Movie Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Finally! A sequel that did what sequels were supposed to do: surpass the original in every way while expanding the story. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes seemed fairly familiar, but there's something incredibly refreshing about the film. I found the story to be extremely well developed, the writing and pacing was great, and it was just thematically strong. But what made the film quite remarkable was its outstanding visual effects. The motion capture was flawlessly executed and the CGI on the apes were almost breathtakingly convincing and masterful. There was a certain depth and character to the apes that I actually cared for them more than the human characters. Plus, the cinematography was just superb. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was a definitive sequel that somehow managed to pull off talking apes that ride on horses without turning it into something laughable. That's quite special. 9

DAM NATION: July 2014 Playlist

Again, sorry for the late post of the playlist. It's been a pretty crazy month so far, but here it is! Another list of 15 songs that I (personally) fancy, that are already doing good on it's own and maybe some new singles from different artists that will probably - or maybe not - be hits in the next coming weeks in whatever format. Oh, and a couple of them are carry overs from last year, but I digress.

So, there! Enjoy!

1 Bo$$ Fifth Harmony

2 Me & My Broken Heart Rixton

3 Come With Me Now Kongos

4 Your Love Nicole Scherzinger

5 Bartender Lady Antebellum

6 Like A Fool Keira Knightley

7 You And I One Direction

8 Black Widow Iggy Azalea (ft. Rita Ora)

9 Little Do You Know Alex & Sierra

10 She Came To Give It To You Usher (ft. Nicki Minaj)

11 Try Colbie Calliat

12 Somebody To You The Vamps (ft. Demi Lovato)

13 Battle Cry Imagine Dragons

14 Break Free Ariana Grande (ft. Zedd)

15 Lost Stars Adam Levine

DAM NATION

Password: The last film I reviewed (Case Sensitive)

Movie Review: Begin Again

I had no idea when I stumbled across Begin Again that it would turn out to be such a great, yet simple, film. Sure, it didn't have the most original of storylines, but the story had a sense of authenticity and there's a certain complexity to the characters that was pretty compelling to watch. I thought Keira Knightley was divine and Mark Ruffalo was just fantastic. Adam Levine wasn't given much to work on, but he's decent. Of course, the soundtrack was simply mesmerizing and it wonderfully sets the tone of the film. I liked the fact that the actors just did not break into song and dance numbers and there were no artificial and spectacular props as backdrops. The music were mostly performance pieces, yet it moved the story along more than most of the current crop of musicals. Quite frankly, I didn't put much faith into the movie based on its music, but I have now fallen madly in love with everything about Begin Again, and yes, the film was grounded in simplicity without being preachy and too cliched, and that's what dazzled me the most. 8