Ted

3.5/5

It's Seth MacFarlane. That says it all right? Go into this and you know exactly what kind of humor you're subjecting yourself to. At the same time, this had a lot more heart to it than you'd think...even after hearing it had more heart to it than you'd think. First of all, it had a similar effect on me as Gnomeo and Juliet. In that movie, every time the gnomes were falling, I was antsy because I was afraid they were going to shatter or crack. The same thing happened here...at one point Ted has an ear ripped off, as well as a few other injuries. I swear it was more emotionally dire than a guy in an action movie getting his ear ripped off. And the ending was actually pretty cute! The Family Guy humor wasn't over the top or obnoxious, and it had some really brilliant references to Family Guy (my favorite being the a certain cameo portraying himself as a gay man). It's not going to win any points for creativity in plot line, but it definitely wins points for a clever, fun idea with a lot of heart and exactly the style fans of Seth MacFarlane will want - raunchy, still smart, and with a lot of patience and heart. Also, EXTREMELY impressive motion capture of Seth MacFarlane's body translates unbelievably well to a stuffed animal.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

2/5

Ya know, a lot of people were expecting this to be a LOT of fun. I was one of them. Reviews said that the movie took itself far too seriously. Again, I agree. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was the movie demanding us to take it seriously. Scenes that could have been fun were crammed with purpose and annoying symbolism, and bad-ass fight sequences were followed with brooding seriousness that became incredibly annoying. Seriously, it's about Abe Lincoln fighting vampires and it was trying to force an emotion down our throats. It's one thing to take something too seriously, this is particularly annoying. It leads to some things that, also, are a little unbelievable. Emotional drive can allow a human to use an axe and cut down a tree in a single swing? Please. Also, for such an anticipated movie this had some seriously questionable special effects. A lot of times it was incredibly obvious when we were looking at CGI, and that was incredibly disappointing. Still, don't let it control how you feel, have fun with the stupidity, and you're going to have a lot of fun watching this historical figure fight with an axe coated in silver.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

3/5

It has it's moments, it's great moments, and a nice moral to think about. But most of the humor is lost in stiffness of performance, and most of the seriousness is lost in the lost humor. Sadly, no one's performances were really powerful enough to me to live up to the great cast. Bill Nighy and Dev Patel were the exceptions, Dev Patel in particular giving me hope that his career wasn't completely lost from The Last Airbender. Still, these performances were held back by an obvious moral, one of those morals that was introduced within the first 10 minutes of the film. So obvious, in fact, that it actually ruined the ending a bit for me. Tension was gone, and any suspense that anything might not be fixed was wiped away very quickly. Still, it had me smile and had me entertained. It's an alright movie.

Your Sister's Sister

3.5/5

It was a sweet film, if not all that creative of one. The plot is simple - Mark Duplass sleeps with Rosemarie DeWitt, who's Emily Blunt's sister, when Emily Blunt admits to being in love with her best friend. The plot move's pretty predictably, with one major plot point coming through other than the predictable ones. It's not a thought provoking movie, but it had us laughing a fair amount, definitely more than I anticipated. I love Emily Blunt, she comes across as so carefree and loving. Mark Duplass is a sweet, funny, honest person who kicks himself in the head for his mistakes, which makes us really love him too. Rosemarie DeWitt is so much fun in her own way, it's hard to describe. All in all, I'd recommend this movie to those of you looking for a movie with not a lot of thought, but enough substance to have a great conversation following it.

Brave

 

3.5/5

I can't say I was totally impressed with Brave, and as a Pixar nut, it didn't meet my expectations for their past productions (though I still enjoyed it a bit more than A Bugs Life, my least favorite of the Pixar films). Still, it uses some great story telling with, again, gorgeous imagery to make a not so impressive story pretty fun to follow. Merida is a fun character, although perhaps a little bit too generic, and the rest of the characters are fine together as well. Where the movie really succeeds is its heart in telling this mother-daughter story as such. My girlfriend, sitting next to me at the time, started crying at some of their interactions as a mother and daughter, and I too felt myself choking up towards the end. However, sadly, you can't go into this movie expecting the brilliant storytelling that Pixar has really made itself into. It wasn't a disappointment of a movie (I still give it 3.5, and I'll add it to my Pixar collection), but it was a disappointment to the Pixar label.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

 

4/5

I was so happy with how this came out. Granted, it's a smidge sappy and has a few WTF moments, but what it loses in sense it absolutely makes up for in a sweet, silly, fun and beautiful story. Steve Carell has a perfect sweetness and humor whenever he speaks, allowing us to love him from his first lines. The movie handles its story extremely well has a comedy and as an exploration of the mentality of people approaching the end of the world, while still treating itself as a funny adventure between the two leads. Great parodies of end of the world mentality mixed with believable desperate attitudes mix together flawlessly, and allow us to laugh and cry when appropriate. Rotten Tomatoes has this scored around the 50's for "jarring tonal differences" and a "disappointing final act". Are you joking? The tonal differences are seamless to me, simply understood by accepting the mentality of Steve Carell's character and where he needs to go and what he has to do. This was a really great movie, and I'm so happy it didn't disappoint.

Rock of Ages

2.5/5

Well...I liked it more than the musical? I guess? It cut through the silly segue's to songs and just left...silliness. First of all, Tom Cruise as this irresistible sex symbol? That's...stretching it. Even if he was this gorgeous jewel of a man, his character has to seduce the audience with his voice. Well, he chose to sing with his own voice rather than have someone else dub it over. A noble choice, I'd say, but one that doesn't work. His voice sounded untrained, too simple, not seductive or rock hard at all. The rest of the cast really wasn't that much better. Only one or two voices were really that good. Plot threads felt forced, unnecessary to say the least. The music was too tacky, and that's saying something for an adaptation of Broadway. I guess diehard fans might really get into this, but anyone going into this to experience the music of that time period I expect will be pretty disappointed, hearing their favorite songs really weighed down by a silly story, pointless characters, and obnoxious singing. Also, glaring stupid mistakes. At one point, our leading character comes on stage with a guitar. He screams into the microphone, all the while this guitar on his back. Then he hands off the guitar, mid song, to a stagehand. So he brought the guitar on stage for no reason. What was that about? Moments like those will get to you. If you're crazy into 80s culture, or are turned on by Tom Cruise wearing fur, have fun.

That's My Boy

1.5/5

It wasn't as bad as past Happy Madison movies, I'll give it that. But...eh? My audience wasn't even that enthusiastic about it. No one really laughed except out of discomfort. The points of humor in this movie weren't anything new, and I'm sure had the 11 year old boys in the audience howling. But that's just it - nothing new. All old. And where it wasn't old, it was...well, strange. Adam Sandler puts on another really annoying voice for this one, so get ready for that. Andy Samberg tries his hardest, but it really just falls apart to lame gag after lame gag. It wasn't that bad even. It was just too simple, not crazy enough, and when it was crazy it was too stupid for the audience to really appreciate. Moreso, it really looks like audiences are giving up on Adam Sandler movies (at last). His last films were pretty damn successful. This one, however, only pulled in less than 15 million dollars on it's 75 million dollar budget. So it looks like this one won't even break even.

Moonrise Kingdom

5/5

Another perfect score. I loved this movie. Every second of it had a perfectly toned sense of sweetness, innocence, shock, humor, beauty. It kept me laughing really hard, it had me gasp where I needed to gasp. It had absolutely flawless performances from every one of its cast members. I loved the concept - a troubled boy and a troubled girl arrange to run away together and get married, the boy ditching his scout camp while the girl runs away from home. It's really an honest, sweet coming of age story. Props to Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, and our two child actors. Definitely check this out if it's playing near you.

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

3/5

It started SO promising. Great joke after great joke, I loved the animal control woman, the characters finally had...well character, the animation was finally matching some effort put into it, and it was great! Then it started to slow. The plot's silliness and the quality of the jokes went in a steadily down. It never was bad, but it failed to live up to the level of cleverness in the first third or so. Still, I have to give it to the movie for seriously improving on the first two Madagascar movies. They definitely took better control of their budget, because the movie looked great. The laziness of the characters was embraced into a style, that had enough of a cartoon look to it to be fun with enough tech to look respectable (Alex's mane really looked great). It's funny, you might be shocked with how much you like it. I just couldn't get into the same story we've seen a billion times in animated movies.

Prometheus

5/5

I can't lie. I was thinking really hard for a reason to give this 4.5 instead of 5. It feels like I've been giving out so many great reviews this year. But I have to be fair. I was completely mesmerized from start to finish. Everything in this movie worked, everything was great. The performances were great, the atmosphere was gorgeous, the CGI work was fantastic and I appreciated the large amount of not-CGI special effects. The story was frightening and compelling, with enough moments to keep the Alien fans really happy, but not focusing so much on the fans as to shut out people who might not have watched the movie. Frankly, there was just enough gore to take it seriously and be frightened rather than laugh or lose the impact. The details in technology between this movie and the previous one's was very much appreciated. The music set up a nice amount of tension whilst not being overbearing or forced. This movie comes highly recommended, for Alien fans and non-Alien fans to enjoy.

Snow White and the Huntsman

1.5/5

Well, it's a step up from Mirror Mirror, but it's still at the bottom of a very, very long staircase. I don't believe anything that's happening on screen, and that's with as much suspension of disbelief as one can give a fairy tale. Why exactly does a kiss awaken Snow White when no visible magic was unleashed and no declaration of true loves first kiss as the cure given? Why exactly is the encompassing of life put into a stag that bursts into butterflies when shot with an arrow? The list goes on. Then there's an abundance of silly moments. When confronted by a troll, Hemsworth is knocked to the ground rather quickly. So how is the troll defeated? Kristen Stewart gives an all mighty "RAWRRRRRRR". No, I'm not joking. She rawrs. What's worse? The troll walks away. Seriously? Another silly moment - every moment with Charlize Theron. In fact, the whole cast. It was a battle - over acting vs under acting. On one side, Charlize Theron and her brother over act worse than Travolta in Battle Field Earth. On the other hand, we have Kristen Stewart with about as much passion as she had in...well, Twilight. Seriously she's so passionless and so boring to watch. She never ventured out of a tiny smile or a blank face, unless that blank face had a single tear. And last but not least... you're trying to convince me that Kristen Stewart is more beautiful than Charlize Theron? Really. You're going to try to convince me of that? Not gonna happen.