Major Update 1

I’ve really been neglecting this blog over the last couple of months, but now that I’m out of school for a while I’m gonna review the 21 movies I’ve seen since my last update. These won”t be full length reviews but shorter ones hitting on the major high (or low) points of the film. They’ll also have 2 or 3 movies per post.

Adventureland

Director:
Greg Mottola

Writer:
Greg Mottola

Cast:
Jesse Eisenberg as James Brennan
Kristen Stewart as Em Lewin
Ryan Reynolds as Mike Connell

Released: 2009
Studio: Miramax
Box Office: $16,044,025

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%
IMDB Score: 7.3

Format: DVD

Here is another comedy following the Judd Apatow formula for funny. An everyman schlup, semi-loser James Brennan gets a summer job at the local amusement park and falls for one of his female coworkers. Ryan Reynold plays a Stifler-esque Mike Connell, an order guy who also works at the park. Kristen Stewart shows that she is actually a competent actress when not stuck in that Twilight garbage. Jesse Eisenberg turns in another good performance thats just proves to me again that he is one of my favorite up-and-coming actors.

Favorite Performance:
Jesse Eisenberg as James Brennan

Favorite Quote:
Sue O’Malley: What are you majoring in?
Joel: Russian literature and Slavic languages.
Sue O’Malley: Oh wow, that’s pretty interesting. What career track is that?
Joel: Cabby, hot dog vendor, marijuana delivery guy. The world is my oyster.

Grade:
B-

X Men Origins: Wolverine

Director:
Gavin Hood

Writers:
David Benioff and Skip Woods

Cast:
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine
Liev Schreiber as Victor
Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson

Released: 2009
Studio: Fox
Box Office: $179,883,157

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 36%
IMDB Score: 6.7

Format: Blu-ray

To me, Wolverine’s backstory was not something that I really wanted explored. Part of his awesomeness, was the mystery surrounding his life before the Adamantium skeleton was inserted. I’m sure it was explained in the comics, but the casual fan (like me) didn’t know anything about Logan, just Wolverine. This movie is full of cliches and all the big budget summer movies staples like slow motion action shots and tons and tons of splosions!!!!!!!!! But it never fully develops the intriguing side characters. Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool(who is also getting his own movie soon) who only had like 5 lines in the whole film. Is it just me, or was he in a lot of movies this year?

Grade:
C-

Zombieland

Director:
Ruben Fleischer

Writers:
Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick

Cast:
Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee
Jesse Eisenberg as Columbus
Emma Stone as Wichita
Abigail Breslin as Little Rock
Bill Murray as Himself

Released: 2009
Studio: Sony
Box Office: $47,603,512 (as of 10/11/09)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%
IMDB Score: 8.4

Date Seen: October 6, 2009
Format: Theater

Zombie movies are typically not the kind of films I like to see. Boy, am I glad I decided to give this one a shot. I saw the trailer a while back and I thought it looked quite interesting. Then the positive reviews started pouring in, so I went to see it in the theater. Usually horror-comedies are not well received critically, and even when they are, they are not strong box-office draws. Zombieland is that rare critical and commercial success.

Jesse Eisenberg plays Columbus, a survivor who stays alive by adhering to strict set of rules. He meets up with Tallahassee and they set off in search of a Twinkie, possibly the last Twinkie in the whole world. In their search, they come across a set of sisters. But they are not typical sisters, they are con-women. They swindle the boys for their car and guns and set off. The boys catch up to them and they decide to stick together and head to Pacific Playland, an amusement park in LA that is supposedly free of zombies.

The main criticism for horror-comedies is that they are not funny enough nor scary enough. Zombieland plays much closer to the comedy side than the horror. Don’t get me wrong though, there is still plenty of violence and zombie gore. Just not any of the jump out from the dark, shocking kind of scary.

Jesse Eisenberg could play me in a movie about my life. He is one of my new favorite actors. My favorite part of the movie was whenever one of Columbus’s rules for survival was applied, it popped up on the screen in big bold letters that interacted with what was happening on the screen. Overall, the film was very funny, but the scene with Bill Murray was one of the funniest scenes I’ve seen in a while. My one gripe with the movie is that it is too short. With a running time of only 86 minutes, so much more could have been added to give the movie a slightly deeper plot.

Favorite Performance:
Jesse Eisenberg as Columbus

Favorite Quote:
Tallahassee: I’m not great at farewells, so uh… that’ll do, pig.

Grade:
B+

Recommendation:
If your not afraid gore, go see it.