Movie review:The dark knight rises

The dark knight rises continues with the story of billionaire Bruce Wayne, played by Christian Bale after the death of Harvey dent. It also introduces characters Bane, played by Tom Hardy and Selina Kyle alias Catwoman, played b Anne Hathaway. Let me not waste time giving the movie's storyline and go straight to the review. The movie had a slow start at first but my adrenaline started to pump when Selina Kyle stole Wayne's mother's pearls from a highly protected secret compartment, unveiling her as one interesting character instead of a normal waitress we all thought she was initially. Christian Bale, once again, delivers a heart warming performance in this last installment of the highly successful series. Tom Hardy, gave an interesting performance as Bane, this movie's main villain, with a personality as strong as steel and a voice that sends chills down the spines of the movie's viewers.but the best part part of the movie came at the end when Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) unveils as the Batman's nemesis, making it one of the best cliffhangers I have seen in a while. Marion Cotillard oozes grace as the movie's silent poison, the green snake under the green grass, lying in wait until she is in the best position to strike. Tom Hardy gave an impressive performance as Bane, and made sure Bane came across as a ruthless villian, but I feel Heath ledger's the Joker was a much more interesting villain to watch.

Though Hardy tried to bring forth Bane as the franchise's best villain, Ledger's the Joker still stands as the best villain of the franchise. The sound effects, as usual, were exceptional. Christopher Nolan surely has the ability to assemble a remarkable team that anastomoses beautifully to make sure the final installment of the series is a masterpiece, which it turned out to be. But, the most interesting character turned out to be Selina Kyle, played Marvellously by Hathaway, with such sleekness and sexiness that any female superhero should embody. She works the cat woman suit much better than her predecessors Halle Berry and Michelle Pfieffer while at the same time, giving smooth dialogue and mesmerizing the audience with her smart and quick humorous thinking. All in all, the movie turned out to be a perfect ending to a perfect series with a perfect cast and an extremely perfect crew.

Movie review: Hope Springs

Hope springs is about a couple, Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold (Tommy lee Jones)in their 60s. One day, Kay wakes up and finds out that her she is bored of her marriage and decides that her and her husband need therapy so, she schedules an appointment with the eccentric Dr.Bernie Field (Steve Carrell), much to Arnold's chagrin, though he goes anyway. While there, Dr. Field tells them to try new things, new sexual things like oral sex and the rest and you can imagine how hard that will be for the couple in their 60s to carry out. Anyway, the whole experience seemed like a flop when they flew back home to Omaha and Kay decides to pack and leave, only for them to reignite the dwindling fire in their relationship right before she leaves. Which of course leads them to renewing their vows and promising to be there and more considerate of each other. I don't know about anyone else, but when I first heard about this movie, I thought it would be like a spinoff of Streep's 2009 film It's complicated as both seem to have the same theme surrounding the love story of an old couple, but in the end, it turned out to be a different package. The movie offers reasonable comic relief momentarily while at the same time, taking us on a journey about the lives of an old couple who seem to have lost their spark. Of course, it so helps that the main cast includes a talented trio of veterans in the movie business.

Tommy lee Jones was excellent as the cynical and the continuously skeptical Arnold and he was diligently able to express the feelings and thoughts of this character onscreen, convincing the audience about Arnold's situation as a husband who feels everything is fine just the way it is. Meryl Streep, of course, is known for her wide range of versatility and her ability to embody any type or form of character and she does so excellently as Kay, a woman who is well aware of the inertia in her marriage and despite her husband's objections, is determined to fix that. I therefore say, Meryl Streep is one hell of an actress. It is performances like this that makes Meryl Streep the best actress in this generation. She goes deep into the character, holding nothing back,and exudes grace and oozes talent. Fresh off The Iron Lady, nobody follows an Oscar win with a brilliant performance, quite like Meryl Streep. In overall, the movie turned out to be a fascinating look about the lives of old couples today who might have lost that spark in their marriage and somehow offers a solution to that situation.

My rating: 8.6/10.

Movie review: Sparkle

Sparkle is a musical set in the 1960s about a singing group. Yeah, I know, cliche. Wthe cast includes Whitney Houston, Jordin Sparks, Derek Luke, Carmen Ejogo, Mike Epps,Tika Sumpter..... Whitney plays a mother of three who tries to keep her three daughters away from the music business, but they do the best they can to get into the music business. Sister, the eldest, played by Ejogo, is the lead singer in the group, and tries her best to push the group to stardom, while engaging in a relationship with a comedian called Satin (Epps), who, at the ends, turns out to be detrimental to Sister and the girls' future as a singing group. Here, Derek Luke plays a Gordy/ Curtis Taylor Jr kind of character here. In general, I think the movie is good, a little cliche, and deemed as the inferior look-alike of Bill Condon's Dreamgirls. Granted, the movie is about Sparkle (Spark's character), and everyone is going to see this movie because of the legendary Whitney Houston, but Carmen Ejogo managed to carved a niche for herself with her electrifying and magnificent performance as Sister. She lights every scene she is in with her mesmerizing performance and disarming voice, so mesmerizing that when you leave the theater, you forget about Houston and Sparks and start thinking about Carmen Ejogo. She might be in for a serious treat in the forthcoming awards season. Truly Oscar worthy. Mike Epps is another actor that managed to surprise me in this movie. The normally comedic actor, decided to take a dramatic and quite a villainous turn in Sparkle, and he gave a surprisingly great non-comedic performance as the movie's main antagonist, making him one to consider seriously.

 As for miss Houston, I must say, she gave quite an amazing performance, what I would term an amazing goodbye. Even her voice, definitely not as good as before, was till spellbinding, especially when she rendered 'his eyes is on the sparrow' sending me chills down my spine. As for Jordin, her acting wasn't as good as her co-stars, perhaps she didn't use an acting coach for this movie. My advice, she should sharpen her acting skills, get more acting roles, and of course, have an acting coach. But she needs no vocal coach, as she sang amazingly in the movie. In general, my rating for this movie is 5.8/10.