that was owned by Paramount Pictures' parent company, Viacom International. This is the 2002 teen comedy that everyone over the age of 24 fondly remembers as a modern classic: Big Fat Liar .          Big Fat Liar focuses on 14-year-old chronic liar Jason Shepherd, played by Frankie Muniz, who after getting caught in one of his lies by his parents and his English teacher, is given one last chance to work on, and turn in, a creative writing assignment and avoid going to summer school. After writing a story, called "Big Fat Liar," Jason then hurries to the community college to get his essay turned in on time. Unfortunately, he is for...

          Hey guys, Chuck here. Okay, I know the Nostalgia Critic has a segment identical to this, and uses the same name as I'm using, but it's a catchy title. So, I'm starting my own version of his popular segment: Old vs. New . For the first one, I'm going to be covering one that the Nostalgia Critic has already done: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory vs. Charlie & the Chocolate Factory . However, one major difference is that I will be drawing comparisons to Roald Dahl's original book, as to understand why the newer version was made. As someone who has read the book, I feel that more people should understand why my opinion is what it is. so let's start with which movie had the better production design.               BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN - Okay, this isn't wholeheartedly fair, as the original had such a limited budget, and major limits in filmmaking t...

          Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, I just watched the CG animated movie Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution . The movie was released theatrically in Japan in 2019, with an English dub direct-to-Netflix released in February of 2020. The film is a complete remake of the original Pokémon film: Mewtwo Strikes Back , with two main differences: a change in animation style, and a change in voice cast and dialogue.         The movie starts with the discovery of a fossil belonging to the ancient Pokémon: Mew. A group of scientists take the fossil back to their lab, and with it create the all-powerful Mewtwo. And much like in the original Mewtwo Strikes Back , Mewtwo has something of an identity crisis, and destroys the lab he was created in, killing all of the scientists in the process. Team Rocket leader Giovanni arrives, making Mewtwo an offer of partnership. After working together for weeks, Mewtwo truns on Giovanni and escapes, declarin...

            Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, we've talked about Star Wars quite a lot on this blog. Heck, the first part of December 2019 was dedicated to reviewing all of the live-action  Star Wars movies leading up to the release of The Rise of Skywalker . But, there is one pat of Star Wars we haven't discussed yet, and that is the following question: What if the mad genius behind comedy classics like Young Frankenstein , History of the World Part 1 , and, of course, Blazing Saddles made a film that satirized not just, Star Wars , but all of the sci-fi greats including Star Trek and Planet of the Apes ? Well, you'd get Mel Brooks' 1987 sci-fi comedy classic: Spaceballs .           The movie opens with a Star Wars style opening crawl that establishes the basic plot of the movie: the evil Spaceballs, who come from the planet Spaceball, have squandered thei...