Category: Uncategorized

Twilight

Hooray Hooray Hooray! This is the 150th movie review on the site. This seems like a special occasion (more special than 100th Review) so I will include way too many pictures as a way of celebrating.

Twilight is a “vampire” themed Romance Drama thing (some people may call it a “Chick Flick” even) based off some book of the same name. So anything that the book tells me that the movie does not tell me I don’t know. Like I don’t know if Kristen Stewart is actually supposed to be so freakishly pale (which characters in the movie allude too. So probably).

stewart
If you glare long enough, you might be able to make out her face.

Cedric Diggory plays the main vampire role, and is super gross. Dude almost threw up when he first saw Bella. Not to mention his foster brothers/sisters, also all creepy and dating each other. Leaves him all alone. Girls want him, like Anna Kendrick, but he is too cool for them. They aren’t pale enough.

Asian Diggery
He also likes those Asian types.

Anyways, despite Cedric telling Bella that he is super predatoring her, and that she can’t help but fall under his charm, she still thinks she loves him. That is ridiculous.

Bella Edward
“You are under an aura spell so I can kill you. But I wont.” “Fuck that, this is LOVE!”

After the long drawn out opening, after they all of the sudden love each other, the rest of the movie feels like it is just him slowly explaining to her what being a vampire in this world is like. They pick some place Oregon cause it is dreary as fuck, cloudy and rainy, so not much direct sunlight to make them shine. Also, I think about 4/5 of this movie takes place in the woods. They always run out to the damn woods. It got pretty annoying, cause the woods are cloudy/dreary too. No pretty scenery is in this movie at all.

woods
Also, for some reason the clouds/fog make sexy shapes.

The ending felt super rushed. But before that. BASEBALL? WHAT? That was one of the strangest scenes ever in a movie. “Hey its thunderstorming so we can play baseball, if we time our swings with the thunder booms and do ridiculous super human strength stuff”. No one seemed to ever miss, making pitching stupid. Also I don’t think anyone scored a point.

BASEBALL?!!
WHAT? Baseball?!

After baseball, the ending began. Everything was super rushed. I just said that. All of the sudden, snarly mcsnarl vampire loner wanted to get Bella, and she had to run, because he wouldn’t stop. So they drive to Phoenix. And then confront him. Weird fight later. Bella almost dies. Cedric saves her. Go to prom. Dance. The end.

Twilight Prom
Yay prom.

NO ITS NOT REALLY THE END. Some random girl spied on them dancing? Also, I have no idea why Cedric hated Taylor Lautner so much. Maybe its because he isn’t really an Indian? Lautner seemed to hate him back though. They never explain why in this movie, which is just silly. What is there more movies coming? It probably has to do with his hair.

Jacob
No wonder “Team Jacob” chants didn’t start with this movie.

Overall the movie was as cheesy as I thought it would be. I don’t see how anyone could “fall” for the Cedric Diggory character. Kristen Stewart was annoying as a longer. Whats up Anna Kendrick. Taylor Lautner creeped me out. Then more drawn out parts. Yeah.

1 out of 4.

Tropic Thunder

I have been getting some flack for only giving 4 out of 4s to mostly just drama movies and some action ones. People demanded a review of a 4/4 Comedy, so with that, I brought back one of my favorite in the last few years, Tropic Thunder.

By now most people are aware of this movie. It has a group of guys, all famous actors / celebrities (except for Jay Baruchel) making the Vietnam War movie based on a real book. In it is Comedian Jack Black(Jeff Portnoy), Action star Ben Stiller(Tugg Speedman), and Serious Dramatic Robert Downey Jr.(Kirk Lazarus). Also, Rapper Brandon T. Jackson (Alpa Chino).

This group of ragtag people are making the director, Steve Coogan, angry with their drama. So with the help of Nick Nolte (book writer) and Danny McBride (bomb expert), they place the actors in the jungle with cameras hidden around. They plan on scaring them into acting better, by only giving them safety if they finish the movie, going for very gritty guerrilla style takes. Unfortunately, there is real threats in the jungle, so the actors have to try to both survive and think they are doing a movie.

Lead Farmer
“I’M A LEAD FARMER MOTHER FUCKER!

What makes this movie really great is pretty much all of it. It is a very quotable movie, I can still do several scenes and I haven’t seen it in awhile. RDJ does one of my favorite performances ever, as blackface general who never breaks character. It is just so believable, his drive. The Stiller character is very annoying, but thankfully, that is what they were going for. I thought Matthew McConaughey just played an overexaggerated version of himself, and that the Tom Cruise cameo represents exactly what I want from Tom Cruise. Always.

Seriously. It is funny. Has enough WTF humor in it (Retards, endangered species death, etc). Just overall great movie. The fake previews at the start helped set the mood. Instead of just a war parody, it becomes a satire on the film industry as a whole.

BIG ASS TITTIED
“BIG ASS TITTIES!”

4 out of 4.

The Switch

The Switch? A movie called The Switch staring Jason Bateman? That just sounds like The Change-Up, based only on titles. But apparently this is a RomCom with Jennifer Aniston, not a Comedy with Ryan Reynolds. And definitely not a romantic comedy with Ryan Reynolds!

Change UPPP
“Boop.”

In this story, Bateman and Aniston are friends. Aniston wants to get a sperm donor (definitely not Bateman) and be a single mom, instead of waiting for Mr. Right. She decides on Patrick Wilson, because he is the epitome of a male human being. He is married, but they need the cash. Well, at the donor party, Bateman gets trashed drunk switches the semen with his own (The Switch is a better movie title than Semen Switch…maybe) and only tells fucking Jeff Goldbloom.

Many years later, he realizes that the kid is his own, because the kid is nerdy, hypochondriac, and hates sports. The opposite of Patrick Wilson. Plus he got lice once!

Watchmen Nite Owl
“No kid of mine has lice or hates sports!”

So the movie is mostly just Bateman trying to connect with his donor kid, and figure out a way to tell Aniston without you know, sounding like a complete asshole.

The chemistry between Aniston and Bateman is really well done. Goldbloom does a good job of acting like a boss who always seems to be drunk (in my mind). And Patrick Wilson does a good job of freaking out about the nerdy kid and having a midlife crisis. But it is only somewhat comedic, and entirely predictable. So overall just okay.

2 out of 4.

The Joneses

The Joneses, if not being a title hard to say, is a look of post apocalyptic life in the suburbs.

Or at least that is what I assume. I expect the apocalypse to be a rather tame event.

The Joneses are a new family that move to a upper rich suburban neighborhood. But not only that, they are pretty darn cool. They have the latest gadgets and gizmos, cars and purses, technology and style. Steve Jones, the dad lead by David Duchovny is making so many new friends. But is something not the way it should be?!

Californication
Besides Duchovny not banging everything in site?

It turns out that everything is a lie. In a pseudo Stepford Wives / Truman Show manner, they are merely salesmen and women pretending to be a happy family in order to sell product. They work for a bigger company that just works on ad sales, so when they have new awesome things and get other people to buy them, they earn more money for the company. Demi Moore, the wife, is actually the head of the unit and Duchovny is just a new guy. Their children are played by (I can say that in both ways) Amber Heard and Ben Hollingsworth.

So yes, the whole point of the movie is more or less about exploiting the rich with a more subliminal advertising method. But it is definitely better than that. Duchovny isn’t as adapted to the acting/tricking lifestyle, so he develops real relationships with people, like his “Wife” and Gary Cole, his neighbor.

Office Space
Who recently made it big selling suspenders after his office burned down.

The ending unfortunately is way too preachy, and you can already tell where it is going. Not necessarily the events, but what the preachiness is about. It felt super forced. It had a happier ending, I guess. But definitely didn’t like it yelling at me in the process.

3 out of 4.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

Wow. If there is anything to say about this movie, it is that Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is definitely a refreshingly original movie, that I had no idea what to expect.

The movie takes place in way north Finland, the Lapland area. A small village is preparing to herd a whole mess of Reindeer into gates, so they can sell the meat and fur around the world. At the same time, an American man is leading an expedition on the nearby mountain, digging for something. That something?

Santa.

Santa?
“Why the fuck would I be buried? Don’t you see me in this field with these kids? Alone? Hmmm…”

Santa?! Yes. Two local boys spy on them and find out that this mountain may actually be Santa’s grave? Unfortunately, the main boy does more research and the Santa is actually nothing like the “Coca Cola Santa,” but actually a much more sinister being. Instead of rewarding good kids, he instead punished the bad ones and stole them away at night to eat them. Oh shi-.

But really. Finnish Santa lore had the Santa stealing the bad kids. He may give good ones presents. But at least one person around Christmas would dress up as Santa (complete with Fur and Horns, mind you) and scare the bad kids. Apparently parents would reward Santa with Alcohol too, which just means the last kids house, if he was bad, would probably suck.

Anyways. The day before Christmas, the main kid discovers that all the other children in the town are missing! The the reindeer herd only consisted of about two Reindeer, as the other 100 or so were found slaughtered.

I will stop describing the plot now, for sake of giving it away. But lets just say, this is a crazy interesting movie. There is a lot more naked man penises than I thought, and a scene similar to the Eurotrip beach scene almost. These are actually based off of two shorts (by the same Director), Rare Exports Inc and Rare Exports: The Official Safety Instructions. Both are complete on youtube. Yes, most of the movie is also in Finnish, so you will have to read subtitled.

Parts of the ending may have felt anti-climatic, but I will blame that on budget. I actually understood the ending even better thanks to watching the youtube videos after. If you watch them before, most of it is spoiled. But hey, you probably aren’t going to see this movie anyways. The name is obviously dumb, but it makes sense in a way. This movie also has zero female characters. Similarly, it is a very creepy overall movie, and it is a dark comedy at best. If you watch it before your friends, you may get cult classic movie points later in life.

Creepy Santa
Yep. Finnish “Santa” is way more creepier than “Coca Cola Santa.”

3 out of 4.

.

Winnie The Pooh

People are just going to see this review and think of me as a mean old curmudgeon.

Curmudgeon
Assuming you don’t already assume that.

But I was very disappointed with the new Winnie The Pooh movie.

Blah blah blah, kids will love it, super G, whatever. I hope no kids are reading this website anyways. Just in case they are, there is some bad fucking language in some of the reviews, so they should probably stay away from those.

My problems are as such. First, not counting the credits, this movie is pretty much exactly 60 minutes long. Why a person would rather watch this than a much more interesting hour long show on HBO or Showtime, I wouldn’t know. But just in terms of length (and content) it really just felt like a long episode of a TV show. Not a movie.

The animation itself also felt like it was identical to the original older movies/shows. I know why they did that, the same way they made this movie. To prey entirely on nostalgia for older people, and to introduce it to younger people to try and get more money. If nostalgia is the only reason you would like something new, or being very young, that cannot be a good enough reason for it to be good. I read a few other reviews of this, and most of them mention the nostalgic feeling.

Finally, this doesn’t really offer anything new. This is still based off of the original book series by A. A. Milne. In fact, some of the plots are stories that have already been done in movies (such as the Search For Christopher Robin).

I did enjoy the song about the Bakson, but that was because the animation was done in a creative way. John Cleese did an excellent job as narrator too. While there was some interesting moments in terms of interactions with the book pages and the characters, most of the humor comes from the normal lack of understanding on the part of Pooh.

In conclusion, if a well established series is going to release a movie after a period of downtime, it should a) Have something improved upon the earlier series, such as graphics (not saying boom boom 3D, but there is better 2D animation capabilities), b) Not just rehash all the earlier plots, and c) Be of “movie” quality, not just a longer cartoon tv show.

Tigger
Tigger, please.

1 out of 4.

Faces In The Crowd

I guess the first and most obvious thing to note about this movie is it is called Faces in the Crowd, not to be confused with A Face in the Crowd.

This movie, which IMDB calls a Horror-Thriller despite being more of a Thriller-Drama (unnecessary semantics are unnecessary), stars Milla Jovovich and many other people who I haven’t really seen before. Thankfully, who they are is not an important aspect of this movie.

Milla is just a kindergarten or something teacher, having a corporate boy friend, going to the clubs with her friends, living free. But she accidentally witnesses another girl getting stabbed and murdered (and then raped). Talk about a way to ruin your night!

Flynn gross
“Alright, murdered then raped? Sorry. That is too much for me.”

Turns out that is what some local serial killer has been doing. She runs, he attacks, she falls off a bridge and hits her head. Wake up later, FREAK OUT! Apparently she comes down with something called Prosopagnosia, or face blindness? Sounds completely made up in the movie. She has trouble recognizing faces. I assume the movie went for the most extreme way of her having this condition. In her class room, all the girls look alike, as do all the boys. When she loses site of a persons face, like looking away and looking back, it looks different to her. A lot of faces just keep changing, including her own.

At first it is hard to notice. Overall, it is just super annoying for the viewers. So, the movie is mostly her being paranoid that the killer will come after her still, in case she does remember how to recognize him. The ending is reminiscent of the classic clone fight scenario. You know. When two people are identical and fighting, and you have to shoot one of them. But you may mess up!

Seriously. This isn’t spoilers. The movie has jerk boyfriends/friends, and a lot of Milla freaking out. I never really care about any other character in the movie. Just wanted the stupid concept movie to be over.

Progeria? Ew
Now Progeria is a P based disease I would love a thriller movie about.

1 out of 4.

Cracks

Originally I didn’t see Cracks as a movie that was coming out soon, and would have never even noticed it. But because Marry Me turned out to be a fake movie (a lifetime mini-series? fuck that), I had an open spot and stumbled upon this one!

Marry Me
Three fiances, Lucy Liu? I am calling whore on this.

Anyways, this is an independent “foreign” film, British, and based off of a book of the same name. I’d link you to the wiki, wiki has neither the book or author as a page. Hmmm. Seems not too popular.

It tells of an all girls boarding school, presumably high school level. Or I hope at least. I know what you’re thinking: All girl boarding school? Sounds like Lesbian central. Well, yeah. Felt like it to me at least. Even had an awkward (because they are supposed to be high school girls (I think)) scene where the big group went skinny dipping. Not actually, but portrayed as young titties anyone? The group of girls is a HS dive team, taught by the cool younger hip teacher. But a girl from Spain transfers over, far from her family, and is an excellent diver.

Kind of excellent at everything. Makes the other girls hate her. Jealousy! She gets attention! She is better than them! She should be punished!

The bad part of this movie is that the beginning is too slow. Sure, things happen, most of which are important, but they are at a slow more natural pace. Roughly 70 minutes in, out of 100, is where the real crazy shit happens. That last half hour is very much a series of OH SHIT moments, none of which I will tell you about. You might be able to guess everything that happens, from the earlier clues, but man is it intense.

The teacher is played by Eva Green who has done some things. Most recently she is Morgan in the new Camelot series.

So overall, great ending! Beginning far too slow. Good. Interesting. But still kind of slow. The British must think that Lesbian schools take awhile to get used to.

Lesbians
Yep. Lesbians. All of them.

3 out of 4.

Father of Invention

Father of Invention? This just sounds like the modern version of Leonardo D’whatshisface. Not the actor one, the inventor guy.

The title comes from the fact that he is a father, and “invents” things himself. By inventor, he actually means fabricator. Not a liar, but someone who comes up with ideas and puts them together using different pieces. Kevin Spacey plays the (better title) Father of the Infomercial, and makes millions. His products are just two other products put together, such as the nightlight + dehumidifier and the pepper spray + camera.

But unfortunately his ab clicker (a remote control and ab workout thing at the same time) broke a lot of fingers, and for some legal reason, put in jail as a felon for 8 years. He got out early on good behavior, not on good looks.

Kevin Spacey Hobo
Not only should he never have shaved/cut the ponytail off in the movie, but I demand that all his future movies include this look.

Trying to get his life back on track, he has to work at a Family Mart under Johnny Knoxville, while his ex-wife is living with park ranger Craig Robinson, and his daughter (Camilla Belle) is now living with two other women in a poor part of town. One of her roommates being Heather Graham, the rock band loving lesbian.

Camilla was also in From Prada To Nada, a horrid film, and was unknown ish to me then. But now that she has at least two movies that I know where she is a lead character, I have to acknowledge her.

Story of course is of how his relationship with his daughter is ruined, and him trying to make the next big fabrication, which is a watch with games/videos/music on it that is cool to wear, while also employing the child tracking GPS technology for parents. John Stamos plays a very small role as his CEO replacement, so don’t watch it for him. You will have to find some other show out there.

Uncle Jesse
I have no idea what show this picture is for.

The ending outcome is pretty predictable. The movie probably uses the word ‘Tits’ more than you thought it would. Spacey is of course awesome, but Knoxville just came off as really annoying. Could be just the character, but could be the actor. Just didn’t find him annoying in the good way. Characters are mostly believable, just not the redonk products that he movie makes up.

2 out of 4.

A Little Help

A Little Help stars Jenna Fischer, our favorite secretary from The Office, in what may be her first lead role in a movie ever. I assume all her other roles were of the supporting variety.

Kanyes
Jenna Fischer is to Films as Entourages are to Rappers, normally.

In the story, all Jenna wants is a little help. She is in a rough marriage, and raising an 12 or so year old son. The son is an ass. The first scene with him makes you go confused. He sounds smart, but it is really just talking older than he should, in a bad way. Her husband dies very early in the movie, and her sister forces her to see a lawyer about malpractice. She has to tell a little lie in order to make the law suit work, despite not wanting to. Similarly, she agrees to let her son tell a little lie in order to help him fit in at his new school.

I think the moral is, little lies can lead to big lies. Don’t lie!

Overall the movie is just her trying to have her son love her, and you know, fight less. Fight less with her son, her other family members, her neighbor, etc. So you will just be watching a series of small, bad decisions. Some parts are funny, but overall I found the ending pretty sad (if not unfinished). One intense scene in particular involved a nice yelling match with her son, she really pulled off the crazy factor.

Chris O’Donnell played the husband, for only a short bit though. The only other actor I recognized, and that is even with trying to forget his other big famous role.

Batman Robin
I could be more subtle, but why?

I pretty much am not saying anything in this review I feel like. So, some parts are decent, some are okay, lot of awkwardness with the yelling and lying, disappointing ending.

2 out of 4.