MOVIE REVIEWS

Masterminds (2016)

Video review by: North East Regional Youth Coalition

Release Date: September 20th 2016

Rating: PG-13

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis

Genre: Comedy, Action Film

Was there smoking in the movie? Yes.

Masterminds (2016)

Reviewed by: Darcie, Allysha, & Jenna and Jordain

Rating: PG13

Release Date: 09/30/2016

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis

Was there smoking in the movie? Yes.

Darcie:

Masterminds is a 2016 America Comedy film based on the 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina. The film is directed by Jared Hess and written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer and Emily Spivey. The film stars Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig and Jason Sudeikis. The movie is rated PG in Canada. It premiered in Los Angeles on September 26, 2016. The film received mixed reviews and has grossed over $19 million.

In the film David Ghantt is stuck driving an armored truck day in and day out. David has the heist of his lifetime when his crush, Kelly Campbell, lures him into something big.

What I liked most about the movie is that almost every scene kept me entertained and laughing.

Masterminds isn’t a smoke free movie. It has 5 small and subtle scenes that had smoking in it. The tobacco imagery wasn’t used it to build character. They could have used something other than smoking for the scenes.

I would personally recommend anyone from 15 or older to watch this funny movie.

Allysha:

The movie Masterminds is a 2016 American crime/comedy film about a man named David Ghantt (Zach Galifianakis, who is stuck in the monotony of driving a truck that holds millions of dollars day in and day out. His crush, Kelly Campbell (Kristen Wiig), lures him into the heist of a lime time. Of course David is all in for it. David managed to steal 17 million dollars with an absurdly flawed plan.

The film was directed by Jared Hess, written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer and Emily Spivey, and produced by John Goldwyn and Lorne Michaels.

This movie was rated PG and was originally supposed to be released in July of 2015, but due to financial problem, was released in 2016. It premiered in Los Angeles on September 26^th of 2016. Critics rated the movie as mediocre, but I personally thought it was really funny and worth seeing.

What I like most about the film is there wasn’t a time where I wasn’t laughing and enjoying myself. As much as it made me laugh, I really don’t think it should be rated PG as there is a lot of profanity and murder attempts. I was expecting a really stupid and mediocre show. However, it turned out to be very good.

Masterminds was not a smoke free movie, but tobacco imagery wasn’t showed throughout the whole movie and, when it was, it wasn’t very noticeable. Mind you, they could have done without the subtle cigarettes and cigars scenes.

Overall is was a great movie and I would recommend it to people over the age of 15.

Jenna and Jordain:

Summary: This movie was based on a true story retelling America’s biggest heist that took place in 1997 at Loomis Fargo in North Carolina.

Review: Funny movie with good humor. The actors were able to really portray their characters making it realistic yet interesting. It was a fun twist to a real life story which is pleasant to watch. We would recommend seeing this movie but considering content, not for kids.

Tobacco Presence: In this movie there were 5 scenes with tobacco presence. Considering the era and the characters, the movie portrayed less use than we would have thought. Two situations has the presence but not in use. In these situations is was inside on a table or desk. The other situations tobacco was being used were in the background smoking, one in North Carolina and one in Mexico. The other was inside their home. In all situations tobacco was NOT needed to set the scene or build characters.

The Girl on the Train (2016)

Release Date: October 7th 2016

Rating: 14A

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Director: Tate Taylor

Stars: Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson

Was there smoking in the movie? Yes.

Tobacco Use:

The was one scene in the entire movie that had smoking. It was a group of guys smoking cigarettes.

Summary of Movie:

The Girl on the Train is about a divorced woman who gets caught up in a missing persons investigation. She takes a train into work every day that passes by her old house and she sees a lot of things. She gets tangled up in the neighbourhood case which turns her life upside down.

The Review:

The film was very interesting and kept you on your toes. It wasn’t predictable and I would definitely recommend it to friends.

The Tobacco Presence:

In the movie there was a group of guys smoking who looked like they were in their 20’s. They were strangers walking in a tunnel, and they blew their smoke into the main actress’s (Rachel) face who was distraught and lost. I don’t think the smoking was necessary because there are other ways the movie could have portrayed the message. The whole idea I think was to make Rachel feel like she was irrelevant and I think that could’ve been done by other actions such as spitting? I would not notice if smoking was taken out of the movie. I thought the guys smoking were rude. The movie did not show any real health effects or consequences of tobacco use.

Movie Critic: Isra Ahmed
Movie Genre: Adventure and Fantasy
Opening Date: September 30, 2016
Director: Tim Burton
Movie Title: Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children
Ontario Movie Rating: PG
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Eva Green, Samuel L. Jackson
General age of people in the theatre: 20-30s

Tobacco use: Quite a bit especially in the first half of the movie Mostly used pipes/cigars

Summary: The main character is a teenage boy who fit in at school and thus doesn’t have any friends. This movie takes us on a journey where he finds out the reason why he never fit in and becomes part of a family of other kids who have incredible powers just like him.

Review: This film is good and I liked the effects and the scenery is quite stunning. Most of the actors are okay but Eva Green, Ella Purnell and Finlay MacMillan gave the most memorable performances. The first half is quite slow and doesn’t do a good job at going deep into any of the character’s personalities or making them more relatable either so it’s hard to overlook. I didn’t like how it only picks up an hour into
the movie. The ending felt rushed as well and left majority of the audience feeling confused. Overall, I would recommend just staying home to watch this movie.

Tobacco Presence:
Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) does all the smoking and she is the face of the movie as well as the one responsible for taking care of the children. In the scenes with smoking, she is on the grounds of their large home and one of the children were usually nearby which bothered me because that smoke is obviously bad for their health and their caretaker should not be so close to them while smoking. The children don’t show any reaction but at certain times it is literally in their face so that just made me want to get up and wave it away for them.
The brand of cigars is not shown and it’s usually covered by her fingers or the smoke so it was hard to tell what she was smoking. I believe it was very unnecessary and only there to make her seem older, wiser and more authoritative. The movie would have been better without the smoking and would have probably forced Tim Burton to give her character more depth which would have been better for the whole movie.
Unfortunately, the movie does not show any negative health effects or consequences and it makes the smoking look like a normal thing that older and wiser people do. In my opinion, that is very wrong.

Movie Title: Snowden

Movie Critic: Jenny Bui

Movie Genre: Drama/Thriller (based on a true story)

Ontario Movie Rating: 14A

Opening Date: September 16, 2016

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, Logan Marshall-Green, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Schnetzer, LaKeith Lee Stanfield, Rhys Ifans, Nicholas Cage

Director: Oliver Stone

General age of people in the theatre: 20yrs+

Tobacco Use: ~3 instances throughout the movie (cigarettes, cigars)

This movie is based on a series of factual events that reveal the life of Edward Snowden (who is still alive and seeking asylum somewhere in Russia) and how he came to be at the forefront of the world stage. In a nutshell, Snowden is a computer/IT professional who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States and upon learning top-secret information about illegal surveillance within the National Security Agency (NSA), he subsequently leaked this to the public. Controversy regarding the repercussions of his actions is still very well alive and universally widespread, despite his obvious intentions as a whistleblower.

What initially drew me into this movie was, truthfully, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (why yes, I do consider myself a member of his fangirl club). I thought he portrayed the real-life Edward Snowden really well, and despite the technicality of the nature of some of the computer programming scenes, there was enough suspense for the entire audience to get hooked. I’m glad that this movie went mainstream and I recommend everybody to watch it because it stimulates the discussion surrounding privacy and transparency, especially when it comes to those who sit in a position of higher power.

The presence of tobacco use can be directly observed in scenes featuring secondary characters. More notably, Nicholas Cage is considered a retired mentor, who Snowden meets by chance when he begins working at the CIA. Although the encounters between him and Snowden were sparse throughout the movie, the two scenes in which he was smoking was not of significance and it seems as if the cigarette was used merely as an accessory. For example, in one scene Cage is seen smoking a cigarette in his home and when he sees information about the US government’s surveillance methods being leaked on national television, he takes the cigarette out of his mouth in astonishment. Another occurrence involved a nameless character with no apparent reason to be smoking a cigar other than to serve as a background prop. The smoking appears to be largely unnecessary in these scenes involving minor characters and I would not have noticed at all if it were to be taken out of the movie.

Movie Genre:  Biography / Drama

Opening date: September 9th 2016

Director: Clint Eastwood

Reviewer: David Huang

Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles are commercial airline pilots flying from New York’s LaGuardia Airport  en route to Charlotte Douglas International Airpot.  In an unpredictable turn of events, a flock of birds collide with both of the plane’s engines, damaging them both heavily and leaving the plane without thrust. With no other viable options, Sully opts to land the plane in the Hudson River and miraculously saves the lives of all 155 passengers and crew on board. Following the incident, Sully and Jeff find themselves overwhelmed by the press, symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and a formal inquiry launched by the National Transportation Safety Board to determine whether it was pilot error or an unavoidable accident.

Director Clint Eastwood tells the story of US Airways Flight 1549 in a way that enables the audience to connect with Captain Sully and his co-pilot. Although dramatic in its nature, the film has well-timed moments comedic relief.  Tom Hank’s spectacular performance of Captain Sully allows us to see the humanity of a hero. Sully is no superman. He is a family man with bills to pay and the typical family issues. Captain Sully experiences what any person who has gone through a traumatic event would experience and Hanks portrays all this wonderfully. This was a captivating story and an excellent tribute to Captain Chesley Sullenberger.

Sully is a smoke-free movie. Considering that our main character Captain Sully is a commercial airline pilot, there are very few opportunities for him to smoke (smoking is banned on planes). There are certainly scenes outside his main work environment where smoking could have been depicted, but it would not have impacted the film drastically. Sully is evidence that a smoke-free movie can be a high quality production and that smoking in cinema is often unnecessary.

Movie Critic: Sal-sabila and Tarnem Afify

Finding Dory is a 2016 American computer-animated comedy-drama film that is a sequel to 2003’s Finding Nemo. It premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 8, 2016, and was theatrically released in Canada on June 17, 2016. The movie is directed by Andrew Stanton and Angus MacLane, and features the voices many, such as Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks.

One year after reuniting Nemo with his father Marlin, Dory has become a helping hand in raising Nemo. One day during a lesson with Nemo’s class, Dory recalls through a childhood flashback that she has a family. She decides to look for them but finds her short-term memory loss to be an obstacle. The friendly but forgetful blue tang fish begins a search for her long-lost parents with her friends Marlin and Nemo, and everyone learns different things about the real meaning of family along the way.
After watching the movie one can say that Finding Dory is a movie that is full of inspiration. It highlights the importance of determination when Dory refuses to give up on her goal regardless of the obstacles she faced. Finding Dory is an absolute smoke-free movie and can be watched by any age group. If you are looking for a movie that can provide you a good laugh along with some valuable life lessons, we highly recommend Finding Dory to you.

This film features no use of tobacco products as all.

Overworked mom Amy Mitchell decides to let loose and embraces being a ‘bad mom’ after a really stressful day. This leads to a series of life changing events, as Amy becomes the face of the bad mom revolution and goes head to head with the President of the PTA.

I liked that the film was funny, and very light hearted. It represented women that would not let anyone put them down for not being perfect. The characters in the film found strength in their weakness. However, I didn’t like the behavioural polar opposite represented in the movie. Main character Amy Mitchell goes from extremely stressed and over worked to nearly lethargic and neglectful. I didn’t find these polar opposites to be completely realistic. However it is great for laughs, and it was a lot of fun to watch. I would in fact recommend this film to others, it is pleasant to watch and the story is refreshing. I would especially recommend the movie to anyone who likes the film Mean Girls.

As mentioned earlier there is no use of tobacco products in the film. The absence of tobacco did not affect the quality of the movie, it would have been an unnecessary addition or thought. The characters were completely believable, as it is completely normal not to smoke. The benefits of not having tobacco use in the movie include the fact that tobacco use is not being portrayed as a normal behaviour that should be continued within our society. It is especially beneficial to youth who may not be able to understand how the tobacco industry tries to manipulate youth as of yet.

I think the film, makers chose to keep smoking out the film for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I believe the film makers realized that smoking is not at all necessary to forward their plot, characters, or even for marketing of the film. Secondly, I believe that film makers also recognized that mothers (and parents) would not appreciate a film called bad moms featuring smoking mothers; this would make parents who are in fact addicted to tobacco feel bad and its puts the blame onto the addicts instead of the tobacco industry where it belongs.

Overall this movie is a great smoke free movie to enjoy for some laughs.

Movie Critic: Amandi Perera

Movie Title: The Legend of Tarzan

Movie genre: Action/Adventure

Ontario Movie Rating: PG

Opening Date: July 1, 2016

Starring: Alexander Skarsgrd, Margot Robbie, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson

Director: David Yates

General age of people in theatre: Age 16-adults

Tobacco Use: No tobacco use

The Legend of Tarzan is about a man named John Clayton III, whose epic story has led him to live life as a lord in England with his wife. After his parents’ death as a child, he grows up in the jungle with a gorilla family that takes care of him as one of their own. In this jungle home, he is known as Tarzan and meets his future wife, Jane Porter. After they become accustomed to their life in England, Tarzan is invited by the Belgian king Leopold to visit Africa and approve of what he has done to help the country of Congo. After some hesitation, he is convinced by an American named George Washington Williams to go, in suspicion of the King using illegal methods to help Belgium escape from debt. They then discover that an emissary for King Leopold named Rom is seeking to kidnap Tarzan and bring him to a tribal leader, in order to get diamonds.

Tarzan, Jane, George, and the animals of the jungle work together to expose King Leopold’s tactics and rediscover themselves in a place they once called home.

I was excited to see this film, as Disney’s version of Tarzan had armed me with high expectations after its beautiful animation and amazing soundtrack. The Legend of Tarzan became a continuation of the original story and surely had its share of assets. What I like most about the movie is the clips of scenic views of Gabon, a country in Central Africa. The production team and cast travelled there to film and the clips of the country’s landscape in the movie show that it was worth it. The cast was chosen very well also, as Tarzan and Jane were definitely not portrayed as one-dimensional and their epic love was amplified throughout the film. The use of flashbacks to show Tarzan’s past and the original story was also a good choice. The only thing I would have liked to see is fewer cliche moments. Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who is open to seeing the original Tarzan as a well filmed live-action continuation.

In The Legend of Tarzan, there was no tobacco use, and the absence of tobacco did not affect the plot or quality of the film. The characterization in this movie was well done without tobacco use, which emphasizes that it is not necessary. The decision to not have tobacco in the movie allows younger teen audiences to watch it and not be influenced. This allows any teen fans of the Disney version who want to see this continuation to do so without the unnecessary influence of tobacco being present.