At first I felt that “Bad Words” was going to be a waste of time, but I am wrong. This comedy really caught my attention, and I see it to be one of the best comedies of 2014 already. Especially with the plot being a grown-up with a potty-mouth who wants to be the winner at a spelling be and be-friends an Indian child and teaches him the negative side of his behavior. Also that the negative things the main character does is so funny and disturbing. Disturbing to the point where he even thinks of negative strategies to help himself win and cause other players of the spelling bee to get disqualified.

I am aware most people and other articles have said this movie is not so good–the language and the concept is wrong. Most of the humor is like “Superbad” meets “Diary of A Wimpy Kid.” With tons of F bombs and little kids and the F bombs being used around little kids. What is being experienced on the big screen is like a more harsh version of “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.” However, they are not out on the search for food, they are out on the search for popularity and vulgar behavior. When Guy Trilby (Jason Bateman) tells Chaitanya Chopra (Rohand Chand) that if he does not shut up on the plane he will tell the air marshal he hears his bag ticking (as in a bomb) that just leaves Rohan to want to be exposed to more horrible behavior and taken in the hands of the horrible Trilby.

The genius portion of this movie is the how Bateman (who is also the director) has all of his dialogue placed in the movie. Normally hard R comedies just consist of the usual F-Bombs and other horrible words for no apparent reason, because when a film is already raunchy directors and other filmmakers just think it is best to spice it up with just throwing in swear words randomly. Bateman however does use foul-language too, not in the sense that it is just to be funny though but to make sure it serves a  purpose. I am not going to give away any more spoilers about the language, but word of advice you will die laughing if you see the movie and understand what I mean once you listen to the dialogue.

“Bad Words” plot is like most competition films. Guy Trilby wants to  part of a spelling bee and he is a talented speller. Only problem is he is forty years old and many parents believe it is not fair to the children and that he is taking away their opportunities to feel have something to hope for in their lives. Whenever Trilby is told that he should not be in the spelling bee, that is where all of the language and harsh behavior comes into play, along with an agent who he pays to assist him in the process Jenny Widgeon (Kathryn Hahn). She always sets her reasons making the districts sound like they are being stereotypical of everyone in which they may or may not be, but Guy does not care because he wants to make a name for himself.

Chaitanya Chopra plays with Guy’s mind to be his friend. He does this by basically defining his words and saying that his dialogue is a sentence and not a word to just really challenge Guy into tricking him into hopefully being his friend.

With the negativity of Guy, the angry students and parents, and Chaitanya, there is Guy’s evil plan to getting his award and winning the spelling bee.

“Bad Words” is really not intended for children. I admit it, it is awkward to see young children in this movie. Many teenagers will love it however, just for the language and its scenes of stupidity. For years kids have watched so many movies now with off-limit content and now child actors are just being in front of all the off-limit content of films. Three and a half stars.

After seeing Wes Anderson’s “Grand Budapest Hotel,” I will say…a bit overdone. With Anderson I am use to his films being his own creative world or setting that seems fictional yet realistic and it is like this with “Grand Budapest Hotel.” However, it is not the art side or photography that is overdone, it is the amount of big name actors that are in it.

I will admit this movie is one that I did enjoy, but at times was having trouble figuring out why tons of big name actors were rounded up. Where really the main focus was on Ralph Fiennes (as Gustave), Adrien Brody (as Dmitri), and Willem Dafoe (as Jopling). There were many other big names such as Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Harvey Keitel, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum, and more. All good actors but why even bother mentioning their names where they are only in the film for a brief second? Is it just because of hollywood? Or is the independent filmmaking of Wes Anderson just all about making more money?

In this film, the conflict is one that is creative and a brilliant idea. Gustave is a well-known concierge at a popular European hotel. Along side Gustave is his lobby boy Zero Moustafa (played by Tony Revolori). Moustafa is his most trusted friend. Together, Gustave and Moustafa both go on a journey that involves theft and recovery of the Renaissance. All trying to fight for a big family fortune. The crazy portion of the misadventures and conflicts in this production, is the fact that all of these events happen at the back-drop of a negatively changing continent.

To be honest this movie had a good premise, but just it had more actors than it needs. I know I mentioned earlier in the second paragraph that these celebrities really did not show a big importance in this picture. I have seen many films where many celebrities are rounded up for a film and is either really good (in my opinion) or just gets bad reviews because of critics criticizing the film. I recall once watching a movie “Cloud Atlas.” A science-fiction masterpiece by the Wachowski brothers where people’s live intersect at a variety of certain points in their life. That movie I really enjoyed with the fact that it had a ton of big names. Not because of popularity of those celebrities, but the fact that every character played a variety of different people. “Grand Budapest Hotel” on the other hand just really seemed that all of the other celebrities were just for advertising purposes, since in the movie, they did not seem to have a big importance to what was going on.

The photography in “Grand Budapest Hotel” however does hold my attention. Mustave owns a huge hotel in the alps of Saxony, Germany. Everyone believes Mustave murdered a lady he once loved. As soon as it is believed to be him. Absurd acts of violence, language, and catastrophe all hits the hotel. I got really captivated by how all of the hotel is going down. The funny portion about it is, it is comical in the artistic sense. Therefore, no one feels sickened by gore, as if they are watching a Quentin Tarantino film.

I want to get down to comparing “Grand Budapest Hotel” to Anderson’s previous films. My one time all favorite film by Anderson is “The Royal Tenenbaums.” The topic is sad in most cases and has a ton of celebrities, but the fact that everyone in the film is inter-connected is what makes that movie brilliant. I thought with “Grand Budapest Hotel” that everyone was going to be interconnected with the suspense and all, but they were not. They were just put in it simultaneously and did not really have much to do with the suspense. “Grand Budapest Hotel” will leave most viewers wondering why they did not see Bill Murray in the movie all that long, along with Jason Schwartzmann, or Owen Wilson.

“Grand Budapest Hotel” is a satire and is a work of art, but just lacks in the production process. I think the organization is not entirely right with this Wes Anderson picture which led me to be somewhat disappointed. Since I looked in numerous locations to see this movie for how limited its release is right now. Overall, two and a half stars.

For a while, I have not really been that into former Foreign Films, but the “The Lives of Others” held my attention. It weaves characters between a spy, a writer, and the writer’s wife. All in the works of a spy that listens in on them through surveillance system suspecting something fishy. However, it is not that whatever the writer or his wife has done that is the big picture of this production, it is the fact that the spy feels he is just part of their life.

I will describe how the structure of this film is setup. A brilliant dramatist Georg Dreyman (played by Sebastian Koch) and his lover Christina-Marie Sieland (played Martina Gedeck) is an actress. The Minister of Culture holds great interest in Christina. Therefore Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (played by Ulrich Muhe) is acted to do surveillance on the couple.

There is a lot to be determined with “The Lives of Others” than the confusing setting of the film. This film is not your typical spy movie that holds your attention forever, but is a film that shows how people can really feel like they are involved in people’s lives when there is no relation whatsoever. “The Lives Of Others” could have been just a boring version of two and half men, if no one listens to any of the interviews with the director Florian von Donnersmarck. Where he states that, “If audience is not responding emotionally to his film, than they are being irrational.”

This film I think is one that is just made to be a different type of suspense. Good to me but review wise two stars.