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 aside, it’s a pretty tight script when you look at the heist part. Maybe. I might be forgetting other silly bits. But whatever, it’s not supposed to be great, it’s supposed to be a fun watch, and it was everything it needed to be.
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.
But anyway, the movie, really really good. Well written, well acted, everything worked perfectly. Anna Kendrick was particularly good, as was JGL. Everyone really. I’d watch it again for sure. It was very clever and didn’t manipulate your emotions when it clearly could have. It’s not that kind of movie. Knowing that he is still alive today helped, it would have had quite a different feel otherwise, but still, I think it may have creeped into my 20122 Top Ten list, not that that’s relevant any more. I should do top ten lists 3 years late.
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 into their role and despite this movie starring about half of the working actors in Hollywood today, I didn’t really think about it while it was on, I just got into the story. And speaking of story, it doesn’t really feel like a traditional story, more like a documentary from multiple viewpoints. Anyway, I really liked it except that it scared me and now I don’t want to leave the house
Remember: Always Wash Your Hands!
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.
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 it did, we’re genetically engineered.” Ballsy move and I’m kind of ok with it.
None of the actors did a particularly good job, not even JT. He needs to be charming and funny. The script was just plain old silly and much of it was unmemorable. But like I said, I was oddly fascinated. Why would they cast people clearly over 25 when the entire premise is that no one is over 25? It’s not like there aren’t plenty of 25ish actors out there, just look at any movie or TV show about high schoolers. Cillian Murphy is 35 years old for Christ’s sake, and he looks it. But this really doesn’t matter. It feels like the screenwriter or the producers just had this idea “what if you had a life clock in your arm man? That would be CRAZY!” and they went with it, somehow got funding, and here’s what we got. It was actually pretty fun. I could see this on How Did This Get Made.
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.
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 able to clear up most of it, but there were even some things where he response was just “shush, that’s just how it is.”
This movie should have been the first act of just “Breaking Dawn”. The conflict with the werewolves was lame, the wedding and honeymoon went on WAY too long, and the corniest/best character, the head Volturi guy, was only in it for like 15 seconds. I actually am looking forward to seeing TTS:BD,P2 when it hits blu-ray because if the werewolves are any indication (and even the minute or so we got at the end of this movie) then CGI vampire baby is going to be epically and awesomely bad.
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 Ryan Reynolds’s character had, I figured he was just a typical pussy hound, but then boom, a pregnant lady is coming over for some loving. And the tattoo at the end was great. Also was that the same statue from When In Rome?
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 everything up to 11 this time when 10 would have been more than enough.
It doesn’t make Part One any worse though, I watched it again a week later and it still holds up. The mystery of Part Two, while being very very similar to Part One, was pretty solid and kept the movie going. I wouldn’t watch it again though. If there is a Part Three, and I hear there is, it cannot follow this formula. It’s dead. These characters probably still have some life in them, they just need to tone down Alan to what he was in Part One.
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. There are next to no special effects, and if this thing took more than a month to shoot then someone needs to be fired. It took in…..$20,000 at the box office. Not $20 million. $20 THOUSAND. And it took just 11 days to get pooped out onto DVD.
The podcast covers a lot of my thoughts, but some of my favorite:
-Crackhead girl from My Boys. WTF. The idea is for them to bust in, steal cash and/or diamonds, and get out. So the first thing she does is start trying on dresses, watching home movies, and smoking crack in the bedroom. THIS IS MADNESS.
-Nic cage had a few awesome freak out moments. For the most part he was chill, but there were times, oh my goodness, true Cage shines through.
-The audience is never let in on the secret. We are simply told things that we really have no choice but to believe are ture, and every 10 mintues, SURPRISE, everything you know is wrong and here is the truth. Except 10 minutes later, SURPRISE, that was a lie too. This continues until about 5 mintues before it’s over, you really never have any idea what’s actually going on.
-The daughter is a terrible actress. She’s young, maybe she’ll get better, or maybe Joel is not good with kids, or maybe the script was so bad she couldn’t do anything with it. I’d wager it’s more those last two things than her being a bad actress.
-I said this before but I’ll say it again, it was actually not an awful movie, and at times was quite entertaining just because you have no idea where they’re going and at any moment there could be a Nic Cage Craziness Explosion. That’s the kind of suspense I love.
