Month: August 2013

The first thing I thought of when I saw the cover for Brake was of course the movie Buried. Both movies feature basically only one person, trapped in a box unexpectedly, and want to get out.

You know. Because who wants to be in a box?

Buried, features Ryan Reynolds, under ground in a coffin, with a cellphone and a lighter.

Brake, features Stephen Dorff, in a plastic see through box, that moves, with a Ham radio like device, and lots of tubes. It’s kind of sexy when you think about it.

Especially if you think about it in this angle.

No, don’t leave yet. There is more plot outline to go over.

I mean, not a lot more. Dude is in a box. How much more could you possibly need to know.

Well, his CAREER is a pretty important one. Turns out he is a member of the secret service, and is in charge of keeping the President alive (duh). If there is ever an emergency, there are multiple secret bunkers throughout DC and the nearby areas to take the President and to keep him safe. It is not based on a pattern, it is random, and only two people know the exact location each day.

Jeremy (Dorff) happens to be one of those guys.

So when he finds himself awake in some strange car trunk, he realizes what is up. It is up to his wits to stay alive and stay cool, despite the torture and threats to his family, to save the big man in the White House.

All the elements, even urine! (That’s not urine).

One man, one movie. That is basically what happens in this film.

He talks with a lot of people, none of which he knows he can trust. So it becomes a mental game, and a physical game, because of course he is going to get tortured. Just look at those tubes.

Unfortunately, I liked Buried a lot more than this film. One problem occured at the start of the film. Despite being one man in a box, a LOT of stuff was going on, pretty quickly. Count downs and flashes of light, and voices. It was hard to tell what was going on in the first 10-15 minutes. I felt lost, much like Jeremy probably felt loss, but it is worse if the viewer starts to get a headache.

That wasn’t a good tone for the rest of the movie, which eventually did calm down, but it was too late.

The ending was terrible. Just terrible. Ugh. What a shit fest. It went from making a bit of sense, and making the movie okay. Then it just went back into “Wtf” territory, ending the movie with us having no real explanation. Just kind of stops. Well, it doesn’t stop good. Bad Brake, bad.

Not a lot of people know that The World’s End is actually the last movie in a trilogy. Yes, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are the first two films, all three of which are directed by Edgar Wright and star the same two people.

These three films make up the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, which I would explain more, but it is British and thus inherently confusing.

It’s beer! Hooray beer!

In the town of Newton Haven, there exists a challenge. There are twelve pubs, and those who attempt this “golden mile” must travel to each pub and drink an entire pint before the night is through. That is a lot of alcohol and few have ever made it. Gary King (Simon Pegg) and his four friends attempted it on the last day of high school to celebrate their accomplishment. Unfortunately, he only made it to nine pubs, and has regretted it for the the rest of his life.

Now, twenty some years later, Gary King is exactly the same as he was in high school. Due to his regret, and living apart from his friends, he has decided to get the band back together to try again. Sure, he might have to lie to get them all to come, but at least his heart is in the right place. Kind of. His friends Steven (Paddy Considine), Peter (Eddie Marsan), Oliver (Martin Freeman), and Andy (Nick Frost) are now all adults with families, lives, and responsibilities, so they are reluctant when they see he is still so childish.

Their pub crawl becomes even more difficult when there is so much unspoken drama between the group of friends. Thankfully, alcohol makes speaking your mind a bit easier. The group also find that Newton Haven is not the same quaint town they left decades ago. It has changed, and not just in the metaphorical sense. Most of the residents are some sort of alien robot hybrid now. But that isn’t the important issue. The important issue is getting Gary to stop living in the past and finally move on!

Rosamund Pike plays Oliver’s sister and Pierce Brosnan a former high school teacher and mentor to our heroes.

I’ve experienced emotions like this before. Once. Let’s just say, it didn’t end up with blue paint everywhere.

I guess I should start out by saying that I don’t think The World’s End is as good as the previous two films (and thus my rating!). Something seems inherently different. Maybe they were too aware of what they were doing at this point in the trilogy. Not sure, but something just feels missing.

Simon Pegg is playing a character unlike anything I have seen before from him. He was incredible in it. His character was so spastic, impulsive, and such a fast talker. Out of anything, I was most impressed with his acting in this film. Major props to Pegg.

It should go without saying that the chemistry between the group of actors was also high up there. A lot of these men have been working together and real life friends for so long, it is just completely natural.

The film itself was humorous but I don’t think it was “laugh out loud” funny for the most part. You know when a joke happens and you exhale a bit harder because of it to show your appreciation? Yeah, I did that a lot.

The story also seems to run away at times. By the end, I was just waiting for them to get to the last pub, so the film would find some sort of conclusion. I also found myself not caring about the alien/robot threat, which is a main point of the movie. The glowing eyes were kind of neat/scary but by the end they were totally uninteresting.

Fans of the other two films will most likely enjoy this new addition. Someone new to the series is unlikely to get some of the “in jokes” that run rampant throughout, however. Whether this film will be as successful as the other two in a few years is yet to be determined.

Woody Allen sure is an interesting man. He is now 77 years old (This is a 2013 review, for you future readers ten-twenty years from now), and still churning out interesting and diverse movies. I personally find it hard to watch some of his films, usually the overly romantic ones. I have rented You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger now twice, and you know, still haven’t seen it. Very apathetic.

So while the trailer for Blue Jasmine didn’t appeal to me right away, I went anyways, because it is easy to finally see something if you pay money and sit in a public room with others.

Ah, bliss. Being rich. Not love.

Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) has recently left her husband. Hal (Alec Baldwin) was a real estate tycoon in NYC, who was into some shady tactics. Eventually he got arrested, and so all of their wealth was frozen and taken by the government. Shady shit. Jasmine was left with nothing thanks to this, so she is moving to San Francisco to live with her sister and her kids.

Her Sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins) is also recently divorced. Her former husband Augie (Andrew Dice Clay) seems to be in a rough shape, with most of their money “stolen” by Hal and Jasmine, apparently. But Ginger says family is family, and even if Jasmine wasn’t really there for her at all throughout her wealth, she would be with her now. Ginger is now dating (Bobby Cannavale), who looks like a younger, funnier version of Hal. He wants to move in with her, but now Jasmine is there. Ugh.

Jasmine has a “plan”. She wants to go back to school to finish her degree, but she has no money. So she found out she can take interior decorator classes online, clearly her forte, but she also doesn’t know anything about computers. So she will have to take a class on that. Jeez. She also has to find some horribly job, possibly serving others, in order to help buy food, rent, and classes. Life is horrible.

Jasmine is in a rough time of her life, yet she also still feels above even the smallest of tasks. Will she be able to get back on her feet through hardwork and dedication, or will she get lucky again?

Also starring Louis CK and Peter Sarsgaard, but I don’t want to tell you who.

I bet Louis CK said yes to this role as soon as he found out Woody Allen was calling.

Cate Mother Fucking Blanchett. She is in a lot of things, and is often considered a great actress. This is by far the best performance I have ever seen her give. Really fantastic. This is (in August) the best performance by a lead actress I have seen all year, so right now I have to assume she is going to win an Oscar for her role. Seriously. Just seriously. Fucking fantastic. I can’t even describe how great she did at this role.

I am not sure what is psychologically wrong with her character. Maybe she is a sociopath before the divorce, but afterwards (/during it) she seems to have a nervous breakdown, which messes her up for most of the movie. Talking to herself, having an inability to relate to any other person or her own situation, it is just out of control. But Cate Blanchett owns that role.

I am also impressed with Andrew Dice Clay, who had to play a purely dramatic emotional role. I like that Bobby Cannavale is basically a younger looking Dice Clay, it says a lot about the sister character, without using any actual words.

Overall, this movie is incredibly depressing and at some points heart warming. But that is great, given its drama category. I was able to laugh occasionally, but those moments weren’t the main focus. The arguments between couples felt real, and it made it almost painful to watch. I also like that the story was broken back and forth from “now” and pre-marriage.

My biggest problem with this movie is that in the second half it feels very repetitive. Arguments and dialogue repeat themselves pretty often, despite the ever advancing story.

Outside of those gripes, this movie ended up being way better than I expected, and I find myself against surprised at what Woody Allen can do.

It took awhile, but You’re Next is finally in theaters. Originally premiering in a film festival in 2011, for some strange reason it took two years to hit theaters.

Maybe in 2011, the world wasn’t ready for a movie like this. Maybe we needed the Scary Movie franchise to officially drive itself into the ground before people were willing to accept a horror movie with comedic elements in it. Or they made dozens of changes and had legal issues to deal with. Who is to say, really?

Blood is the new make up.

Paul (Rob Moran) and Aubrey (Barbara Crampton) are about to celebrate their 35th Wedding Anniversary. They also just happen to be rich. Paul used to work for a defense contractor, so he left the company with a very snazzy severance package, and now they live in the lap of luxury. They decide to host their entire family to a nice dinner in a mansion in the middle of the nowhere. Because that is what rich people do.

Usually the 35th anniversary is coral/jade, not gore and violence. Oh well, the times they are a changing.

They also have four children, all in relationships. That just means there are plenty of people who can die. The main son is Crispian (AJ Bowen) with his girlfriend Erin (Sharni Vinson). He often butts heads with his younger brother Drake (Joe Swanberg) and Drake’s wife, Kelly (Margaret Laney). There is also the only sister, Aimee (Amy Seimetz) with her film making boyfriend Tariq (Ti West), and the youngest son Felix (Nicholas Tucci) with his girlfriend Zee (Wendy Glenn).

During dinner, an argument breaks out. Then suddenly, one of our poor house guests finds a crossbow bolt through their head. Ouchies.

Panic ensures, as bolts continue to rain into the dinner room. The family knows only one thing. People are outside (and maybe even inside) the house and looking to kill them. They don’t know why or who set it up. What the three masked killers did not know, is that Erin grew up on a survivalist reservation until she was 15, so she knows how to handle herself in emergency or life threatening situations.

Yep, looks like we have an blood bath on our hands.

Animal masks haven’t been cool since the 70’s. They’re bringing ’em back.

The weird thing about calling You’re Next a comedy/horror film is that it is not a parody or a spoof. I’d say that You’re Next is unique, and almost its own new genre of film.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of death, a lot of gore, and a lot of creative deaths. It is just that some of the deaths happen to be humorous. The banter between brothers is humorous. The inability for certain characters to die (and instead just get hurt over and over) is humorous.

If you have never heard the song Lookin’ for the Magic by the Dwight Twilley Band from 1977, then you will find it stuck in your head by the end of the film. Who says upbeat music can’t be in horror?

What I enjoyed most about this film is that I really couldn’t guess what would happen next, and believe me I tried. I would say I had a 30% success rate at actually predicting how certain characters would die, what the traps would do, and who was responsible for it all.

The movie itself isn’t too long and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It is doubtful you will recognize any of the cast members from other acting roles. The brother Drake was great, and our leading lady Erin was incredible. It is refreshing to see such a BAMF actress kick so much butt. I could be wrong, but I think only one character actually fell down while being chased, a normally overused horror staple.

You’re Next might not scare everyone, but I think it is a refreshing take on the genre, with high levels of slasher and gore thrown into the mix. Above all else, it is certainly entertaining.

I sometimes watch the worse movies. Today’s excuse was going to the rental store, finding out what came out on DVD that day, and picking the weirdest looking one. Shit, I used to watch /every/ new movie that came out on DVD, regardless of how low budget or weird, so I need to do it every so often to get back to my roots.

Well, this time I picked StreetDance. It looked like some bad cross between You Got Served and Step Up. That’s right, a cheap knock off of those two. You know its going to be ridiculous. Or cliche. But as a dance movie, it could secretly be the grail we are all looking or.

These are the bad guys. You know it, because they wear (and are?) black.

Oh yeah. This movie is totally British. Set and filmed in that UK.

A street dance crew, called Jay 2.0 (I believe) is attempting to become the best street dance crew in the UK. Seriously. It opens with their audition to the contest, or whatever. The Surge is a dance crew that has won the last few years, and they are the bad guys. Grr them.

Well, after their performance, they find out that Jay (Ukweli Roach), their leader and obvious name inspiration is going to quit dancing. He has too many responsibilities, and decided to quit right after they qualify. Da fuq? His girlfriend in the group is shocked, and then becomes the defacto leader. Unfortunately, Carly (Nichola Burley) also loses their rehearsal space, and has very little money, so they are basically screwed.

Well, Carly finds herself accidentally in a big ballet studio to inquire about renting space and the cost. Well, Helena (Charlotte Rampling) is worried about her students losing passion in their dance. They can ballet the shit out of some dance, but they don’t have that desire anymore. After watching the crew perform, she agrees to let them use the space for free, only if she will take on five of their dancers.

What?! Ballet and street dance? Can these two art forms interact? Can she teach them how the streets move? Can she incorporate their skillset to make their street dancing even more off the chain? Will she fall out of love with Jay, who is a liar, and fall in love with Tomas (Richard Winsor) the main ballet guy? Yes.

Can you guess if these people are street dancers or ballet dancers?

Fun fact about this movie. It was released theatrically in 2010 in the UK, and came out on DVD by 2011. But not in America. It didn’t come out to the US on DVD until Aug 20, 2013. THREE YEARS after it was released theatrically. I feel slighted by our old country parents.

As expected, a lot of this movie was pretty shitty. Cliches everywhere. They actually ended the movie on a freeze frame of two people raising their arms in the area together, in a moment of triumph. The plot is not unique. They had a food fight when the two groups weren’t friends yet, only so they could throw food for 3D purposes.

But something else happened. The dancing was fantastic. Some of these dance movies I get even more pissed off when I don’t think the dancing is cool enough. This dancing was great. The final dance where they figured out their dances and their knew style to give a unique performance was insanely sexy. It incorporated the street+ballet dance far better than Step Up.

In addition to the great dancing, I liked each and every song on the sound track. A lot of them were mixes with older and newer elements, perhaps creating the theme for the whole film. I enjoyed every song. Here was one of my favorites: Ironik – Tiny Dancer (Hold Me Closer).

Shit. A good soundtrack? Good dancing? Shitty plot and acting. Well. There ya go. Also, the main girl was one of the three chicks in Donkey Punch. I was very amused to find her name already tagged on my website (and shocked).

The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones is the next book series turned film franchise to attempt to sweep us off our feet and make that preteen money. Twilight let everyone know that supernatural teen romance/action books could be popular.

Of course, I have never read this series. It is currently up to five books, with a sixth one on the way. What I do realize is that this title is far too long. It really should just be called City of Bones. I try to save time by watching movies, I don’t want the title to be as long as book!

If you look closely, you might be able to see that she is actually a moose.

Thankfully, TMI:CoB is set in modern times, in New York City. Clary Fray (Lily Collins) is your average almost adult girl and she lives at home with her single mother (Lena Headey). She is getting pretty angsty, because it is near her birthday, and she is obsessively drawing strange symbols around her house.

Her best friend is Simon (Robert Sheehan), and for whatever reason she doesn’t understand that she is totally leading him on. They go out to a club and she witnesses a murder that no one else can see. Yep, she is going insane. Then she realizes the boy she saw, Jace (Jamie Campbell Bower) is following her. Creeper alert.

What she doesn’t realize is that she is going to discover a world, hidden in our own. A world of shadow hunters, demons, angels, witches, and more, and it is her destiny to help and try to save the day. Or at least just find her mom, who has been kidnapped.

Kevin Zegers and Jemima West play Jace’s adopted family, Godfrey Gao a warlock, CCH Pounder a witch, Jonathan Rhys Meyers the evil guy, Aidan Turner the good friend Luke, and Kevin Durand as a regular bad guy.

Here are the other main members of the cast, also in the same club. Yay dancing.

I think The Mortal Instruments would have worked better as a TV series, a la The Vampire Diaries, and not a full fledged movie franchise. Like it or not the sequel, City of Ashes, is due for a release late next year, so they are really hoping this series takes off. Not all franchises are destined for greatness however. The Golden Compass at least had the brains to wait to see if the first one could make any movie before announcing the sequels would happen.

Unfortunately for them, it looks like TMI:CoB is destined for failure.

A lot happens in this movie, which is good news since it has a 130 minute run time. Outside of the things I listed before we are also given werewolves and vampires! Roughly all fantasy elements seem to be in this hidden universe, which gives them plenty of time for more shenanigans and future plot lines. It is almost as if they were just throwing different elements at the screen, to see what would stick with the viewers.

Outside of that, the film had to explain a lot about this new world. Despite trying to go over the new terms, I can honestly say I left the theater perplexed. I was left trying to figure out what was happening over and over again throughout the film. At the same time it was also full of every teenage fantasy cliche, so I was able to predict the minor events, and not understand most of the major ones.

Here are some things I am left wondering (Potential spoilers):

• Why is the big bad guy so big and bad? In the film he really only kidnaps someone, but apparently he is way worse and way evil? I can’t tell what his end game was. Something about bloodlines.
• There is a “twist” about certain characters being siblings…maybe. I am not sure because that scene seemed to imply truth and lies.
• A character gets turned into a vampire during the movie, and then that fact gets ignored and/or forgotten about. The fuck?

There ending was a complete mess and they seemed to be making it up as they go. Characters die during it, mostly due to bad tactics. You froze a bunch of demons. Great! Now why do you just sit around until they unfreeze, then decide to try and kill them? Are you daft?

There was a big demon summoning beacon too, that for whatever reason had two separate off switches attached to it, against any sort of logic.

This movie is the type that will only make a lot of sense if you have already read the books. I have been told from my friends that this movie spoils the first three books of the series though. So watch out.

It is a real shame too, because this film could have been better. There was a lot of action and I never really felt bored. It just didn’t make any narrative sense and was an overcrowded mess.

Video on Demand is a wonderful service, for indie movies. In my area at least, we never get them early on, it will take many many weeks later, perhaps months. At that point, I might as well wait to watch it in the comforts of my very small apartment.

But video on demand lets them complete the indie circuit and let me still get to watch the movie relatively early in a movies theatrical release. I feel like a celebrity, watching a movie before it comes out.

Thankfully, Drinking Buddies, stacked with a pretty famous cast and an indie comedy, has chosen to VOD UP, and let me get my review on. Thanks guys!

Wow, they really do look like buddies!

Ugh. Chicago. Okay, I won’t judge the movie by the city. But still. Chicago.

Our heroes work at a craft beer company in Chicago! Hero is a strange term. Kate (Olivia Wilde) and Luke (Jake Johnson) are both high up the ladders, so they have extra time to have fun while on the job. Their boss (Jason Sudeikis) is fine with it all, as long as their work gets done.

But life is a playground when you work at a beer company! They’d be the perfect couple too, with all their flirting and shenanigans. Too bad they are both in long term committed relationships. Oh yes, what a bummer.

Luke is with Jill (Anna Kendrick), and they are even in marriage talks. Kate is with Chris (Ron Livingston) and he doesn’t get to hang out with Kate’s coworkers like ever. UNTIL NOW. That is, until they go to a cabin in the woods (not a horror movie) as two couples to experience nature and infidelity.

Whoops. That’s no good.

Say one of them breaks up with their significant other anyways. The chances are not high that the other one will break up too, and even lower that it will lead them to each other. Right? Right!?

Fuck. This movie title is so aptly named.

Most important thing to note about Drinking Buddies is that I did not laugh once. Not a single time. The characters laughed, quite often, but there was nothing ever inherantly funny about what they were saying to make me laugh too. It was just friends goofing off with each other, shooting the shit. Character laugh, doesn’t mean comedy. Shit, the term comedy doesn’t even really mean happy ending.

Drinking Buddies ends up being just another strange “comedy” drama indie movie, that tells part of a story, without a real conclusion, and a lot of very real situations. Just this one stars four relatively famous people. That is it.

Okay, sure, you can see Olivia Wilde’s boobs in this one, but only briefly, and that is just because sometimes you just NEED to go skinny dipping. But that isn’t a good reason to watch a movie, is it?

Sure, things happen in this movie, but it doesn’t feel like a lot when it is over. The acting is okay, but the story itself just doesn’t seem like one that needs to be told.

I should have seen Insidious two years ago when I worked at Blockbuster. I have never been great at the horror genre, so back then I didn’t watch them. However, there was a huge lull of no horror movies coming out, so when they would ask for new good horror, I basically had to recommend Insidious for two months.

That’s right. I was recommending a movie without seeing it. For shame. Which is why I had to watch it now to redeem myself, but also because of the sequel coming out in a few weeks, shockingly named, Insidious: Chapter 2.

I don’t even know man. I don’t even know.

The Lambert family has recently moved into a new home, as is the usual for a haunted house movie.

Josh (Patrick Wilson) is a teacher, and Renai (Rose Byrne) is…not a teacher. I guess she is a house wife. They have three boys, and one of them, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), likes to pretend his a super hero who can fly. Silly Dalton. I know him as that annoying kid added to Iron Man 3 because Disney.

Well, he plays in the attic, falls, hits his head, and goes into a coma. A coma that no one can really explain either. Oh well.

Three months later, shit is rough. No sign of Dalton awakening, and their marriage is getting rough. Josh spends more and more time at work, and his wife is freaking out at home. She is starting to see people where there are none. Hear voices over the baby monitor. Shit like that. Her mom is freaking out too. They think they are haunted.

So they get Elise (Lin Shaye) a family friend to investigate the house, since she works with the paranormal. Elise and her lackies (Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson). They agree. Shit is fucked up in this house.

But that isn’t the worse part. The eerie behavior might not even be attached to the house at all. It might be attached to several family members.

Oh a nice image of a bed room that is p- OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT THING OVER THERE?

The first half of Insidious is your standard haunted house movie. Things go bump in the night, demons and spirits appear, noises abound, and people freak out.

Then it gets a bit weird.

Like. A lot. Really really really weird.

So weird I didn’t want to expand upon it in the plot outline. It is just incredibly different, which is a good thing. They are starting to think outside of the box and try new things. So it gets all sort of looney and I like that.

What I thought was weaker was the scares. I think this movie was applauded for the lack of jump scares in it, but at the same time, they use loud crashes and piano cords several times, which are just jump scares in noise form. It does benefit from being scary without a big loss of life, or blood, or gore.

I also feel as if the acting was a bit poor from our lead two actors. I haven’t seen Rose in much, but I have seen Patrick in a lot, and I know he could do better. The ending is also a bit strange, but given that we know there is a sequel, I guess it will continue right from where we left off.

Maybe.

TL;DR – Weird unique horror movie. Okayish.

The full title of this movie, for legal reasons, is Lee Daniels’ The Butler, but eh, technicalities.

This film is supposed to be a biographical film of Eugene Allen, a butler who served in The White House for 34 years until he retired in 1984.

I’d say your best possible experience with this movie would be treating it like your average fictional film, set through a back drop of history, almost like Forrest Gump.

I hope you came here to see pictures of butlers.

Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) came from very humble beginnings in the 1920s. He was living with his family on a cotton plantation in horrible conditions. After his father gets shot and his mother goes a bit insane, he is trained to work in the house, to serve and to serve properly. Eventually he leaves the plantation, gets a job at a hotel, gets discovered, and finds himself as a butler at The White House.

Yeah, butlering at The White House is probably the sweetest gig out there. Unless you mess up, you have job security for 30-40 years.

While at The White House, Cecil finds himself interacting with decades of presidents. He is there for Dwight D. Eisenhower (Robin Williams, his second time as President), John F. Kennedy (James Marsden) and his wife Jacqueline (Minka Kelly), Lyndon B. Johnson (Liev Schreiber), Richard Nixon (John Cusack), and Ronald Reagan (Alan Rickman) with his wife Nancy (Jane Fonda). For you patriots out there, yes, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter just get kind of skipped.

During these years, Cecil also has to deal with his family life. His wife (Oprah Winfrey) has bouts of alcoholism, and depression due to her husbands long hours at work. Their youngest child, Charles (Elijah Kelley) eventually decides to join the army for the Vietnam War. Their other son, Louis (David Oyelowo) is able to graduate high school and go down to college in Tennessee. There, he meets other “radicals” who want equal rights. He begins to participate in sit ins, protests, becomes a Freedom Rider, a marcher on Washington DC, and a follower of Martin Luther King Jr. (Nelsan Ellis). Basically, he is there for all of the major civil rights events. Well, the ones that don’t involve sitting in the back of the bus.

Most of the movie involves splicing the civil rights movements through the eyes of the son, with the servitude of Cecil at the White House during these nation changing events.

In case you wanted more star power, fellow butlers are played by Cuba Gooding Jr. and Lenny Kravitz, while Terrence Howard plays his wise crackin’, woman lovin’ neighbor.

I tried to find a picture of each actor as a president. This will do.

Like everything in Hollywood, most of the movie is fictionalized away from the source. Like, Louis, the civil rights activist. He never existed. They only had one son, Charles (who actually did go to the Vietnam War!). So, half the movie right away is fictional. Sure, the events all happened, just the make believe son wasn’t a part of them.

While the butler in question did exist, he also probably didn’t have the small conversations about civil rights with the various Presidents, but they make the film a lot more interesting.

Despite it’s inaccuracies, The Butler is incredible. Over two hours long, it spanned decades of American history and put it in such a powerful context, that it is hard to not feel emotional over it.

All of it is very dramatic and very sad at times, but as you learn by the end of the film, the journey is totally worth it.

The acting is phenomenal on all parts. I am willing to bet Whitaker gets nominated for Best Actor in this film, and Oprah potentially Best Supporting Actress. The line up of presidents was hilarious in its own right. All of these big name actors getting to play a US president, but only for a small part in a movie. Heck, they had a British actor playing Reagan, even better!

I think The Butler is going to be one of the few stand out movies of the year when it comes for Best Picture consideration. Its treatment of racism in the United States is spot on and informative. I am most excited for Forest Whitaker though, who has been in some less than great roles recently. Hopefully this gets him back on the right path again, like when he did The Last King Of Scotland.

I didn’t know a lot about Paranoia before viewing it. Outside of the trailer, it didn’t have any advertising from what I could tell.

But it did have two great actors in head roles, so there is some amount of hope that it is surprisingly decent.

Hey. That guy looks like a thinner, less strong, less manly, Thor. How weird.

The story centers on Adam (Liam Hemsworth), who works for a big phone company lead by Nicolas Wyatt (Gary Oldman). Adam is leading a small team to help develop a tool for their new phone model, but Wyatt ignores him, causing Adam to lose his temper. Needless to say, Wyatt does not choose their project and fires the whole team.

Adam, despite being in debt with his sick dad (Richard Dreyfuss), decides to use the company expense card to live it up with his former coworkers in a moment of mutiny.

Well, now Wyatt has him on credit fraud. Adam doesn’t want to go to prison, so he will do anything Wyatt asks of him. Even if it means stealing.

Wyatt and his associate Judith (Embeth Davidtz) hook Adam up with a fancy new wardrobe, apartment, and personality, so he can get a job as an executive for Jock Goddard (Harrison Ford), who happens to run the biggest phone company. They are working on a sleek new phone that is said to revolutionize the world, and Wyatt wants a prototype. If he succeeds, he will get his friends (mostly Lucas Till) their jobs back, have money for his dad, and will have job security for the rest of his life.

We also have Amber Heard as a marketing direct and main love interest forAdam, Julian McMahon as a lackie of Wyatt, and Josh Holloway as an FBI detective.

These two are juggernauts in the acting world. I have now used ‘juggernaut’ in a review.

If you watch the trailer, you really don’t have to see the movie. They tell you the entire main plot while also spoiling the main twists as well! Seriously, something is given away in the trailer that doesn’t happen until the final twenty minutes, a major plot point.

Unfortunately, the plot itself is predictable (even without the trailer). Having a predictable plot is bad if you are trying to make a crime/thriller. The acting is also not really anything special. The side plot with the friends who lost their job is nothing more than cringe worthy and a distraction.

But the so-so acting and bad plot are not the worse parts. The worse part comes from the tiny details they did not care about.

These two men are the heads of the two biggest mobile phone makers in the world/country. They have their own unique names and everything. Yet they and their heads of staff are using iPhones. I might have seen a Galaxy S3 in there as well. That is just pure laziness. I wouldn’t have noticed if they didn’t constantly show the phones up close.

It almost seems like they are taunting the viewer. They are taunting us by showing how little they cared about the final product of this movie and it showed.