THE MAZE RUNNER

20th Century Fox

Rated PG-13

Running time: 113 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of The Maze Runner.

In Twentieth Century Fox's The Maze Runner, amnesiac Dylan O'Brien finds himself transported into a mysterious Glade with a group of boys - which is surrounded by a giant maze.

In a cross between The Hunger Games and The Lord of the Flies, the apocalyptic movie The Maze Runner is based on the book The Maze Runner by James Dashner (who had a cameo in the film). Told from the point of view of O'Brien, we follow the amnesiac O'Brien as he tries to figure out what is going on, who put them there, and how to escape The Glade that the boy Gladers have struggled to make into a low technology camp by running the dangerous maze.

What I liked about the movie is that the audience learned what was going on in the movie at the same time that O'Brien learned what was going on. You did not have to read the book to know what was going on. In fact I had never even heard of the young adult book series The Maze Runner until the movie came out. As a result, the movie The Maze Runner is the first of the movie series that will be made out of The Maze Runner books. While not mentioned in the movie, I also liked the fact that the characters names were named after historical figures and scientists as those are some of the themes of the movie.

While the cast was made up of a group of talented young British stars, similar in age to The Hunger Games, such as Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee, Blake Cooper, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Kaya Scodelario, the only actor that I had actually heard of was Will Poulter, as O'Brien's rival who got upset that everything has changed ever since O'Brien arrived in The Glade. It was bad enough that O'Brien is not following the rules, but that the Gladers are dying as a result of O'Brien not following the rules.

While the movie is good on the action and suspense, and the acting by the stars - the movie did make me cry - there were a couple of things that did not make sense, like the fact that it takes incredible resources and technology to even build the huge miles long maze.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 113 minutes.

Pancho
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the INTERNSHIP

Twentieth Century Fox

Rated PG-13

Running time: 119 Minutes



Click below to watch a movie trailer of The Internship.



In Twentieth Century Fox's The Internship, obsolete salesmen Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson suddenly lose their jobs when their company closes and they apply for a summer internship job - at Google, the gigantic Internet search engine.

Written, Produced, and Starring Vince Vaughn this comedy is a nice, feel-good movie for the summer with a strong Google and fanboy slant. Totally different from The Social Network - the other computer website related movie - and the small audience that I saw The Internship with was laughing throughout the entire movie. Actually, the young cast of the movie made me feel like I was watching a college oriented film with people who have dreams. What is sad is the reason that Vaughn and Owen lost their jobs. Now these old guys have to compete the young tech-savvy college crowd. As Owens says, They are looking at some sort of mental Hunger Games against a bunch of geniuses kids for just like a handful of jobs. Of course being the old interns, Vaughn and Owen have no idea of what all the fan boy slang is that the interns Josh Brener, Tiya Sircar, Dylan O'Brien, and Tobit Raphael are using.

I liked the fact that they played Muggle Quiditch. I had never realized that they actually had created a game called Muggle Quiditch. Given the fact that the game is played on the ground, Muggle Quiditch pretty much follows Wizard Quiditch. Muggle Quiditch was actually pretty much fun to watch.

John Goodman's uncredited cameo as Vaughn's and Wilson's boss was great as always. Will Ferrell's cameo was also uncredited. There is also a cameo by Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin.

This movie is basically about fitting in amongst this complicated world, especially with computers. Learning about computers in order to run the help desk appeared to be daunting as Vaughn can attest to. It is a sad state of affairs that Vaughn and Wilson lose their jobs because their company was outdated and the business had to close.

A lot of Google products were shown, including Google's Gmail, Google Plus, Google Wallet and Google Maps, and the Google's self-driving car gets a cameo too. While the movie may be considered a commercial for Google, I liked the fact that I got to know more about Google and it's culture. There have been reports from Google interns that a lot of the movie is pretty accurate. 

The end credits were designed by Google's creative team.

Rated PG-13 for sexual situations, language, and violence. Running time: 119 Minutes.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of The Internship.



Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews