4Februrary 2016Movies

A long time ago, in a gal-axy far, far away, or maybe not… the Star Wars franchise was born anew with the re-lease of the much anticipated seventh movie: Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

There was incredible hype surrounding Star Wars the Force Awakens before and after the initial movie re-lease. However, not everyone is a die-hard fan, so chances

are that not everyone has seen all six of the Star Wars movies. The Force Awakens does a great job explaining itself to Star Wars noobs.

The Force Awakens is thirty years after the defeat of the wicked Galactic Empire and follows a new evil, the First Order, and one of the Order’s leaders, Kylo Ren. A Stormtrooper defector, Finn, crash lands on a new desert planet where he meets a scavenger, Rey, accompanied by a droid.

I love Star Wars, so I was all into the hype. When

the first trailer came out, I spent hours on YouTube watching videos related to theories of the plot. I saw the new movie twice. I honestly loved it.

The Force Awakens in-troduces the audience to new characters to follow. Howev-er, the director J.J. Abrams included throwback through-out the movie bringing back fan favorites with props, spacecraft, and characters.

The storyline wasn’t hard to follow at all because the movie is aimed for all audi-ences to watch. The plot is an extreme, dramatic build-up to the very last minute and a half or so where the audience is left with a cliff-hanger, an obvious ploy to get fans to swarm into theaters for the release of Star Wars VIII.

Star Wars’ special effects are always amazing, and The Force Awakens attests to their previous special effects mas-terpieces. When I first saw Maz, a fully CGI constructed character, I was blown away by her effects. She was real. J.J. Abrams did a fantastic job directing the battle scenes; I felt like I was literally right there with the characters.

The acting was just as stellar as the CGI. Although the main characters don’t

T h e F o r c e i s s t r o n g w i t h t h i s m o v i e

By Hannah ThomazinStaff Reporter

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Concussion hits hard with important messageBy Tate VunCannon

Staff Reporter

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“The NFL owns a day of the week…the same one that used to belong to the church-es!” The power of football in America is outlined in this single sentence by Dr. Bennet Omalu, the subject of Sony’s new sports drama, Concus-sion. The movie, starring Will Smith, tells the story of Dr. Omalu, a Pittsburgh coro-ner who takes on one of the most powerful corporations in America: the National Football League. Omalu, a Nigerian immigrant, makes a shocking discovery in the brain of a former Pittsburgh Steeler. He attempts to make his findings known because he finds that football is much

No breaking point in this movieBy Amberly Parker

Staff Reporter

Action movies and dare-devil acts have never been interests of mine, and I would not normally choose an action movie to watch. Af-ter running out of movies to choose from to watch for this review, I had to pick Point Break, and I liked it more than I thought I would. I went into Family Video to check out an older version of Point Break thinking that it was go-ing to be a terrible movie that I would never understand. I was still a little worried about what I would think about this movie when I went to the theater, but I actually liked it. It might sound strange com-ing from me because I am really into romantic movies and comedies, but I loved the movie and have very little criticize.

This movie was a remake of an older movie made in 1991. In the 1991 movie, former football player Johnny Utah, an FBI agent in south-ern California, gets assigned to a bank robbery case. Utah must go undercover as a surf-er to get clues about possible suspects.

The 2015 version has

colliders.coma new twist on the story with the same themes and ideas. Johnny Utah, a former extreme athlete, trains to be an FBI agent. He is informed about a group of people who steal money and liberate it to the less fortunate. They do this through skydiving and other dare-devil acts. Utah must go undercover, dig into their lifestyle, and see what they are really about.

Both versions of the movie involve strong athletes who apply their past skills to their job. They both also have the idea of the FBI and a robbery case.

The characters in both movies were amazing. I thought the acting looked real, and they all were really getting into their character. In some movies, you can tell if someone is a bad actor right away. The 1991 version stars Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah and Patrick Swayze as Bodhi. The 2015 version stars Luke Bracey as Johnny Utah and Edgar Ramirez as Bodhi. In either of the movies, I didn’t notice any characters that were bad; they were all pretty spot on. Not to men-

more dangerous than peo-ple know, and it should be made safer. He finds himself opposed by a slew of NFL doctors and politicians who believe he is trying to eradi-cate football in America. The ensuing conflict becomes a story of national significance throughout the rest of the movie.

This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. To anyone who has ever played, watched, or been affected by the game of football, I would recommend watching this movie.

First off, the acting portrayed in this movie is absolutely top-notch. The supporting cast consisted of respected names like Alec Baldwin, Luke Wilson, and Albert Brooks. They all did

an excellent job of pulling the audience into the story. That’s not even mentioning the performance of the main character. Wow. There were several times when he was portraying his character so well that I actually forgot I was watching Will Smith. This movie simply contained Grade-A acting on all levels.

However, the storyline and plot is probably the main reason I would rec-ommend this movie. It is all based upon a true story, and while some of the scenes are obviously dramatized for Hollywood effect, much of the movie feels quite realis-tic. Because of the genuine nature of the plot, the movie became more and more captivating as the story went deeper and deeper. Even as

a football player, I found myself rooting for Dr. Omalu early in his fight against the NFL. There’s something re-latable and inspiring about a man who just wants people to know the truth. The storyline really ended up flipping my perspective about the game of football and its effects on the human body. I was very surprised to learn what I did about the real danger that ex-ists within America’s beloved pastime throughout the story.

The only problem I real-ly had with Concussion was the way the movie writers just shoehorned in a love story regarding Dr. Omalu and his wife, Prema. Right in the middle of the rising action, Omalu happens to be introduced to another African immigrant who falls in love

with him. While it was true to reality, it just seemed out of place and unnecessary to the plot.

Overall, however, Concussion is still one of the best movies I’ve seen ever. I

would give it 5 stars, a 100% approval rating, two thumbs up… you get the picture. Go see it. It might just change your mind about America’s game.

As a mother of three young girls, I have spent more of my life watching animated films than I will ever admit. When a new animated movie comes out, the Rushers make a family trip to the theater to see the latest film and decide if it will become a part of our DVD library in the future. Unfor-tunately, I do not think our latest holiday viewing, The Good Dinosaur, will become a part of our collection, nor will it be in the top half of my animated recommendations.

The Good Dinosaur is an episodic journey of an anx-ious young dinosaur trying to literally and figuratively ‘make his mark’ in his family. He is separated from his fam-ily’s farm and has to make his journey back through many experiences and trials that help him to find his confi-dence.

The best part of the movie, which is vividly shown in the opening scenes with an aerial view of the landscape, is the animation. The backgrounds and settings look real, yet with the vibrant colors of cartoon. The use of the latest technology in animation is obvious, and I hope to see more movies

By Angie RusherJournalism Advisor

The Good Bad DinosaurThe odds of you liking this movie are ever in your favor

Tracker jackers, jabber-jays, nightlock berries; all are words Suzanne Collins made up for her books turned mov-ies The Hunger Games.

It took Suzanne Col-lins three years to write The Hunger Games series, which consisted of three books: The Hunger Games, Catch-ing Fire, and Mockingjay. The Hunger Games movie copyrights were purchased and the first book was made into a movie in 2012. When Lionsgate announced that the third book would be pro-duced as two movies it was not too shocking, as many en-tertainment companies have done that in the past (Twi-light: Breaking Dawn, Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows). The fourth and final Hunger Games movie, Mockingjay Part II, was released on No-vember 16, 2015.

As a fan of The Hun-ger Games books, I was very skeptical going to the first movie in 2012 with the thought that “the movies are never as good as the books.” But, The Hunger Games movies are honestly some of the best books-to-movies I have ever seen. After the first movie was released and I gave it two thumbs up, I

By Anna WickhamStaff Reporter

was an all in fan of both the movies and the books. My personal rating for the first, second, and third movies have been extremely high so I expected nothing less than that from the fourth, and final movie. If anything I figured the fourth movie would be the best, because I knew how it was going to end, and I was so excited to see it portrayed on screen.

The movie picks up right after the cliff-hanger of Mockingjay Part I. The battle between the districts and the Capitol is continued and intensified. The movie mainly is telling the story of the districts attempt to revolt from the Capitol. Unlike the first few movies, Mockingjay Part II’s setting is mainly in the underground District 13 and the Capitol. In Mocking-

jay Part II, Katniss has two conflicts she tries overcom-ing, the problem of the power of the Capitol, and a problem with someone she holds very dear.

The graphics and sound effects in this movie and the movies leading up to it are unbelievable. From flames to explosions to futuristic trans-portation, the producers of Mockingjay Part II did a phe-nomenal job. As seen in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, a lot of dying takes place; the actors in Mocking-jay Part II do a fantastic job of getting the feeling of the death of a character portrayed on the big screen. Everything looks so realistic, and there was never a time where I turned to my sister and said, “Okay, that’s so fake”.

Mockingjay fulfills expectations

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with such attention to detail. There is amazing detail on the dinosaurs as well. At one part the main character, Arlo, is injured, and his bruises and scrapes have real depth and texture.

The most disappointing part of the movie is the sto-ryline. It seems to be a Lion King wannabe with much less character connection and development. The previews say, “What would happen if the dinosaurs lived?” The an-swer in the movie is that they will become farmers and cat-tle drivers and have cavemen as pets. It is not enlightening, nor a bit realistic. Though the main antagonist is Arlo vs. himself, the ‘villains’ in the story drop in randomly half way through and also lack motivation and develop-ment. Finally, the resolution at the end is unfulfilling.

Though highly disap-pointing in plot line and not in my top movie choices, The Good Dinosaur is really

funny at times. The little caveman, Spot, is the most endearing character, and the take on his relationship with Arlo is unique and funny even if it lacks purpose in the story at times. Though I do like animated movies to have humor that adults enjoy, I do not appreciate too much ‘adult humor’ that is inap-propriate, and this movie is almost all kid friendly.

The problem with having seen every animated movie ever is I compare The Good Dinosaur to Lion King, The Incredibles, Despicable Me, How to Train a Dragon, and Inside Out, to which it cannot compare, though it is enter-taining in its own right. So if you are looking for a new favorite animated film, don’t waste your time, but if you are looking for a cartoon to enjoy with a younger sibling, wait until it comes out for $2.79 at Family Video so you don’t spend too much money.

See FORCE, Page 8

See MOCKING, Page 8

See BREAK, Page 8

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