Machine Gun Preacher - Movie Review

First I would like to say thank you to the Seattle International Film Festival for presenting a special preview screening of this film and for bringing in Sam Childers and screenwriter Jason Keller for a post movie Q&A.

Machine Gun Preacher is based on the true story of Sam Childers as he goes from heroin addicted drug dealer and all around trouble maker to becoming a major force in protecting children and families from violence bordering on genocide in the heart of war ravaged Sudan. When I very first heard the name of this movie, my instant reaction without knowing any story details was that this would fall in to the same category as Hobo With a Shotgun and Machete which were very stylized Grindhouse movies that play for cheap thrills and indulgence. This movie turned out to be about as different as could possibly be and surprised me in several different ways.

The Lion King 3D - Movie Review

3D Technology has certainly been the story of the year so far in the world of cinema. The release of James Cameron's Avatar set off a virtual wildebeast stampede as movie studios set out to turn as many feature films in to 3D blockbusters as quickly as possible. The result of this obvious cash grab was met with mixed results as films like Clash of the Titans and The Last Airbender were so poorly converted to 3D that it actually made the image quality worse.

It was soon discovered that the preferred methods of making a 3D movie were to either film it with 3D cameras like the visually breathtaking and box office record smashing Avatar or spend as much time as possible and make every effort to make sure the conversion process is done right. Disney was at the forefront of this "quality over quantity" idea and they also had an edge with animated features being ideal candidates to present in this emerging format.

Movies like Toy Story 3 and Tangled were huge successes with the latter being a major surprise hit and only partly due to the 3D format. The studio remembered that story is more important than anything else when it comes to making a movie people will truly enjoy and want to see again and again. They were in fact the same folks that brought us The Lion King in the first place and the only question now was if they would make the conversion of this all time classic to 3D just as magical as the rest of the film.

UYBC - South Lake Union

UYBC = Unofficial Yelp Bar Crawl

South Lake Union - October 7, 2011

Focusing on neighborhoods in and around the city of Seattle, this monthly bar crawl series gives people an opportunity to see new places, visit favorite haunts, and hang out with an ever changing group of friends over the course of one fun-filled evening.

Seahawks: Home Sweet Home

If you read my previous post about the Seahawks, you understand that I do like Tarvarus Jackson at quarterback and today's game showed a lot of the reasons why. He has the ability to manage a game and although at times he doesn't necessarily make the ideal decisions, he has yet to make the type of mistakes that cost you games. More often than not it has been other areas of the team that have faltered (special teams, receivers dropping balls, ineffective offensive line), but the quarterback will always be the first one targeted when things aren't going well. All I have seen from T-Jack is a steady and confident style of play which is exactly what the Seahawks need right now as they build on a team that is currently made up of the youngest group of starters in the NFL.

Facebook Timeline

As I was sitting at my computer today, a notification popped up on my Facebook page stating I can now take a tour of the new version of my profile page and can also activate the Timeline feature now if I choose to. The first thing I did was hit activate even before taking the virtual tour since I had read some info on this Timeline feature and was already looking forward to its release.

The article below covers a presentation by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg where he covers a range of topics from the Timeline profile upgrade to the upcoming integration of services like Spotify and Netflix.

Facebook looks to extend online reach, sharing

Drive (2011) - Movie Review

Up and coming director Nicolas Winding Refn, who hails from Denmark, has made a very bold statement with his first mainstream Hollywood effort. Best known previously for his direction of critically acclaimed films like Bronson and Valhalla Rising, Drive will definitely get his career going full speed ahead as he brings us a story full of understated drama contrasted by brutally intense action sequences.

Seahawks - No Worse Than Expected

After two weeks of the NFL season, things have played out pretty much exactly as everyone would have expected. Opening on the road in San Francisco and Pittsburgh was going to be a daunting task and you would be hard pressed to find someone that thought we would win either of those games. Going in to that first game in the bay area, we knew the Hawks had deficiencies at offensive line and question marks at several other position groups on both sides of the ball. This meant weeks one and two would be a serious uphill struggle and now that these first two games are in the books, it is very clear to me who the Seahawks starting quarterback should be moving forward.

Straw Dogs (2011) - Movie Review

First, let me just say that I have not seen the original version of this film from 1971 which stars Dustin Hoffman and Susan George so I am not able to offer any comparison between the two. That being said I still had a pretty good idea of how the movie would play out based on the trailer which can be viewed at the end of this review. This is a fairly straightforward tale that does have some interesting twists and turns, but could it live up to the promise of being the intensely violent thrill ride we see touched on in the trailer?

Contagion - Movie Review

There seems to be a lot of hype about the quality of this movie partly due to the star studded cast featuring Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburn, Jude Law, and Kate Winslet just to name a few. Director Steven Soderbergh also adds a large credibility factor due to previous critical successes that he has brought to the screen including the likes of Traffic, Erin Brockovich and his breakout feature Sex, Lies, and Videotape. All of this quality star power both in front of and behind the camera should certainly have Contagion primed for some award season honors down the road, but after watching this movie I walked out of the theater with a differing opinion that what I had already heard and read.

Warrior - Movie Review

Having read nothing about this movie going in and only seeing what was available in the trailer, I figured I had a fairly good idea of how this story unfolds and for the most part I was correct. What I was not expecting was an engrossing story about a family broken by abuse (both substance and physical) and how the members of that family struggled not only with each other, but with their individual lives as well. As I walked out of the theater, my first thought was how, out of any film I have watched so far this year, this should be a serious contender for the coveted Best Picture Oscar.

Dancing Spartan at PAX = Youtube Sensation!

I uploaded this video to Youtube on September 7th, 2010 and in one year's time, it received nearly 80,000 views, 534 likes, and has been embedded on several websites around the world. I'm hoping it will get to 100,000 at some point but it seems to be slowing down so we'll see.

The picture is me and "Kat" from the video along with a Halo: reach poster that was signed by several members of the Bungie staff.

Check out the video after the jump...

PAQ: An introduction to my blog.

Congratulations! You have found the first ever post on my blog which could end up being quite historic when its all said and done so feel free to bask in the glory for as long as you can. I'm sure you have some initial questions so I have decided to answer them right away!

We will call this the PAQ (Potentially Asked Questions).


"Why do you have a blog?"
This blog was created to be an outlet for me to share and discuss my interest in topics that are important to me. There have been various attempts made over the years using different media and I suppose it all started back at Skyline elementary school with "show and tell" where my various baseball cards, comic books, and GI Joe action figures (they're not dolls!) would be on display for my classmates to marvel over.

Alphabetical Movie Review List

#:
2 Days in New York
21 and Over
21 Jump Street
42
71: Into the Fire

A:
A Good Day to Die Hard
A Haunted House
A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas
The A-Team
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Act of Valor
Admission
The Adventures of Tintin
The Amazing Spider-Man
American Reunion
Anonymous
Antihero
Argo
The Artist
As Luck Would Have It
Avatar
The Avengers

B:
Battle: Los Angeles
Battleship
Beautiful Creatures
Black Swan
Blackthorn
Bless Me, Ultima
The Book of Eli
The Bourne Legacy
Brave
Bullet to the Head

C:
The Cabin in the Woods
The Call
The Campaign (2012)
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Chef (Comme un Chef)
Chocolate
Cloud Atlas
Contagion
Contraband
The Croods

D:
The Dark Knight Rises
Dark Shadows
Dark Skies
The Darkest Hour
Dead Man Down
The Debt
The Descendants
The Devil Inside
Django Unchained
Dredd 3D
Drive

E:
Earthbound
Empire of Silver
End of Watch
Escape from Planet Earth
Evil Dead (2013)
The Expendables 2

F:
Far
Fast Five
Flight
Footloose (2011)
For a Good Time, Call

G:
G.I. Joe: Retaliation
Game of Werewolves (Lobos de Arga)
Gangster Squad
Ginger & Rosa
Girl Rising
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Grassroots
The Grey

H:
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
Happy Feet Two
Haywire
Headshot
The Help
Here Comes the Boom
Hick
Hit and Run
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Hugo
The Human Race
Hunger
The Hunger Games

I:
Identity Thief
The Ides of March
Immortals
The Impossible
In Time
Inception
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Iron Man 2
Iron Man 3
Iron Sky

J:
J. Edgar
Jack Reacher
Jack the Giant Slayer
John Carter
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

K:
Kick-Ass
Killing Them Softly
The King's Speech
Kong Curling

L:
The Last Exorcism Part II
The Last Stand
Lawless
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Like Crazy
Lincoln
The Lion King 3D
Lockout
Lola Versus
Looper

M:
Machine Gun Preacher
Mama
Man on a Ledge
The Man with the Iron Fists
Margin Call
Men in Black 3
Midnight in Paris
Mirror Mirror
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Moonrise Kingdom
Mud
The Muppets

N:
New Year's Eve

O:
Oblivion
The Odd Life of Timothy Green
Olympus Has Fallen
Oz the Great and Powerful

P:
Paranormal Activity 3
Paranormal Activity 4
Paranorman
Pariah
Parker
Pitch Perfect
The Place Beyond the Pines
Playing for Keeps
The Possession
Project X
Prometheus
Puss In Boots

Q:


R:
The Raid: Redemption
Real Steel
Red Dawn (2012)
Red State
Red Tails
Resident Evil: Retribution
Rock of Ages
Roller Town
The Rum Diary

S:
Safe Haven
Safe House
Safety Not Guaranteed
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Savages
The Sessions
Seven Psychopaths
Shame
Sheitan
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Side Effects
Silent Hill: Revelation
Silent House
Silver Linings Playbook
Sinister
Skyfall
Snitch
Snow White and the Huntsman
The Sorcerer and the White Snake
Sparkle
Spring Breakers
Star Trek Into Darkness
Stoker
Straw Dogs

T:
Taken 2
Tangled
Texas Chainsaw 3D
The Thing (1982 and 2011)
This is 40
This Means War
Thor
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Titanic 3D
Total Recall (2012)
Toy Story 3
Trance
The Tree of Life
Trouble with the Curve

U:
Underworld: Awakening

V:
V/H/S

W:
War Horse
Warm Bodies
Warrior
The Warrior's Way
Winnie the Pooh
The Woman in Black
The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake
Won't Back Down
Wrath of the Titans
Wreck-It Ralph

X:
X-Men: First Class
Xingu

Y:


Z:
Zero Dark Thirty

About / Contact

TwoOhSix.com - Movie Reviews, Events, and Seattle Culture

Founder - Marc Morin

Contact:
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Contributor:
Lifted Geek

Press Credentials:
Northwest Film Forum
2012 Maelstrom International Film Festival
2013 Seattle International Film Festival
2013 GeekGirlCon

Member:
Seattle International Film Festival - 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
Northwest Film Forum - 2013
Yelp Elite (Business Reviews) - 2011, 2012, 2013
Cine Blogger
The Large Association of Movie Blogs


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