Reviews by OsamaExKing

Fruitvale station is an extremely sad movie about a real murder happened in 2009.

****Spoiler Alert*****

The movie start off with an actual video recorded by a mobile phone demonstrating police brutality case with 3 cops holding 4 guys against a wall in Fruitvale station, and the video end up with a shot fired and screen cuts black.

What follows is a story about a 22 year old guy, just got out of the jail and trying to get back to his life, saying that he would stop dealing drugs and he's going to be a loving father to his 4 year old daughter and to his mother.

The movie is 85 minutes with about 70 minutes that isn't interesting, basically capturing the last 24 hours before the event leading to fruitvale station.

The movie have a low budget production value and doesn't seem scripted, while that somehow makes it look very real and it's also make you engaged to the story.

After a guy identify him at the train, he call him off trying to pick a fight with him, so a brawl start at the train and as soon as the train pull off, they try (Oscar and his bodies) to escape the police station but the police was waiting for them.

So they detain them against a wall while people surrounding them holding their phones recording, suddenly a shot fired by an officer hitting Oscar in the back, he dies the next morning in the hospital due to massive internal bleeding.

**This part is just a script at the end of the movie**

The events afterward is extremely sad in which the officer who shot Oscar Pleaded not guilty and claimed that Oscar was resisting arrest and that he saw Oscar reaching his waist trying to pull something, while that was not clear in the video, the officer thought that he's pulling his tasor, turned out to be a real gun and shot Oscar on his back.

The Officer was accused of 1st degree murder and the court verdict was 2 years in prison, in which he end up spending 11 months only.

It's kinda hard to review this movie because it's a remake, but i'm going to review it as a separate movie first, and then as a remake to illustrate the differences.

If you haven't watched the original, then this is an OK movie, not good enough and not bad at all, the story was unusual and great, Josh Brolin was spectacular and that is the good side about this movie.
The bad side was the terrible performance by Sharlto Copley,
another terrible performance by Samuel L. Jackson and the fact that the movie looks rushed with no attention to details, for instance, Joe Doucett was imprisoned in a room for a 20 years, so you'd think there is an effect on him outside, like the fact that he shouldn't be able to know that he's holding a phone, and it shouldn't be that easy to learn how to use a computer, and it should be awkward for him to approach people and talk to them because he haven't done that in 20 years.
Something i noticed about Spike Lee, that he's not that talented as a director, i mean I've seen 25th Hour and that movie made me hate Edward Norton, anyway, Spike Lee don't have the ability to show you something without actually showing it to you, Also he relied on visual effects to show you flashbacks which was terrible idea, because you don't feel them at all, you don't feel sad, you don't feel awkward, i mean visual effects have their own purposes, don't force them in like this.
So overall an OK "American" movie with interesting story.

Now, if you have seen the original, then you'd think that this remake is an insult, and to be truly honest, it is.
Oldeuboi is light years better than this, that movie had depth, and mystery and so much elements missing from this,
Min-sik Choi (the guy who played the leading role) got fat and became shredded during the movie, he even got old and you can feel him getting old on every shot of him during the movie, and there was so much details in Oldeuboi, that you actually have to watch it twice, to fully appreciate them,
and the villain was dark,smart and good looking, the movie end left me astounded, asking myself what happened, it's like watching Shutter island by martin scorsese, the end leaves you with two assumptions, assumption one and two, you can choose one and go on with your day.
Instead, Spike Lee played it plain and simple, he also altered the twist, but that didn't bother me that much.

Overall, don't waste your time on this and go watch the original, BUT if you want to feel the differences then go ahead, it's your time.

A movie about a low life Scottish kids who can't function in real life, so they choose heroin to deal with their problems.
The first thing that flashed me was the screen play, and i don't want this to sound bad, but i think it was too much screen play for 90 minutes,i felt that they're talking too much with really saying anything.
I always thought that the movie structures should be balanced, that's why a cheesy movie is a cheesy movie, and a powerful movie is a powerful movie on every level, however the screen-play was nominated for an Oscar so i guess i might be the only one who felt like this.
I watched the movie twice to fully understand it, not because of complex plot or anything but because it's too much content and i guess the writing toned down a little bit after the first 30 minutes making the movie balanced and enjoyable.
And to think of it, it's the real representation of drug addicts, Renton trying back and forth to fight it but end up at the same place, he's surrounded by low-life friends and a terrible environment, and the movie enjoyability reaches max level when he decided to leave his home town to go to London and start off again, without spoiling anything, i think that was the best part of the movie, and Danny boyle really impressed me with his directorial skills, i know he's a good director but this is just impressive and works with the movie environment, also the score is beautifully executed and beautifully mixed together making the movie a blast and suck you in.
Overall enjoyable, a bit too much, sometimes funny, sometimes quirky and defiantly recommended.

Jack Reacher is a waste of two hours and 10 minutes, it might look like a standard shooting gallery but it managed to be even worse than that given the fact that the movie is slow, which is a surprise cause these type of movies tends to be fast, plot-less and stupid. this one is slow,plot-less and stupid.
i mean it's not a crime movie, diffidently not an action movie and most importantly it's not an enjoyable movie.