Short Reviews 2

Valentine’s Day

Director:
Garry Marshall

Writer:
Katherine Fugate

Cast:
Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Garner,
Jessica Biel, Patrick Dempsey,
Jamie Foxx, Anne Hathaway,
Eric Dane, Topher Grace, many others.

Released: 2010
Studio: Warner Bros.
Box Office: $109,191,458 (as of 3/16/10)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 18%
IMDB Score: 5.7

Format: Theater

It suffered from trying to cover too many storylines. None of the characters were developed enough so that I could get past “Oh, that’s Julia Roberts.” or “Hey, he was in That 70’s Show.” The movie was entirely too predictable and cliched. Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner were terrible, but overall the acting was good.

Favorite Performance:
Bryce Robinson as Edison

Favorite Quote:
Franklin: Valentine’s day was a massacre in Chicago where lots of people were killed and they put a curse on the Chicago cubs.

Grade:
D

Dear John

Director:
Lasse Hallstrom

Writer:
Jamie Linden

Cast:
Channing Tatum as John Tyree
Amanda Seyfried as Savannah Curtis
Richard Jenkins as Mr. Tyree

Released: 2010
Studio: Sony/Screen Gems
Box Office: $78,782,986 (as of 3/16/10)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 27%
IMDB Score: 5.4

Format: Theater

I went into this one with pretty low expectations, and I got about what I expected. Channing Tatum cannot act. I have yet to see a performance from him that I would call passable. He really drug this movie down. Other than that, this film was an average date movie.

Favorite Performance:
Richard Jenkins as Mr. Tyree

Favorite Quote:
John Tyree: No matter where you are in the world,the moon is never bigger than your thumb.

Grade: C+

(500) Days of Summer

Director:
Marc Webb

Writers:
Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

Cast:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom Hansen
Zooey Deschanel as Summer Finn

Released: 2009
Studio: Fox Seachlight
Box Office: $32,391,374

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%
IMDB Score: 8.0

Format: DVD

This one was very different from what I expected. Its about Tom’s and Summer’s relationship, but it doesn’t go through it in a conventional manner. It skips around in time and in mood. Its also not conventional in the sense that it doesn’t have a happy ending. (spoiler alert!) They don’t end up together in the end. I guess I just didn’t get it, but I didn’t like this one as well as the critics.

Favorite Performance:
Zooey Deschanel as Summer Finn

Favorite Quote:
Author’s Note: The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Especially you Jenny Beckman. Bitch.

Grade:
B-

Short Reviews 1

Where The Wild Things Are

Director:
Spike Jonze

Writers:
Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers

Cast:
Max Records as Max
James Gandolphini as Carol
Forest Whitaker as Ira
Paul Dano as Alexander

Released: 2009
Studio: Warner Bros.
Box Office: $77,233,467

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%
IMDB Score: 7.5

Format: Theater

I was really excited when I found out that they were making a movie of one of my favorite books from when I was a kid. Then I heard that Spike Jonze was attached to direct. I hadn’t seen any of his films, but I knew that he had made some well liked movies. Then I learned that Maurice Sendak, the author of the book, was actively involved, and I became even more excited. Then I saw the previews on TV, they looked really good and I got even more excited.

I saw the film on opening weekend and I was slightly disappointed, not because it was a bad film, but because I had such high expectations. It was a little darker than I thought it was going to be. The cinematography was exceptional. They used real suits for the wild things and CGI’d in the faces later.

Favorite Performance:
Max Records as Max

Favorite Quote:
Carol: Hey King! What’s your first order of business?
Max: Let the wild rumpus start!

Grade:
B+

The Blind Side

Director:
John Lee Hancock

Writer:
John Lee Hancock

Cast:
Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy
Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy
Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher
Jae Head as S.J. Tuohy

Released: 2009
Studio: Warner Bros.
Box Office: $248,953,327 (as of 03/02/10)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 69%
IMDB Score: 7.7

Format: Theater

This is a case of a movie taking an inspirational story and turning it into a cheesefest. What Michael Oher and the Touhy’s did really is exceptional, but what the makers of the movie did was play it up a little too much in my opinion.

Quentin Aaron did a good job playing the shy Oher, but Sandra Bullock is the one getting all the attention. She is nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards. I thought she overacted and her southern accent was off. That one line that was in all the previews where she says, “You can thank me later.” just grates on my nerves.

Favorite Performance:
Quentin Aaron as Michael Oher

Favorite Quote:
Leigh Anne Touhy: If you so much as set foot downtown you will be sorry. I’m in a prayer group with the D.A., I’m a member of the NRA and I’m always packing.

Grade:
B+

Paranormal Activity

Director:
Oren Peli

Writer:
Oren Peli

Cast:
Katie Featherston as Katie
Micah Sloat as Micah

Released: 2009
Studio: Paramount
Box Office: $107,918,810

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%
IMDB Score: 6.8

Format: Theater

First of all, I don’t like horror movies. I just don’t go see them. I can count how many horror movies I’ve seen on one hand, but I had to see this one. I waited and waited for it to finally come to my theater and I went to the first midnight showing. Holy crap! This was the single scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ll never watch it again.

It was shot for $15,000. That’s it. It took one week and one camera. If I didn’t know that the footage wasn’t real, I would totally believe that it was. If you want to see it, I would see it with a group of people because seeing their reactions really adds to the experience.

Favorite Performance:
Katie Featherston as Katie

Favorite Quote:
Micah: So you’d think a psychic would, uh, be on time. You know, like he could foretell if the traffic was going to be bad?

Grade:
A-

The Hangover

Director:
Todd Phillips

Writers:
Jon Lucas and Scott Moore

Cast:
Bradley Cooper as Phil Wenneck
Ed Helms as Stu Price
Zach Galifianakis as Alan Garner
Justin Bartha as Doug Billings
Heather Graham as Jade
Ken Jeong as Mr. Chow

Released: 2009
Studio: Warner Bros.
Box Office: $277,322,503

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78%
IMDB Score: 7.9

Format: Theater/Blu-ray

The Hangover is by far the funniest movie I’ve seen this year. It’s one of the funniest movies of all-time. It’s right up there with The 40 Year Old Virgin as my favorite comedies. I don’t think I’ve ever so hard in my life. It’s so good, I saw it 3 times in the theater. I now have it on Blu-ray.

The film is about a group of friends (and they’re the 3 best friends that anyone could have!) going on a trip to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. Phil is a teacher, Stu is a dentist (paging Dr. Faggot!), Doug is the one getting married, and Alan is Doug’s fiance’s brother. The guys start partying in Vegas and wake up in their room hungover. They awake to several strange things in their room. For example, a tiger is in their bathroom (tigers love pepper, they hate cinnamon), a baby (he’s jacking his little weenus) is in their closet, and they can’t find Doug anywhere. The premise of the movie is Phil, Stu, and Alan trying to find out what happened. Their adventure takes them to a wedding chapel, Mike Tyson’s house, and a run in with a naked Chinese man (toodooloo, mother fuckaaaaaaaaaaas).

I can’t stress enough just how funny this movie is. It is the single most quotable movie in the universe. Yeah, the universe. I always do a favorite quote at the end of every post, and I’m doing one here, but almost every line in this film is my favorite, so I’ve included some as I go along. Zach Galifianakis totally stole every scene he was in. He is one of the funniest characters of all-time. Yes, all-time.

Favorite Performance:
Zach Galifianakis as Alan Garner

Favorite Quote:
Stu Price: What do tigers dream of when they take their little tiger snooze? Do they dream of mauling zebras, or Halle Berry in her Catwoman suit? Don’t you worry your pretty striped head, we’re gonna get you back to Tyson and your cozy tiger bed. And then we’re gonna find our best friend Doug, and then we’re gonna give him a best friend hug. Doug, Doug, oh, Doug, Dougie, Dougie, Doug, Doug! But if he’s been murdered by crystal meth tweakers, well then we’re shit out of luck.

Grade:
A

All The President’s Men

Director:
Alan J. Pakula

Writer:
William Goldman

Cast:
Robert Redford as Bob Woodward
Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein
Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee
Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat

Released: 1976
Studio: Warner Bros.
Box Office: $70,600,000

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%
IMDB Score: 8.0

Date Seen: August 7, 2009
Format: Netflix Instant View

I don’t usually become so enthralled with a movie as I did with All The President’s Men. I couldn’t look away. I was hanging on every sentence. That’s the sign of a good movie with great pacing. Even though the film is almost entirely dialogue without any action sequences, it kept me on the edge of my seat.

It follows the two Washington Post journalists who discovered the Watergate scandal that caused the resignation of President Nixon. It covers the beginning of their investigation up til the point where they discover that the president may be involved. Then it cuts to shots of news wires being written that detail the results of the investigation with the last one being “President Nixon resigns.” I wish the movie would have covered the entire investigation but since it was made just a couple of years after Watergate, I guess most people of the time knew most of the later details so they decided to focus on the beginnings of the discovery.

Both Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman gave masterful performances. They played their characters as almost desperate men who knew that they were onto a very deep and complex story but didn’t know exactly how deep or how important. Two particular sequences really caught my attention. One was when they were going house to house of people who worked for the committee to re-elect the president for statements about payments made to the Watergate burglars and the shot was set up looking from within the house out towards the two journalists and then the door would slam in there face over and over. The other shot was set within the office of the newspaper and you can see Redford and Hoffman in the background working on the story while the rest of the employees are gathered around the T.V.

All The President’s Men is listed as number 77 in AFI’s 100 Greatest Films.

Favorite Performance:
Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein

Favorite Quote:
Ben Bradlee: Now hold it, hold it. We’re about to accuse Haldeman, who only happens to be the second most important man in this country, of conducting a criminal conspiracy from inside the White House. It would be nice if we were right.

Grade:
A-

Recommendation:
See it.

Watchmen

Director:
Zack Snyder

Writers:
David Hayter and Alex Tse

Cast:
Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach
Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan
Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian
Matthew Goode as Ozymandias
Malin Akerman as Silk Spectre II
Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl II

Released: 2009
Studio: Warner Bros.
Box Office: $107,509,799

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 64%
IMDB Score: 7.9

Date Seen: July 24, 2009
Format: Blu-ray

In the fall of 2008 I saw a teaser trailer for a new movie called Watchmen. I thought it looked weird and didn’t think anything else about it. Around February 2009 I purchased Watchmen the graphic novel and instantly fell in love with it. I have since read it 3 more times. I had high hopes for the movie and I must say that I was not disappointed. Zack Snyder made a very faithful adaptation. He stayed very true to the look and feel of the comic which was the only comic book named to Time’s “100 Greatest Novels of the 20th Century.”

It is not a typical super-hero movie. It not like Spiderman with a clear, well-defined hero and villain. The good guy doesn’t necessarily win in the end. The heroes are not perfect like Superman. They all have deep emotional and psychological problems. They quite honestly may be worse for society than many of the criminals they put away. The Comedian is a very interesting character. He is violent, brash, and a murderer and rapist. He is simply the reflection of the dark underbelly of society. Rorschach is the uncompromising, unforgiving vigilante who through his journal, depending on your view, either causes the salvation or the destruction of man. Dr. Manhattan is the physicist who gains seemingly god-like powers but loses his touch with humanity. None of them could be called role models or heroes that any living person should look up to.

This film is a deep look at what would you be willing to compromise for your own survival or for the survival of all man kind. It is shot in a very stylish way. The sets and costumes were pulled straight out of the book. The casting was near perfect. I felt like Malin Akerman was the only actor that gave a poor performance.

Favorite Performance:
Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach

Favorite Quote:
Laurie Juspeczyk/Silk Spectre II: The most powerful thing in the universe… still just a puppet.
Dr. Manhattan: We are all puppets, Laurie. I’m just the puppet who can see the strings.

Grade:
A-

Recommendation:
If you are a fan of the book, see it.
If you’ve never read the book, read it first.

Next Review:
When Harry Met Sally…