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The Valero Verdict: Aquaman

| Richard Valero

Welcome to another edition of the “The Valero Verdict” movie review. In this I will give you a quick movie review with a couple of bullet points of which I either liked or disliked. I will end the review with rating of the movie and a short overall thoughts.

On the docket today, Aquaman. The very highly anticipated DC movie starring Jason Momoa.

  • This story was a complete rip-off of Black Panther.
  • This movie really tried way too hard to be funny, like it got embarrassing at some points.
  • The colors were pretty.
  • The action was a bit lackluster, the “big fight” scene in the water was just horrendous, at times you didn’t even know who was who during the fight.
  • Momoa was okay, but honestly he didn’t really have much to work with here. The screenplay was not very good and they didn’t put him in position to succeed at all.
  • Arthur? I feel like you could go back in time and get a better Super-hero name for this guy, this is what I think when I hear Arthur.

The Verdict:

* out of ***** stars

A loaded cast with a terrible script, while colorful and pretty to look at (Add Momoa to that if you’d like) the film feels like one big dud. Aquaman is one of the characters that belongs in ensemble movies but not his own standalone film.

Should You See It?: Absolutely NOT. Especially on Date Night, don’t be like “You can stare at Jason Momoa for two hours”, THEY WILL LEAVE YOU. Just no.

Tell me what you thought of the movie, hit me up on here or talk to me on Twitter @RickyValero_

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The 1st Annual Sports Script Oscar Nominations

| Richard Valero

The Oscar season is right around the corner which is easily one of my favorite times of the year. I like reflecting on the movies from the years past and comparing the movies nominated to what I liked. I always watch the movie nominated no matter what type of movie it is or if it even looks interesting to me. I do this every year but this will be my 1st annual The Sports Script Oscar picks. January 14th is the day the nominations are announced and today I will give you who I think should get the nominations as well around March the 2nd (before the award show) I will give you my picks on who I think will win that were actually nominated. So here we go.

*updated 01/06/13 after watching Dallas Buyers Club*

The 1st Annual the Sports Script Oscar Picks

Best Picture

Captain Phillips
The Wolf of Wall Street
Saving Mr. Banks
12 Years a Slave
Prisoners
American Hustle
Out of the Furnace
Dallas Buyers Club

Best Director

Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street
Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips
Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave
David O. Russell – American Hustle
Scott Cooper – Out of the Furnace

Best Actor

Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips
Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street
Christian Bale – American Hustle
Hugh Jackman – Prisoners

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett – Jasmine
Sandra Bullock – Gravity
Emma Thompson – Saving Mr. Banks
Carey Mulligan – The Great Gatsby

Best Supporting Actress

Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle
Lupita Nyongo – 12 Years a Slave
Octavia Spencer – Fruitvale Station
Oprah Winfrey – The Butler
Jennifer Garner – Dallas Buyers Club

Best Supporting Actor

Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips
Tom Hanks – Saving Mr. Banks
Bradley Cooper – American Hustle
Daniel Bruhl – Rush
Woody Harrelson – Out of the Furnace

Original Screen Play

Fruitvale Station
American Hustle
Saving Mr. Banks
Gravity
Her

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Wolf of Wall Street
Captain Phillips
Rush
12 Years a Slave

Best Score

The Great Gatsby
Gravity
Rush
Captain Phillips
12 Years a Slave

Best Song

Young and Beautiful – The Great Gatsby
Love is Blindness – The Great Gatsby
Atlas – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Let It Go – Frozen

Best Cinematography

Gravity
12 Years a Slave
Rush
Captain Phillips
Prisoners

Best Visual Effects

Pacific Rim
Gravity
World War Z
The Lone Ranger
Iron Man 3
Thor: The Dark World

Best Make Up and Hairstyling

American Hustle
The Great Gatsby
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The Lone Ranger
Dallas Buyers Club

Best Costume Design

The Great Gatsby
American Hustle
Oz the Great and Powerful
The Wolf of Wall Street
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

There you have it my 2014 Oscar picks, make sure to watch the Oscar Nomination show on January 14th and check out my latest piece here at the Sports Script where I review every movie I saw in 2013.

Disagree? Agree? Movie I am missing? Hit me up on twitter @rickygangster and let me know.

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A Review of All the Movies I saw in 2013

| Richard Valero

I am a huge movie goer and actually at the theater quite often. Whether I am on lunch break at work or on a vacation, I am always trying to make it to the cinema. 2013 was a great year for movies and a ton of movie came out that were definitely worth going and seeing. I saw almost 80 films that came out in 2013 and still have a list of the movies that I haven’t seen yet and will update the list as I do. Below I will list in no particular order of my top 10 movies of the year, my top 5 performances of the year and I will give you a chart with what movies I saw and a little one sentence review of it and how many stars I gave the film.

My Top 10 Movies of 2013 (In no particular order) – This was a lot harder to make a list of 10 than I thought it would be.

Prisoners
This is the End
Olympus has Fallen
The Great Gatsby
Now You See Me
You’re Next
Captain Phillips
The Wolf of Wall Street
American Hustle
Lone Survivor

My Top 5 Performances in a movie

Hugh Jackman – Prisoners
Christian Bale – American Hustle/Out of the Furnance
Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips
Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Year a Slave
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Great Gatsby

Now onto the list of movies that I saw in 2013 and a short one-line review and how many stars I gave it. *Updated 01/07/13*

The movie stars are on scale of 0-5 stars. 0 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.

Movie Short Review Stars
Gangster Squad Great cast and awesome movie *** 1/2
A Haunted House Just another terrible spoof movie *
Broken City Tons hated this movie but I really liked it ***
Last Stand Arnold is back but this movie fell flat **
Parker A lot like other Jason Statham movies good not great **
Warm Bodies Boring, not funny and just a waste of my time *
Bullet to the Head Stallone is just kick ass at anything he does. **1/2
Identity Thief I liked it the 2nd & 3rd time better than I did the 1st. Pretty Funny ***
A Good Day to Die Hard Jai Courtney is a future star. Willis & company kept me   entertained ***
Beautiful Creatures Not good, Not terrible just not my cup of tea. **
Snitch Jon Bernthal is great in this & the Rock delivers again. ***
21 and over Tried way too hard in this to make it funny, mediocre at best. **
Dead Man Down Way better than it should’ve ever been. ** 1/2
Oz the great and powerful Visually really good, enjoyable movie. ** 1/2
The Call High hopes & let down. Terrible movie *
Spring Breakers FRANCO KILLS IN THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!! Loved this! ****
Incredible Burt Wonderstone Not good not funny just should’ve never made it to theaters
Olympus Has Fallen So good. Start to finish a really good movie ***1/2
Admission Tina Fey is hot, Tina Fey is hot. That’s about it. *
GI Joe Retaliation 1st move was good & this one didn’t disappoint. **1/2
The Place Beyond the Pines Ryan Gosling kills it. One of the MUST SEE movies of the year *****
Jurassic Park 3D The 3D done on this was done perfect. ***1/2
The Company You Keep Shia LeBeouf was great. Robert Redford is the man! ****
Trance Boring, stupid and just not good. *
Evil Dead Worst movie of the year is an understatement.
42 Great movie about one of the best baseball players ever! ***
Scary Movie 5 Funny at times but like the rest just an average movie. **
Pain and Gain Top 5 funniest movies of the year easily. ****
Iron Man 3 Favorite Iron Man movie, Downey Jr is money as Tony Starks ***
The Great Gatsby Not enough words to describe how much I enjoyed this film. *****
Star Trek Into Darkness A sequel that was much better than the original, suprising. ***
Fast & Furious 6 Over the top, crazy & a kick ass time at the movies. RIP Paul Walker ****
Hangover part III Not nearly as bad as II but not on the same level as the 1st. **
Now You See Me Top movie of the year for me. The whole cast/movie was money. ****
The East All over the place and sad because it had some real potential. *
The Purge Look so forward to this movie and it let me down big time. *
The Internship One of the most underrated/under apperciated movies of the year. ***1/2
The Heat Bullock & McCarthy team up one of funniest movies of the year. ****
Man of Steel Henry Cavill was good as Superman but the movie lacked something **1/2
Vehicle 19 Not bad but felt like it was a movie I have seen before. **
This Is the End The funniest movie since the Hangover. *****
World War Z Brad Pitt in his best movie of his career. *** 1/2
Lone Ranger Johnny Depp always plays weird characters. Meh movie **
The Way Way Back One of the feel good movies of the year. Loved it ****
Grown Ups 2 Was it possible to be worse than the 1st? Please stop makint these. *
Pacific Rim It was fun to see on the big screen but wasn’t a great movie. ** 1/2
RIPD Thought it was possible to be a good movie, boy was I wrong. *
Red 2 Not as fun as the 1st but not a bad sequel at all. **
Wolverine Way better than the 1st and a solid piece to the franchise. ***
2 Guns Denzel & Marky Mark, combo made in heaven. Loved it. *** 1/2
We’re the Millers 1000% better than I would’ve thought. Aniston is HOTTT in this. ****
Kick Ass 2 Funny spots but not nearly as good as the 1st. Let down big time. **
Paranoia Liam Hemsworth is a star in the making. ***
You’re Next Underrated movie of the year. Great film that kept you guessing *** 1/2
The Family Terrible just terrible. Good acting but the plot holes were huge! *
Prisoners Arguably the best film of the year. MUST SEE!!!!!!! *****
Rush Fantastic Film. Daniel Bruhl was money. ***
Don Jon JGL 1st direct/star movie and it was a fun little popcorn flick. ***
Gravity Lots of praise but not be me at all. Mediocre at best. **
Runner Runner Very smart movie that won’t get the credit it deserves. ***
Captain Phillips Loved it! Tom Hanks derserves some award buzz for his role in this. ****
Escape Plan Very good movie. Loved the concept and the old times killed it. *** 1/2
Thor – The Dark World Light years better than the original. Hemsworth is carving his nitch. ****
Hunger Games – Catching Fire So so good. I am already for the 3rd movie. ****
Homefront Good, not great but James Franco played a great villian. ** 1/3
Grudge Match It wasn’t terrible by any means but wasn’t all that and a bag of chips. ** 1/2
The Wolf of Wall Street Fun FUN FUN FUN – Don’t listen to the critics go enjoy this movie!!! ****
Lone Survivor One of/if not the best time I’ve ever had inside a theater. *****
Jobs Not as bad as some of sad but left you wanting a lot more. ***
Blue Caprice If you know the story than you really need to see this movie. ***
The Worlds End Terrible. *
Mud Long but McConaughey is becoming one of my favorite actors. ** 1/2
12 years a slave Just brilliant film. Chiwetel Ejiofor is name you should know. ****
Fruitvale Station Michael B Jordan has arrived in the movie scene. *** 1/2
Only God Forgives This gave Evil Dead it’s run of worst movie of 2013. no stars
Out Of the Furnace Harrelson & Bale give some of the best perf. of 2013. ****
American Hustle Nothing about this movie was bad. Cast/Story/Score all perfect. **** 1/2
Dallas Buyers Club McConaughey/Leto were absolutley amazing in this! ****
Saving Mr. Banks Tom Hanks is back and better than ever. *** 1/2
The Butler Just wasn’t very good. **
The Kings of Summer Fun movie with a very cool story and some solid young acting. ***

Side note – If there were any films in 2013 that I haven’t listed and you think I should check out or if there is any film on this list that I gave a bad review and think I should give a second chance let me know. Comment below or hit me up on twitter @rickygangster

Iron Man 3 Review

| Richard Valero

So the 1st summer blockbuster has hit the theaters and I was beyond excited to see it. I had the opportunity to see Iron Man 3 3D on Thursday. I had high expectations since The Avengers was so good.

The movie took place right after The Avengers movie, where we found that Tony Stark is distraught. Not sleeping and just can’t get over the happenings as they called it in the movie “New York”. You have a new villain in town named the Mandarin. Who is basically going from country to country killing people. So a struggling Tony Stark makes a challenge that he would soon regret.

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly of Iron Man 3 3D

The Good –

Robert Downey Jr. is just the perfect person for the Tony Stark role. I honestly couldn’t imagine what it would be like with someone else as him. He has the witty sarcastic attitude that comes off funny and at times like a prick.

Stark (Downey) & Harley (Simpkins) relationship – One of the key components of the movie was the Stark & Harley relationship. It was also some of my favorite moments in the film; these two were perfect for each other. It had some very funny dialog between the two with some classic one liners from Stark.

The Struggle – I truly enjoy watching a “superhero” have to battle from adversity to overcome the “villain”. Stark was beaten down from the actions in “New York” that he was losing his sense of reality a bit. It’s crazy how they could make you feel for the pain of a Billionaire smart ass.

Ben Kingsley as the Madarin – Definitely not here to spoil anything for anyone but this role was classic. Surely nothing to what I thought it would be but Kingsley was money for sure.

The Supporting Cast – Rebecca Hall (The Town) was well casted, Jon Favreau role had its quirky funny moments & others were well casted and finely put into place. Then you have freshly crowned sexiest woman in Paltrow who took her role in this to a new level. It added some new elements to her character that made me like her in this. Don Cheadle is money in just about everything he is in, again nice job as Col. James Rhodes.

The Fight Scenes – Everything from the small fight scenes to the big blow up at the end was great. The transformation of the Iron Man outfit was amazingly done.

Shane Black – Couldn’t believe when I looked him up this was only his 2nd movie he has directed. Did an amazing job with this movie honestly; from start to finish he kept my interest in the movie. Nothing ever really felt long or drag on longer than it should. To take a huge franchise like Iron Man and make it into what he did was awesome.

The Bad –

Guy Pearce as Aldrich Killian – the setting up of this character to build to what we saw happen was brilliant.  But I kind of felt Pearce could’ve been played by someone else. Not that I didn’t like him, just felt the role could’ve had more value with a different person at the helm.

The Ugly –

The “3D” aspect of the film – I went and saw it in 3D and was burned again by it. The movie wasn’t shot that great in 3D, could’ve done without it honestly. I would recommend seeing it in a regular format.

The Verdict –

4 out of 5 stars

From start to finish it was a fun and eventful joy ride. From the witty comedy from Stark to the seriousness that brought the movie to ahead. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark is just money to watch on-screen. If this is the end of Iron Man, it would be a great way to end the trilogy. It was a great start to the summer Blockbuster season; well worth every penny I spent to see it.

Also do not forget to wait until after the credits to get your normal Marvel little ending.