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,...
July 2011
7 posts
4 tags
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)
What can I even say about this? It’s the end of an era. A series that kept getting better and better over time, finally coming to this spectacular end. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Deathly Hallows 1, but this made up for it. The two together are a great movie. The Battle for Hogwarts was as good as it could have been. Lots of Voldy, and lots of Voldy saying “Haarrryyyy Pootttterrrrrrrr”. ...
4 tags
Horrible Bosses (2011)
This was really funny! Motherfucker Jones, Charlie being Charlie, pretty much everyone was on their game. It was a good length too, any longer and I would have been checking my watch. The ending was a little too convenient, but the whole thing was a bit absurd so it’s ok.
4 tags
The American (2010)
For as slow as it was I found it to be pretty solid. It’s a very carefully told story, with a slow burn that keeps you interested. The ending was a bit of a downer, and kind of abrupt, but not out of place. Without George Clooney I’m not sure if this would have worked. I also liked how they got into a lot of the details of being a hitman, with the guns and his handler and all that, I feel like...
4 tags
Jennifer's Body (2009)
There are few things I hate more in films than when one cannot decide what it wants to be. Is this a straight up horror movie? Horror/Comedy? Thriller/Drama? It’s just all over the place. The general idea is good, a virgin sacrifice gone wrong and now the girl must feast upon flesh to survive, but it’s so inconsistent and the performances are not great that it’s tough to get into it and care...
4 tags
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
I never thought I’d say this again but, I’m glad I saw this in 3D. It was just so damn good looking. There’s no reason to see this movie unless it is on the biggest possible screen with the loudest possible speakers. It was a bit long, and the first half was kind of boring and a lot of the jokes fell flat, but Bay redeemed himself in sheer BOOM during the last hour. I’m still not totally sure...
5 tags
Saw VII/3D/The Final Chapter
It’s over? Maybe, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another one. The story here is, well, unimportant. People are caught in traps, that’s really all that matters. Mr. Boondock Saint pretended to be a Jigsaw survivor so of course he was then put through a series of tests. I honestly don’t remember if he lived in the end, I think he made it. And the return of Dr. Gordon was welcome, if...
4 tags
You Again (2010)
This was very cute and I enjoyed it, in large part due to Kristen Bell. Not that anyone was bad really, the whole cast seemed to be having a good time and not taking themselves too seriously, but I have always had a soft spot for Veronica Mars. The grandmas at the end was a perfect way to close the film, and I should have seen it coming.
June 2011
7 posts
4 tags
The Mechanic (2011)
Oi! This was alright. I wasn’t fully paying attention the whole time, working on stuff on the computer, but it was still entertaining. It had the usual amount of impossibly silly things that action movies do, but The Stath gives it an edge, plus I have a soft spot for hit man movies. Nothing else to note really, it was entertaining but forgettable.
4 tags
Killers (2010)
Not terrible, I’ll give it that. It was certainly ridiculous, but some things actually worked. Kutcher is pretty charming, and Heigl was surprisingly tolerable. Except all the damn screaming, good lord I wanted to sew her mouth shut. As illogical and sill as everything was, I just started to look at it as if it were a cartoon and that made everything ok. Lots of good actors in smaller parts.
...
4 tags
Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2010)
This had been sitting on my DVD queue for months, never quite making it to the top, so imagine my delight when I saw that it was available instantly! It was really good. I can’t believe it wasn’t even nominated for best documentary, it deserved at least that. At times it plays out like a real life This Is Spinal Tap, but really it’s about two best friends chasing their dream. It’s a...
4 tags
Super 8 (2011)
My initial impression was a bit underwhelming, probably because of such high expectations, but it’s evened out a bit, and I realized that I enjoyed this very much. It wasn’t as great as many people are making it out to be, but it was very good. Two things stood out to me as exceptional: the kids (in particular the lead boy and Elle Fanning) and the music. The kids were all great, the played it...
4 tags
$5 a Day (2008)
This is exactly the kind of movie that makes me happy to have Netflix Instant. I would probably never bother getting this as a DVD in the mail, but when I’m sitting on the couch with nothing to do for an hour or two, I don’t mind taking a chance on a potentially lame movie. I was not disappointed by this one. It’s Chris Walken in a con-man movie, what’s not to love? It had a good father/son...
4 tags
Rampage (2009)
My first Uwe Boll experience (I think?) and it wasn’t a terrible one. I watched this because of an article I saw on HD Digest about “Good Movies From Bad Directors”. One of the columnists cited Rampage as a decent little flick from a notoriously terrible director. It wasn’t great, but it was a fun watch just to see how far he’d go. It’s not exactly fun to watch hundreds of innocent civilians...
4 tags
Buried (2010)
I really thought that not leaving the coffin would hurt this movie, that it would get boring, but it was fine. Some parts were a bit slow but it was the right choice. This is a good little thriller that makes you never ever want to go to Iraq. Going into it I already knew that things did not end well for him, I had read a spoiler review because I figured I would never actually see it and I was...
May 2011
9 posts
4 tags
Bridesmaids (2011)
I thought this was very funny, if I wasn’t already sold on Kristen Wiig as a leading funny lady then this would have solidified it. I don’t think anyone could watch this and not enjoy, at the very least, her physical comedy. Sookie would have to be the surprise stand out of the film, everything frame of film she was in was gold. It wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot. Sometimes the joke of a...
6 tags
Thinner
The book was pretty good, a quick thriller. It’s biggest problem is that the main character is a bit of an asshole, and you don’t really feel bad for him. He got what was a long time coming. The daughter is probably the only “good” character in the whole story, and it doesn’t end well for her. There is one part where King gets all meta on us, having on of the characters say that this all...