May 2012
1 post
4 tags
Tower Heist (2011)
This really wasn’t that bad at all. It was mindless fun, exactly what I needed. The plot is exactly what you see in the trailer, and the end is exactly what you’d except, give or take a highly illogical gold car. All the leads did a good job, even Eddie Murphy. I love a good heist movie. This isn’t exactly that, but it is a heist movie, so it got those bonus points. And really, the gold car...
April 2012
4 posts
4 tags
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
I loved it. It was so well written. The characters were instantly likable and just the right amount of cliché, which appropriately grew over time. I knew a little bit more than I wish I did going into it, but not nearly enough to have it spoiled. The trailers gave away that Topher didn’t die, but otherwise all the stuff that seemed spoilery is actually set up in the opening scene. Great...
4 tags
American Reunion (2012)
Even as a fan of the first three movies, I found it hard to love this one. There were some moments that really worked, like MILF, but so much just fell flat. Like The Hangover Part II, this was full of rehashes of jokes that worked way better last time. And the acting, which has never been a highlight of this series, was particularly bad. Especially Rookie of the Year and Chris Klein. So...
5 tags
50/50 (2011)
While it wasn’t as sad as it seemed it might be, the scene at the end with his mom right before he went into surgery got me. And it’s because in that moment I didn’t identify with him, despite myself being a 20-something handsome dude, but I was seeing it through his moms eyes. All I could think about was watching Ronnie go into a surgery where there is a serious chance she might not come out. ...
4 tags
Contagion (2011)
This should be filed under Horror and Do Not Watch. Not because it wasn’t good, it was actually quite excellently made, but it’s way too real feeling, I don’t want to worry about this kind of stuff. I don’t know anything about epidemics, but I imagine if one were to happen today it would go down pretty much like this. No one stood out as particularly excellent or bad, everyone just kind of fell...
March 2012
5 posts
4 tags
The Hunger Games (2012)
I gotta say, I really liked it. I was a naysayer the whole time it was being made, but in the end it all came together quite nicely. Not everything was perfect, but enough was. The world of Panem was so wonderfully realized, especially the Capital. They could have gone way over the top, but they kept it pretty real, like an extension of the celebrity that already exists today. The games...
4 tags
The Three Musketeers (2011)
Was I paying enough attention to properly write this one up? No, not really. But I can say this: it was pretty, it had good action, and it was silly (but in a good way). What else can you expect from Paul W.S. Anderson? I thought it would be horrible, and if you think it is I totally support your choice, but I found it to be just the right about of nonsense and action to be utterly enjoyable.
4 tags
In Time (2011)
So this was not good, yet I found myself oddly fascinated by it. When I first saw the trailer I immediately dismissed it because the concept was just too ridiculous. How could they possibly explain how people stop aging and then have a clock in their arm that determines how long they live? Turns out they can’t. The first line is a JT VO saying something like “We don’t know how it happened, but...
4 tags
What's Your Number? (2011)
Adorable. Anna Farris always is. The movie was as cookie cutter as they come, with a couple self referential lines thrown in there to keep it from being completely corny (I know where he lives, why don’t I just go wait there?). It’s ok though, her and Chris Evans were great together and there were plenty of funny moments.
4 tags
Casino Jack (2010)
Pretty solid find on Netflix. This guy is a dick but they do a good job of making him not really seem like a total dick. Barry Pepper was over the top and kind of awesome. Keven Spacey deserved that Golden Globe nom.
February 2012
6 posts
4 tags
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011)
Holy crap was this bad, but in such a laughably good way that I actually enjoyed it, I’d say it was my favorite of the series so far in that respect. Four words: Telepathic Werewolf Senate Meeting. There was so much that I just didn’t understand, like why Edward needs to be such a wild sex freak and what is imprinting and why is Bella even in this movie if she does nothing at all? Crystal was...
4 tags
The Change-Up (2011)
This was decent, enough funny moments to make up for the lame ones. With different people in the lead roles I’m not sure it would have worked. I also had lowered expectations due to some pretty shitty reviews but really, come on, it’s exactly what you’d expect from a body switch comedy with multiple poop jokes in the trailer. It actually surprised me in some parts, with the weird fetishes that...
4 tags
Tango and Cash (1989)
This was extremely 80s/early 90s. It was enjoyable for what it was. I was expecting a generic buddy cop movie, and int he end it was that, but it did take a detour through prison so that was cool. Sly and Kurt are pretty terrible, I’ve seen them both be great, and they were totally phoning it in this time. And I don’t think the script made a ton of sense, but it got them into crazy...
4 tags
The Hangover Part II (2011)
What a disappointment. Every joke from the first one was repeated here, but to an unfunny degree. Things that were amusing in Part 1 became tragic and unfunny here (for example, getting married to a stripper vs. being sort-of-raped by a transvestite, each was played for the same laughs). Alan was simple and selfish, but funnily so in Part One, now he’s just a vicious asshole. They turned...
3 tags
Winnebago Man (2009)
Having never even heard of this Youtube sensation before, I went into this pretty blind, persuaded by the description of the “angriest man in the world”. It was pretty good. Winnebago Man at first seemed pretty pissed about the whole thing but lightened up by the end. I was dealing with a crying baby for much of this so I probably missed some stuff, but I thought it was a well done doc.
4 tags
Trespass (2011)
How Did This Get Made? Another movie I watched for the podcast. It really wasn’t godawful terrible like some of them are, but there were just so many ridiculous plot points and characters that you need to sit back and really wonder, how is this a 35 MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE. $35 million. Most of that is probably salary for Nic and Nicole, but still, the whole thing takes place in like one house. ...
January 2012
3 posts
4 tags
Moneyball (2011)
I thought it was great, very engaging from beginning to end. Brad deserves some recognition here, I don’t know about Oscar, but certainly a nomination. I read the book in the weeks before seeing this which really helped because so much stuff is just glossed over in the movie. Not that you’d miss it if you haven’t read the book, but it was great to know the full story behind some of the...
4 tags
Fright Night (2011)
Colin Farrell killed it in this one. I thought it was really fun, and an interesting take on the currently oversaturated vampire genre. Finally we get beastly looking vampires instead of just pretty people with fangs. Red Mist was good too. A few weeks after watching this we rented the original, and only watched about half of it. We got too tired and said we’d finish it the next day, and then...
4 tags
Predators (2010)
I prepared myself for this to suck, but it surprised me. A crew of mercenaries, murderers, and general badasses (and Topher Grace, but spoiler he’s a murderer too) are dropped on what is presumably either the Predator home planet or just some jungle planet they use to hunt, and then are picked off one by one. You know that only one or two people are going to get out, and it’s easy to predict...
December 2011
6 posts
4 tags
30 Minutes or Less (2011)
This was a very fun little action/comedy. Or maybe comedy/action. It was foremost a comedy but had lots of very well done car chases and fights. Anyway, clocking in at under 90 minutes this things gets going right away and doesn’t really slow down at all. Aziz and Eisenberg play off each other quite well, as do Kenny Powers and Nick Swardson. And they didn’t kill the Major, I was pleased to...
4 tags
Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)
Wow I really enjoyed this movie. I have nothing bad to say about it. Every actor was great, it had a good story, good music, good everything. I probably should have seen the “twist” coming but I didn’t, which made it even more enjoyable. Gosling stands out as the highlight of the film, but I don’t want to take away from anyone or anything else, it was one of the best of 2011.
4 tags
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
Pretty sweet action flick. Ultimately forgettable, but in the moment it’s pretty awesome. The IMAX looked great, except maybe the sand storm scene because you can’t see shit anyway so now we can just see a huge amount of nothing rather than an average amount of nothing. The story was good, they kept it simple, brought it back to M:I’s cold war roots: There is a Russian plot to start nuclear...
5 tags
The Dark Knight Rises: Prologue (2011)
It looked AMAZING. Awesome plane stunt, the IMAX was huge and beautiful and it was shot wonderfully. Unfortunately, I was really disappointed by it overall, and it had everything to do with not being able to understand Bane. If the viewer is struggling just to comprehend the main character of a scene they will be pulled out of the experience and can’t enjoy it. I don’t care if it’s a...
4 tags
The Blind Side (2009)
I was pleasantly surprised by this. It had received overwhelmingly good reviews, but I still thought it would be overly schmaltzy and happy and meh. It was those things, except meh. Sandra was pretty awesome, and her little son stood out as well. As did her big adopted son. The script was pretty tight, witty, and flowed perfectly. I didn’t know much about the true story except that he is now...
4 tags
The Descendants (2011)
The description of this movie does it no favors, but then I saw the trailer and as soon as George Clooney started narrating I was on board. It’s a really good movie, not a typical “family dealing with death” movie, but it does hit those points. They sit there and yell angrily at a woman in a coma instead of sitting around crying (they do that as well eventually). The little...
November 2011
7 posts
4 tags
Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010)
Machete. Maidens. Unleashed! Really good documentary about the exploitation films of the 60s and 70s in the Philippines. I didn’t realize that they were all shot over there. I haven’t really seen any, just clips and stories about them, but they’re always in the jungle to it makes sense. Some of the details are pretty rough, terrible working conditions, mistreatment of the locals, but they...
4 tags
Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)
I loved it! I can’t believe I never saw it before. A Thanksgiving classic that I will probably watch many more times. Steve and John kill it in every scene. Fucking fucking fucking. The family story is a little weak but it’s not important, the relationship between he leads is all that matters. I see now just how much Due Date ripped off this movie. And Tommy Boy didn’t exactly rip it off, but...
4 tags
Green Lantern (2011)
What a dissapointment. Going into summer 2011 this was my most anticipated movie. It had so much potential to be awesome, but somehow when it all came otgether it was just blah. Jokes constantly fell flat, most of the acting was eh, and the story was just not great. They crammed too much into an origin movie. He didn’t need to face something as huge and powerful as he did. The set up...
4 tags
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
The last 5 minutes were better than the entire movie before it. The more we know about Captain Jack the less interesting he is. Part 4 was better than 2 and 3, but a far cry from The Curse of the Black Pearl. At least this one was easy to follow, I didn’t fully pay attention for a lot of it but I still understood the basics of what was going on. Blackbeard was good. Depp too, pretty...
4 tags
Season of the Witch (2011)
So bad. Sooooooo bad that it was entertaining as hell. Nic Cage doesn’t even know that he’s in a period piece. Ron Perlman does but does not give a fuck. There are NO WITCHES. They are demons. It’s a twist at the end that betrays the title of the movie. And the demon has a shitty voice. The monk has the worst haircut ever. And the fucking bridge. Lord, there is just so much badness in...
4 tags
Real Steel (2011)
We saw this weeks ago and I just forgot to write about it. I went in only because Crystal wanted to, I thought it would just be a stupid waste of time with maybe a couple good action sequences. Boy was I wrong. It was a solid movie, with LOTS of AWESOME action sequences. My fave would be the one toward the beginning with the Japanese looking robot (I forget his name), but every single one was...
4 tags
The Wicker Man (2006)
OH NO NOT THE BEEEEESSSSS.
How Did This Get Made did a podcast on this, so I watched it. It’s pretty bad, but as long as you know that going into it, it’s entertaining. Nick Cage punches girls and puts on his crazy face and wears a bear costume. The script is silly and pointless and all of the acting is pretty terrible. Overall, worth a watch if you’re in the right mindset.
October 2011
3 posts
4 tags
Bad Teacher (2011)
Very mediocre. It had some funny scenes, usually involving Jason Segel, or Cameron Diaz smoking pot. Timberlake was completely wasted here, I really like him but he was just awful in this and it wasn’t really his fault. Glad it was only 90 minutes. She would have been fired so long ago, it’s not like she was just an asshole but she did her job, she was an asshole and an incompetent teacher.
4 tags
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Bacon killed it as a super villain. That was the first thing I thought about this, and it still hold up. Overall I thought this was great, easily as good as X2. Everything just fell into place perfectly, the story, the acting, the writing, the overall feel was exactly right. I really hope there is a sequel because the more Magneto and Professor X we can get the better.
4 tags
Drive (2011)
I went into this with very little information, all I knew is that he was a stunt driver by day and a getaway driver by night. And it’s a good thing too, I later watched the trailer and it really gives away a lot.
I loved it, everything about it. The music, the visual style, the acting, I don’t have a bad word to say about it. The mystery behind Driver’s character and motivations may be...
September 2011
8 posts
4 tags
Forks Over Knives (2011)
Makes me want to never eat meat again. I won’t follow through with that, but I’m glad I watched this. All the links between animal protein consumption and cancer are hard to forget. I’m not sure if I trust it 100% though, it’s very easy to manipulate data and start saying “causation” instead of “correlation” when we all know that they are very much not the same thing. Even so, there is little...
4 tags
The Help (2011)
We saw this at least a month ago and I just forgot to write about it. I didn’t really want to see it, but it turned out to be pretty good. It had excellent performances, a tight script, and some unexpected funny bits. I do have one question: what exactly do you put in a pie to not only cover up the taste of shit but make it taste good?
4 tags
Arthur (2011)
I really enjoyed this. Russell Brand was very good, appropriately drunk, and it had the Batmobile AND the BTTF Delorean. It was really quite funny too, and not overly corny. Helen Mirren was great as Hobson, and Jennifer Garner, who I usually do not like, was pretty great as well. The trailer didn’t really get into what her part was, just that she had at least one scene where she was dressed up...
4 tags
Sucker Punch (2011)
This was pretty terrible, but in a watchable way. It made no sense. She is put in a mental hospital against her will, though she doesn’t show it, and she’s 20 years old so why is this happening? She’s not crazy and could probably demonstrate it. But men are evil!!!!! So be it. Anyway she creates a fantasy land in her mind where she is basically like a whore dancer in a shitty brothel, and...
4 tags
Limitless (2011)
I have two problems with this movie: Drinking the blood, really? Happy ending, wtf?
Those points aside, I thought this was pretty solid. It looked great, and if this director does Uncharted I’m sure it will be awesome. Decent story, no bad acting, good music. Going into it I thought maybe the pills would end up being a placebo, but it soon became clear that wasn’t the case. I...
4 tags
Stake Land (2010)
This came highly recommended by the Horror etc. podcast, they called it a true diamond in the rough, I’d say it was more like a cubic zirconium. It was shot very well, the acting was pretty good, and the overall mood was perfect, but the story just didn’t do it for me, and nothing was spectacular. Some of it was above average, fewer parts were below average, but there was very little...
4 tags
Nine Dead (2010)
A decent concept poorly executed. Much of the movie was actually alright, but the ending was unforgivably terrible and the acting was some of the worst I’ve ever seen. The story was alright, but how the hell did this guy put together these connections? Whatever, don’t care.
5 tags
She's Out of My League (2010)
This was very cute. And pretty damn funny too. The supporting cast is what really sold this one. TJ Miller, the guy from Worst Week, Big Red, Get Smart Guy, Breaking Bad Death By Puke Girl, they were all awesome. Not to say that the leads were bad, but it’s like they were doing a straight up romantic comedy but they were surrounded by funny people who elevated this movie into something...
August 2011
7 posts
4 tags
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
It doesn’t really sound like a movie I’d like, but I really enjoyed it. A big portion of that enjoyment was the chemistry between the two leads, without that the whole thing would have just fallen apart. The story was good, you need to buy into the idea of angels guiding our lives to fit God’s plan, but as long as you’re ok with that everything makes sense. The hats are like halos that give them...
4 tags
Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
The Cowboys were awesome, the aliens not so much. As a western this could have been a really good movie, but it ended up falling flat. The effects, cinematography and acting all stood out as very good, and even the writing when it didn’t involve alien stuff, but I was not a fan of the overall story. So the aliens are there to get gold. Whatever, it’s a thin premise but we need to get behind...
4 tags
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
I liked this a lot. You must suspend your disbelief a bit, or think of it as a big budget B-movie. The CG was amazing, only a few times did I really think about the apes not being real. It’s a shame the rest of the actors weren’t nearly as good as Andy Serkis and his digital apes. Maybe Lithgow was, but everyone else sucked. This was a little bit slow going in the beginning, but once Caesar...
4 tags
Hall Pass (2011)
It was kind funny, mostly meh, Owen Wilson annoys me, Stephen Merchant is forever Wheatley, too schmaltyzy it’s own good, a bit too long, Jason Sudeikis was very good.
4 tags
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
I really enjoyed this, it’s almost up there with Iron Man and Spider-man 2. Not quite that level, maybe in time it will be, but I would give this a 9 to their 10. As a hero in a different time you need to watch this movie a little differently. He’s not the dark, troubled, emo hero that we are used to these days. He’s Captain Goddamn America and fuck the Nazis and I love bright colors and flag...
4 tags
Friends With Benefits (2011)
Ok, I get it, New York is so fucking wonderful. I was ready to hate this movie about 10 minutes in, but it won me over, in no small part due to the pairing of Timberlake and Kunis, they made this movie. Woody too, he had a small part but he was perfect. It’s a very funny movie with a predictable story but a sharp script. The third act does drag a bit, but the performances kept me interested,...
4 tags
Insidious (2011)
I don’t like ghost stories, but I loved Insidious. Probably because event though it seems like a ghost story, and some of it is, it’s more like a demon/astral plane/possession movie. Lots of good scares but no cheap ones. The gray kid running around IN BROAD DAYLIGHT was the creepiest. Don’t these things know that they should only come out at night? Coming out during the day is way too scary,...