the dilemma

this wasnt quite what i expected!  knowing the two guys invloved, vince vaughn and kevin james, i was expecting this to be a pretty silly comedy.  turns out, its a pretty dark character driven story about fidelity and friendship.  the premise follows two friends as they work together.  as one is planning on proposing to his girlfriend, he discovers that the other friend's wife has been cheating on him.  this can go a few different ways, but what surprised me was the fact that they didnt go for the more comedic route, but rather wrestled with the darker truth of marriage and how some marriages arent perfect.  this felt like new territory for a movie, especially a comedy staring vaughn and james!  though i was impressed with the handling of the subject matter, i was still frustrated by how it played out.  at times these two characters acted like real people living in a challenging world filled with shades of grey, but other times they acted like really stupid characters who would make terrible choices just to keep the struggles going.  for example, vaughn's character really struggles with what he should do, should he tell his friend about what is going on, even if it hurts their friendship and their work?  his responses at times are thoughtful and organic- like someone who would actually struggle with this choice in real life.  but then other times he acts in a way that is not even remotely logical, and in fact goes against everything we know about the character!  are we really supposed to believe that he would be so emphatic about being honest with his friend while telling lie after lie after lie to his girlfriend?  especially when it would be 1000 times easier to just tell her the truth?  there is no reason for this story to have so many difficult problems, other than that it helps the story.  not based on what would actually happen, but rather the characters act in a way that keeps the 'kooky high jinx' going for a little while longer.  too bad, there are really moments in this movie of greatness, but it too often gets caught in its own formulaic nonsense.

mr. poppers penguins

yup, its just as bad as you think it is.  the work obsessed dad neglects his kids and is trying to land an important deal that will allow him to be really successful at his work.  everything is going his way right up until he receives six penguins as an inheritance from his recently deceased absentee father.  these pesky penguins ruin everything!  his important deal with a client suffers, but his son and daughter suddenly like their dad again so he keeps the penguins as a way to connect.  many hilarious penguin related high jinx ensue.  dad finds his heart and realizes how important family is and even lands that important client and closes that great deal.  oh, and he gets back together with his ex wife, because that's what every child from a divorced home wants, so lets make sure we gloss over that and do a little fantasy fulfillment while we are at it.  this is cheap sentimental entertainment at its worst!  none of the character developments are earned or in any way represent reality, but it feels good, so we are expected to go with it!  the bad guy in the film is an animal care person from the zoo, you know, someone who actually knows whats best for the penguins and has the best interests of the animals in mind instead of using them to fix the family that popper selfishly broke in the first place.  tacked on ending aside, these birds would have been much better off if the zoo worker had won!  always a great lesson for the kids to learn, that the mature responsible person is evil, and the careless selfish person is the hero, right?  mr. carrey, you can do much better than this.

rising sun

based on the novel by michael crichton, this movie follows the investigation of a death that may be linked to a very important japanese business deal.  snipes' police detective is called in to deal with the situation and he has to work with a japanese liaison played by sean connery.  they have to figure out how and why a woman was killed in the boardroom the same night as, one floor above, and important business party that plays heavy on weather or not this japanese deal will go through.  we follow  the pair as they try to get down to the truth of what happened, following false leads, discovering new clues, and all the challenges along the way.  this is an older film, and it certainly is now showing its age.  a lot of the plot hinges on different technological advances, which today is taken for granted, is marveled at by the people in the movie.  what?  digital video can be manipulated?!?  no way!  what was cutting edge at the time, today is considered elementary.  there are still enough twists and turns to throw us off the final reveal, but even with the unexpected conclusion, the whole thing feels pretty standard.  i'm sure this was an interesting movie back before there were 5 cop shows on tv every night of the week, but today it fills a bit flat.
oh, and on a side note, how funny is it that sean connery never changes who he is no matter what the role calls for?  in this one he is supposedly one of the most learned men when it comes to japanese culture and understanding the mindset of business, but still he acts and sounds the same as he did in every other movie he has ever made!  now thats a movie star!

fast five

i've never been a huge fan of the 'fast and furious' movies, in fact i have only seen the first two, and those only because i have friends who are in to cars.  this one though, has the rock in it, and he's always cool!  not having seen the last two, i may have been a bit behind as far as it goes with story, but this film does a pretty good job of filling me in with what has been going on since last i saw (though i have no idea why paul walker is a bad guy now.  wasnt he a cop in the first two?), reviewing the relationships between the characters as well as the death of another.  the story follows the gang as they try to take money from a crooked bad guy in rio.  the story isnt fleshed out much, but this is a car movie, so the plot really isnt the point, is it?  the key here is the action- and there is a ton of it!  we see cars racing, cars jumping, cars turning, cars crashing, cars doing just about anything they could think of that would be both fast and furious.  though i would not really consider myself a big car guy, i must admit i rather liked this film!  perhaps it was the 'oceans eleven' sense of getting together all the greatest characters from previous entries in order to do a big heist, or maybe it was the tight editing and absurdly illogical action, or maybe it was just the fact that the rock is awesome.  i dont know exactly why, but this movie was a ton of fun to watch!  it was kind of funny to see two big muscly bald guys fight it out in the same movie, with the rock and vin diesel being basically the same thing.  good thinking having the rock grow a goatee for this one, otherwise there would be no way to tell them apart!  i must say, if the third or fourth one are nearly as fun as this one, maybe i should go back and check them out.

something borrowed

first of all, you know you are in for a terrible movie whenever it has kate hudson in the cast, right?  well, the wife wanted to watch it and i got suckered into it.  at least the rest of the cast is pretty likable- its got ginnifer goodwin (from 'once upon a time'), john krasinski (from 'the office'), and steve howey (who i loved from 'reba').  though it has the huge strike against it of having kate hudson in it, it kind of worked because she is supposed to be someone you dont like.  well then, perfect casting!  the story follows two friends who fall for the same guy, the problem is that one of the friends keeps quite about it for six years while the other dates him and is now about to marry him.  well, wouldnt you know it, its time for the silent girl to finally speak up!  the whole thing is pretty predictable, but i do give it credit for having an ending that is somewhat realistic when it comes to the aftermath of the climax.  one of my big problems with it, though, is the casting.  sure, its filled with some pretty good actors, but for some reason the decide to have krasinski as the best friend, not as the romantic lead.  what?  they had two actors that are a ton of fun to watch every time they are on screen: krasinki as the best friend, and howey as the ex.  what a waste!  instead they fill that role with a charisma-free random guy who kinda looks like jared leto.  okay...  as an audience member i kept wondering why these two girls care about the boring guy when they have two other guys who are infinitely more interesting and funny!  ugh.

his way

this film is a documentary about the hollywood legend jerry weintraub.  'who is that?' you might ask, well thats a good question.  i didnt know who it was either until i saw this movie!  it seems that he is a very highly regarded hollywood mogal, meaning that he was someone who worked behind the scenes making things happen.  the film go back to his early life when he was a boy and first learned to get things done by taking after his salesman father.  from there it talks about his role in managing a tour for elvis and finding great success, working with frank sinatra and a bunch of others to great success, and eventually setting his sights on movie making.  he would sweet talk his way to millions, creating his own quarter billion dollar empire.  though there were some rises and falls along the way, the film creates a loving portrait into the life and mindset of this entertainment icon.  i learned a lot about him and really enjoyed to interesting story and the great anecdotes about what life was like for him through the years.

let me in

a simple story of childhood friendship.  this film tells the story of a boy with no friends who gets beat up at school, as he befriends a neighbor girl who seems a bit unusual.  a premise we have seen before, but there is one big difference: the girl is a vampire!  yikes, that sure changes things, huh?  the two kids do a fantastic job of creating believable characters, the boy is kind of sad and withdrawn, when he meets the girl he sees that she is the same way, not exactly realizing that there is a reason for that!  the movie is slower paced, allowing the audience an opportunity to get to know the characters and their situations well.  i feel that this movie would benefit a lot from knowing as little as possible about it.  in fact, my telling you its a vampire movie kind of ruins what could be a really interesting reveil.  i figure i would just go ahead and tell you about the vampire part anyway since it was all over the marketing, posters, interviews, etc. so they certainly did not try to keep it a secret.  too bad because i would have enjoyed it more if i didnt know what to expect.

real steel

this one is pretty predictable but still fun to watch.  in a world where robots do the boxing now, hugh jackman is cast as the down and out former boxer who, due to a good run of bad luck, is stuck at the controls of a low end robot boxer.  the story follows as he must take care of the son he never wanted, and try to get back to the top of the robot boxing game.  you know exactly where the movie is going, we've seen it all before, all but analog, in almost every sports movie ever made.  they do just enough to take the old tropes and keep them fun to watch.  and those robots are pretty cool!  one huge flaw with the film: that kid!  every time that child actor is on screen i would get annoyed- his voice is grating, the character is a self entitled pompous kid who seems to magically know how to program and rebuild these robots even though he's never seen one in person before, and has every annoying kid quality that these films always seem to give so that the young audience can relate to them.  thankfully hugh jackman's charisma covers a multitude of sins!  with almost anyone else in the lead, the predictability and annoying child would have suck this one immediately, but jackman is able to keep it afloat and even fun!

paranormal activity 3

the wife and i went to see the first two in the theater to diminishing results, so we figured we could wait this one out until video.  wise choice.  we both loved the first one and may or may not have slept with the light on for a couple nights after seeing it...  the second was ok but not nearly as good.  this one would probably go in that category as well.  the 'found footage' element is still used this time around, the big change though is that these videos are from when the characters in the first two films were little girls growing up and is a series of recordings their father made when things started to get a bit weird during the night.  i think this film suffers from being the third entry into the series- we've seen all the tricks before and can see the scares coming minutes ahead.  some of the tense moments are pretty good, but the newness is gone and so is the intensity.  also, the ending for this one is pretty weak.  they pull in some lame elements at the end to explain it that the series has so far been pretty good at avoiding.  oh well, the first one was still really good!

earth girls are easy

i remember watching this movie a lot growing up.  my friend aaron had recorded it off of tv and thought it was hilarious, so we would watch it regularly when i would go over to his house.  upon rewatching, i was a bit confused...  first of all, i realized that i havent ever actually seen the whole movie.  i guess he just recorded about half of the movie, because the first half of it was completely new to me!  the movie was way different than i remember, thats for sure.  all i remember was that there were these three hairy aliens who bother gena davis and go to a dance club.  i mostly remember that one of the aliens was super funny- turns out that its jim carrey before he hit it big with ace ventura!  as we rewatched it, it turns out there is a whole plot about davis' character breaking up with her fiancee and her as a hairdresser.  and also its kind of a musical.  what?  there are a few musical numbers in the film which i didnt remember at all!  the totally 80's style is rather embarrassing as well- this thing is totally a relic of its time.  i'm pretty sure that you can pass on this one without missing anything!

waynes world 2

i really loved the first movie, but this one is pretty bad.  i realize the first 'wayne's world' was pretty bad too, but my nostalgia for it blocks out all the detractors.  well, i never saw this one when it came out, only now catching up with it after recently rewatching the original.  unfortunately, this one doesn't hold up very well when compared to the original.  it makes sense, since this film is basically a rehash of the first one, not really adding anything new to the premise.  in this film wayne is trying to find some direction in his life and decides that he is going to create a music festival in downtown chicago.  along the way they hit the exact same beats as the first film, singing a song in the mirthmobile, stopping at the hockey donut shop, going to a concert, problems with wayne's girlfriend, etc.  which brings up a really frustrating this about this film: one of the driving forces is wayne's relationship with his girlfriend cassandra.  i know we are supposed to root for our hero wayne to keep the girl, but everything he does proves over and over again that he is a jerk and she would be better off without him!  he is constantly questioning her, he is a controlling boyfriend who wont let her be around any other guys or else his jealousy really kicks in, threatening to break up with her at the drop of a hat, and as soon as she starts to find success he becomes bitter and angry toward her.  also, he never does anything at all that should endear her to him, he never shows her any sort of affection other than objectifying her as 'hot'.  anyway,  back to the movie itself: the jokes are recycled and the plot is lifeless.  for some reason, as was the case in the first movie, garth has a completely unrelated story that never plays into the narrative of the movie.  this is definitely wayne's movie, with only a couple minutes here and there dedicated to his long suffering sidekick.  over all, these problems far outweigh any silly gags (which are just reinterpretations of gags from the first film anyway) or humor that may have been intended in the movie.  an unfortunate follow up to a pretty funny original movie.

relic

this movie is a rare anomaly: the movie is actually better than the book!  i remember reading this book when i was in high school, in anticipation for the movie.  the book, though, was filled with generic characters and a really really bad ending.  it was so bad it kind of ruined the fun tension of the rest of the book.  the movie, though, fixes that problem and gives an impressively explosive ending that corrected the major failure of the book.  the story is set in a museum and follows the workers there as they prepare for a big fundraising ball to show off their new exhibit.  a few crates recently arrived from the congo, but they were strangely empty.  well, they weren't really empty, instead what was in them leads to a bunch of gruesome deaths.  as the mystery behind these deaths escalates, the ball is about to begin.  this is, in its simplest sense, a creature feature.  there is a really cool looking nasty creature who is causing all these terrible murders and one of the policemen and an important museum employee must try to get rid of the creature before it ruins the museum's biggest fundraiser of the year.  the creature itself, a stan winston creation, is pretty cool and very creepy.  i remember being blown away by it when i first watched this movie in the theater back in 1997.  the special effects hold up fairly well, especially when the creature is lurking in the dark.  when we finally get a good look at it, the effects are a bit dated, but the suspense and build up do a nice job of creating tension and setting up the action packed final act.

red riding hood

from the director of the first twilight film.  that's really all i need to write.  she tried to take the exact same elements that made twilight successful and incorporate it into the little red riding hood story.  except that those elements are not successful here, and its not really the red riding hood story at all.  i must admit i didn't understand this film at all.  the big bad wolf is turned into a generic monster that attacks a small town.  nothing in this film works because the only thing that worked in the first twilight movie was the cast- even overcoming a terrible script and an even worse director.  here she is up to her same tricks which failed the last time out too.  this one is just bad on top of bad on top of bad.

contact

i have mixed feelings about this movie.  on the one hand i really like it, its one of those rare big movies that has heart and really challenges the mind. but on the other hand, they so totally botch the ending that i walk away from it annoyed.  the film follows jodie foster's character, an astronomy scientist who has dedicated her life to finding life on other planets.  she spends her days listening to radio signals in outer space, hoping that she will hear a signal or response from somewhere else.  she is mocked and jeered by everyone else, about to get her funding taken away, when she finally hears something!  the signal she hears makes the news and everyone scrambles to try and make sense of it.  along the way she befriends a man of faith, played by matthew mcconaughey, who challenges her stance on scientific proof.  she blows off his beliefs because they cannot be proven.  as the extra terrestrial signal is decoded they discover that it is actually blueprints for a giant device.  the planet unites to try and build this device and the world prepares to find out what this device does.  the story itself is very interesting: uncovering the meanings, deciding what to do about it, dealing with the different opinions about how to proceed with the realization of intelligent life out there.  all of it is really cool!  the main theme of the movie is a weighty one: proof versus faith.  an interesting conversation and one that is dealt with seriously.  the frustration though, is that the last minute or two of the movie throws everything out and makes it a moot point by banging us over the head with an answer to the question of faith and proof.  all the wrestling over the struggle is thrown out the window in order to give a pat answer, and in so doing, destroy all the progress made in defending both points.  arg.  if this movie would have left off the last two minutes, it probably would have deserved a 5 star rating, but as is- only 3.

time traveler's wife

oh man, give me a time travel movie and i am one happy fella.  give it a melancholy mood and i am totally in!  well, this one has those elements in spades!  a man stuck out of time, traveling back and forth without his control, and the woman who loves him and must deal with the reality of never knowing when or if he will ever show up again.  this one is so moving and sad i could hardly stand it.  and that's why i loved it!