Another generic love story. Can you guess what happens? The couple meets, falls in love, breaks up and then gets back together to spend life happily ever after. Oh, I'm sorry I spoiled it for you, but you should have known how it was going to go the minute you saw the title. Love Happens? What a horrible name for this movie. Enough with the horrible intro, it is not the generic love story or the horrible title that captures you in this film, it is everything else. Well, almost everything.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Red (2010)
The newest Netflix to arrive snail mail to our box is 2010's Red. Red was surprisingly well acted, even in spite of its all star cast. Special effects were decent for the most part, and script was pretty solid. This was a combination of many different types of scripting and the result was something you don't see very often.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The A-Team (2010)
So to my surprise a Netflix came early, and it was welcomed after a difficult day at work. The film was 2010's The A-Team. Leading a great cast as Colonel Hannibal Smith was Liam Neeson. His team was compromised of Bradley Cooper, Quinton Jackson and Sharlto Copley. Jessica Biel and Patrick Wilson also played key roles in the film rounding out a great cast.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Dinner for Schmucks (2010)
Another movie with one of my favorite actors at the moment, Paul Rudd.
Dinner for Schmucks had an amazing cast. Paul was joined by Steve Carell, Zach Galifianakis, Stephanie Szostak, Bruce Greenwood and Ron Livingston to name a few. There were many other great performances as well. Steve and Paul meshed amazing. Steve has a very unique ability to make a complete fool out of himself and make it realistic. Another Steve, Steve Martin, has a similar ability but his acting is over the top and does not come off as realistic as Steve Carell's. Paul Rudd has the ability to make some amazing facial expressions, and amazing body language. The two of them were absolutely perfectly cast. I have enjoyed almost every single one of Paul's most recent films, and look forward to his continued work.
The premise of the movie is all the top executives at the company Paul's character Tim works for have a get together once a month and bring the biggest loser they can find. They choose the best of the losers and give them a trophy. Steve's character Barry is absolutely incredible. If you actually break down his character and look at him from a standpoint other than being a loser, he is extremely talented. Paul's character Tim is a very determined go getter that is competing for a promotion. The two of them together have so many witty fast pace one liners it is incredible. The entire film is one skit after another.
That touches on one of the few things I did not like about the movie. I felt that this movie, along with a few other recent movies, has increased the bar for comedy so high that you can't make a film with a single dull point any longer. While this could be a good thing, I think it has forced movies to cram so much stuff in to keep our newly dulled senses so overloaded that it is almost sickening.
Even with this overload, the scrip was very solid. There was a definite plot, and the movie did keep flowing to it. I felt that there were too many distractions along the way however. It felt as if a lot of the scenes were unneeded for the story to make sense, but were needed to keep the movie funny and get it to be two hours long. The movie was almost painful to watch with all of the bad things that kept happening. It reminded me of Meet the Parents
, in the fact that one thing after another happened the entire movie from start to end. This is something I think Steve Carell is probably used to from working on The Office
for as long as he has.
The film was enjoyable, despite the fact that it was painful to watch at times. Most of the one liners were very funny, and the character interactions were as well. The music choice went perfect to go with the character build of Steve's Barry and the flow of the movie.
If you are looking for a nice easy going comedy to keep you entertained, Dinner for Schmucks is a good choice. I am giving the film a 4 star rating. It is enjoyable, yet I felt too much was attempted to be crammed into the film. I am telling you to go watch the film, come back and give me your opinions. You must also share to your favorite social networking site so I can get more followers. Now...I release you!
Dinner for Schmucks had an amazing cast. Paul was joined by Steve Carell, Zach Galifianakis, Stephanie Szostak, Bruce Greenwood and Ron Livingston to name a few. There were many other great performances as well. Steve and Paul meshed amazing. Steve has a very unique ability to make a complete fool out of himself and make it realistic. Another Steve, Steve Martin, has a similar ability but his acting is over the top and does not come off as realistic as Steve Carell's. Paul Rudd has the ability to make some amazing facial expressions, and amazing body language. The two of them were absolutely perfectly cast. I have enjoyed almost every single one of Paul's most recent films, and look forward to his continued work.
The premise of the movie is all the top executives at the company Paul's character Tim works for have a get together once a month and bring the biggest loser they can find. They choose the best of the losers and give them a trophy. Steve's character Barry is absolutely incredible. If you actually break down his character and look at him from a standpoint other than being a loser, he is extremely talented. Paul's character Tim is a very determined go getter that is competing for a promotion. The two of them together have so many witty fast pace one liners it is incredible. The entire film is one skit after another.
That touches on one of the few things I did not like about the movie. I felt that this movie, along with a few other recent movies, has increased the bar for comedy so high that you can't make a film with a single dull point any longer. While this could be a good thing, I think it has forced movies to cram so much stuff in to keep our newly dulled senses so overloaded that it is almost sickening.
Even with this overload, the scrip was very solid. There was a definite plot, and the movie did keep flowing to it. I felt that there were too many distractions along the way however. It felt as if a lot of the scenes were unneeded for the story to make sense, but were needed to keep the movie funny and get it to be two hours long. The movie was almost painful to watch with all of the bad things that kept happening. It reminded me of Meet the Parents
, in the fact that one thing after another happened the entire movie from start to end. This is something I think Steve Carell is probably used to from working on The Office for as long as he has.The film was enjoyable, despite the fact that it was painful to watch at times. Most of the one liners were very funny, and the character interactions were as well. The music choice went perfect to go with the character build of Steve's Barry and the flow of the movie.
If you are looking for a nice easy going comedy to keep you entertained, Dinner for Schmucks is a good choice. I am giving the film a 4 star rating. It is enjoyable, yet I felt too much was attempted to be crammed into the film. I am telling you to go watch the film, come back and give me your opinions. You must also share to your favorite social networking site so I can get more followers. Now...I release you!
The Runaways (2010)
I really enjoy watching based on real life movies such as The Runaways, especially when they are based on music. I enjoy them because they are not only informative, but they are also most of the time entertaining. Even though you forget what you learned in most cases, it is still fun while you are watching to know you are learning something you didn't know before, while having fun at the same time.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Bicentennial Man (1999)
How have I never seen Bicentennial Man before? I don't know, but I am glad that I have finally watched it. I will tell you this; Bicentennial Man is my new favorite movie of 1999, and it is my favorite movie that I have watched in 2011. I know, its only been a month, but I have a feeling this movie will hold that title for awhile. Predictably so, I am rating this movie 5 stars.
Wow, well let me start by saying there were only 3 things in the entire movie that I did not think were perfect. That is a lot to say for a movie that is over 2 hours long, and made 12 years ago. Wow again, 12 years?
When Robin Williams' character Andrew Martin gets a "skin" upgrade half way through the movie, I was not fully keen on the results. Nothing was changed on the inside, yet he no longer made the hydraulic noise and his posture became "human". Perhaps the fake skin could muffle the robot noises to an extent, but silence all but his eyelid noise I am not fully inclined to believe. Closer to the end of the film I also was not fully sure how his blood transfusion made his fake skin and hair age. How does fake skin and hair age, and how did they made a robot function on human blood?
The last remaining thing that was not absolutely perfect in the film goes with something that made the film. Music. The soundtrack for the film was absolutely incredible. Fun happy songs during appropriate segments, and heartfelt powerful full of emotion songs perfectly placed throughout. The part of the music I was not as happy with was the song choices in the film. For example when we first meet Galatea, she is listening to classic rock? This scene takes place in 2050 or 2060 perhaps, I was not happy with the choice. This had little effect on the background music however, which I must emphasize again I was completely impressed with.
I was also impressed with how young and handsome they made Robin look. I can honestly say I have not ever seen a movie and just thought he was handsome. There were a few times during Bicentennial Man that I was truly surprised by it however. Robin pulled off an amazing transition from full robot, to half robot human, and finally being full human when we see him at the end.
I was enamored by many of the cast's performance. Embeth Davidtz, Sam Neill, Oliver Platt, Hallie Kate Eisenberg and Steven Root. I am very surprised that a few of these names are not larger today because of this film, but perhaps one may argue they are as large as they are due to the film. I do not have a single complaint about the acting, in whole it was truly breathtaking.
One thing that I thought Bicentennial Man did a stunning job with was the prediction and creation of the future. I have blogged about a few movies that deal with the future, and some of those reviews were not very nice. The concept of invention on a timeline was realistic, the idea of clothing and new technology was not unbelievable and architecture was very conceivable.
What I was most impressed with about the entire package was the script. Every single thing was perfect. Small bits of humor mixed in at perfect intervals, surprising character developments and interactions developed throughout and the evolution and creation of the first ever human robot was impeccable. The family drama and development was believable. You also had your generic needs of a script such as this met in having love, and a few villainous characters.
I would suggest that if you are looking for a movie to immerse yourself into for a night, be amazed and awed, laugh and cry then you need to see Bicentennial Man. I am categorizing it as a 5 star must see if you haven't already (and if you have, but its been awhile see it again). As always please leave comments, click above to follow my blog and share to your favorite social networking site below. Ciao for now and see you for the next review
Wow, well let me start by saying there were only 3 things in the entire movie that I did not think were perfect. That is a lot to say for a movie that is over 2 hours long, and made 12 years ago. Wow again, 12 years?
When Robin Williams' character Andrew Martin gets a "skin" upgrade half way through the movie, I was not fully keen on the results. Nothing was changed on the inside, yet he no longer made the hydraulic noise and his posture became "human". Perhaps the fake skin could muffle the robot noises to an extent, but silence all but his eyelid noise I am not fully inclined to believe. Closer to the end of the film I also was not fully sure how his blood transfusion made his fake skin and hair age. How does fake skin and hair age, and how did they made a robot function on human blood?
The last remaining thing that was not absolutely perfect in the film goes with something that made the film. Music. The soundtrack for the film was absolutely incredible. Fun happy songs during appropriate segments, and heartfelt powerful full of emotion songs perfectly placed throughout. The part of the music I was not as happy with was the song choices in the film. For example when we first meet Galatea, she is listening to classic rock? This scene takes place in 2050 or 2060 perhaps, I was not happy with the choice. This had little effect on the background music however, which I must emphasize again I was completely impressed with.
I was also impressed with how young and handsome they made Robin look. I can honestly say I have not ever seen a movie and just thought he was handsome. There were a few times during Bicentennial Man that I was truly surprised by it however. Robin pulled off an amazing transition from full robot, to half robot human, and finally being full human when we see him at the end.
I was enamored by many of the cast's performance. Embeth Davidtz, Sam Neill, Oliver Platt, Hallie Kate Eisenberg and Steven Root. I am very surprised that a few of these names are not larger today because of this film, but perhaps one may argue they are as large as they are due to the film. I do not have a single complaint about the acting, in whole it was truly breathtaking.
One thing that I thought Bicentennial Man did a stunning job with was the prediction and creation of the future. I have blogged about a few movies that deal with the future, and some of those reviews were not very nice. The concept of invention on a timeline was realistic, the idea of clothing and new technology was not unbelievable and architecture was very conceivable.
What I was most impressed with about the entire package was the script. Every single thing was perfect. Small bits of humor mixed in at perfect intervals, surprising character developments and interactions developed throughout and the evolution and creation of the first ever human robot was impeccable. The family drama and development was believable. You also had your generic needs of a script such as this met in having love, and a few villainous characters.
I would suggest that if you are looking for a movie to immerse yourself into for a night, be amazed and awed, laugh and cry then you need to see Bicentennial Man. I am categorizing it as a 5 star must see if you haven't already (and if you have, but its been awhile see it again). As always please leave comments, click above to follow my blog and share to your favorite social networking site below. Ciao for now and see you for the next review
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Brothers (2009)
2009's Brothers is a film about a family dealing with the after effects of their husband and father who died in war. Brothers is one of those films that you hope nothing remotely similar will happen to anyone that you know. If it has, I have no idea what you are going through and neither does anyone else. What a powerful story. I am not sure if I felt worse for Sam or Grace while I was watching the film. I am giving Brothers a 3 star rating for a few reasons.
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