Sunday, March 28, 2010

My Movie Review: Hot Tub Time Machine


MY MOVIE REVIEW: Hot Tub Time Machine
3/5

A movie that goes all out with a silly premise of a time-traveling hot tub, is more raunchy than silly. So here's basically what it's about you have four friends, each with a different problem with their current life wether it be wife's leaving, being a nerd, lost mojo, and unhappy with their job. So i'll divide this review up and see how it goes, if you like this new format tell me, I might switch.

WHATS GOOD: We can complain about how the concept sounds real stupid, however it is original, and often the film parodies other time travel movies such as Back to the Future and Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure. However this film has a raunchier premise like most R rated comedies today, and ultimately you earn a great share of laughs. John Cusack pulls the comedic role out nicely, along with the other semi-famous cast. There is relatable situational comedy combined. The outcome of this film is interesting and with a time travel premise it avoid a lot of plotholes it could've hit while making. As a comedy this truly works out well. It's funny, and when it can be it tugs on your heart strings, but only a little.

WHATS BAD: Some of the jokes were simply not funny, and sometimes for me hearing someone say a joke that gets no laughs is a painful noise. Most of the comedy works wonder so it makes up for that minor flaw. The story itself gets kind of boring in areas, and predictable. I don't see this being a very memorable or quotable film. There was a lot where they could've done more, and I was waiting for something to happen to have me dying on the floor with laughter, that never came. It was simply dull in areas, the script needed much more polishing.

CONSENSUS: I'd say this is a good movie to see with your friends, the couple of laughs it gives is worth the ticket price. But after its over you will probably not feel filled with as much comedy or story as you hoped to get out of it.


Friday, March 19, 2010

My Movie Review: Cop Out


My Movie Review: Cop Out
1.5/5

Where do I start... Cop Out is a failure. Director Kevin
Smith makes his first flop. Kevin Smith recently tweeted to
a fan regarding the movie that the negative critic reviews
were because "the critics reviewed him not the movie." So
i'm not going to sit here and complain about how Kevin
Smith could do better, honestly we know he can so i'll leave
his name out of the rest of this post. The thing I really didn't
like about Cop Out besides the fact that it was an unfunny
comedy is the formula. The concept here was to make a
parody of old cop shows and use a mismatched couple
of actors to be funny. The story itself is simple, almost hits
the originality mark a couple times, but ultimately fails
to appeal to any true comical emotion. A "b" story but
it could've worked. I did laugh a couple times, but it's been
an hour since i've seen the movie and I wouldn't be able
to tell you any of the jokes i've laughed at. In one year time
I will not remember a single thing that happened in this film.
Next subject, the acting. Bruce Willis is that actor with
potential, unfortunately I don't ever think he will meet his
potential and he is definitely not going to find it doing
comedy. Tracy Morgan is simply not funny. His over the top
stupid humor is held back in this sometimes but he still
keeps his irritating tone, the same feeling you get when
someone tells a really unfunny joke and looks around the
room for people laughing when no one is. The music in this movie is very 80's cop show, and you can tell it's
meant to be that way, if only maybe they stuck to the parodying of cop shows it would be funny. The story
is predictable and simply not entertaining. This will be the first Kevin Smith film that I will not recommend
I do not see this as a Kevin Smith film, this is just a speed bump, hopefully he won't sell out on us like this
again.

















Sunday, March 14, 2010

An article on pretentiousness in movies.

Pretentious. This is a very commonly used term by critics, i'm going to explain exactly as I can what it is for a movie to be pretentious and I will give prime examples. In the dictionary pretentious is defined as making an exaggerated outward show; ostentatious. Basically it being self-indulgent. If a producer and director sit behind a film and say that their film will be the most important film alive, they are being self absorbed thinking they can accomplish such goal. Pretentiousness is seen primarily in films about life stories, it mostly appeared in these in earlier years. Forrest Gump was a life story, was it pretentious? I wouldn't use that term cause never once watching that film did I think "wow they are trying to hard." It was simply an extraordinary life of an extraordinary character. Let's move forward a couple years and hit on James Cameron's Titanic. James Cameron being one of the most self absorbed directors out there of our time. Titanic wasn't a bad movie necessarily however while watching it I got the feeling that Cameron was sitting next to me nudging me and saying "check out this scene I did it perfectly." Let's move forward to modern day film. The most recent film I saw that inspired me to write this article is Richard Kelly's Southland Tales. Richard Kelly earlier in the decade directed the independent Donnie Darko which his style was very unique and original. Southland Tales is specifically casted popular comedic actors such as Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Mandy Moore. This film was NOT a miss for me. Most people think a floating ice cream truck, cars having sex, and mainly every scene in this film was too pretentious, I thought that was the point. It was attacking pop culture today, and the pretentiousness of today. To properly critique a film you must first know the directors intentions, then you can critique his film and his intentions. Southland Tales....bad reviews, of course. Let me give you a pretentious film. 2009's What Goes Up, limited release primarily so it could have that independent feel, scenes of slow motion falling while indie music mindlessly plays in the background. Ice skating around a coffin listening to Electrelane. Very pretentious in the bad way. I guess the main question i'm getting at is do you think pretentiousness in a film is a bad thing? I do not. Sometimes things are overdone, like when the movie has got its point across but continues flooding us with symbolism and personification that we practically choke, we get bored thus the film becomes a drag. However it is always nice to see something different, like in Southland Tales, Vanilla Sky, any David Lynch film, ect. Some films fail at this technique others succeed. Dodging the mainstream billing isn't always a smart idea.

You answer: Is pretentiousness in a film necessarily a bad thing?

Comment below.

FILMS MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Forrest Gump 5/5
Titanic 5/5
Donnie Darko 4.5/5
Southland Tales 4/5
What Goes Up 2/5
Vanilla Sky 5/5


Year in advance Oscar predictions.

So far 2010 has been a COMPLETE bust. However after researching very lists of upcoming films this year I have compiled my year in advance Oscar predictions which will probably prove completely run but here we go.

BEST PICTURE
The Beaver
Get Low
Inception
Leaves of Grass
Robin Hood
Secretariat
The Social Network
The Tree of Life
Tron: Legacy
True Grit

ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio, Inception
Robert Duvall, Get Low
Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version
Mel Gibson, The Beaver
Edward Norton, Leaves of Grass

ACTRESS
Annette Bening, The Kid's Alright
Anne Hathaway, Love and Other Drugs
Helen Mirren, The Tempest
Hilary Swank, Betty Anne Waters
Kristen Stewart, The Runaways

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale, The Fighter
John Malkovich, Secretariat
Bill Murray, Get Low
John C. Reily, Cyrus
Sam Rockwell, Betty Anne Waters

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jessica Alba, The Killer Inside Me
Marion Cotillard, Inception
Dakota Fanning, The Runaways
Mila Kunis, Black Swan
Sissy Spacek, Get Low

DIRECTOR
Coen Bros., True Grit
David Fincher, The Social Network
Jodie Foster, The Beaver
Christopher Nolan, Inception
Aaron Schneider, Get Low

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Beaver
Inception
Leaves of Grass
Secretariat
The Tree of Life

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Get Low
Robin Hood
The Social Network
The Town
True Grit

BEST EDITING
Clash of the Titans
Inception
Robin Hood
The Social Network
Tron: Legacy

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Black Swan
Inception
Miral
The Town
The Tree of Life

Best Art Direction
Black Swan
Inception
Robin Hood
Tron: Legacy
True Grit

SOUND MIXING
Clash of the Titans
Inception
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Robin Hood
Tron: Legacy

SOUND EDITING
Clash of the Titans
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Inception
Robin Hood
Tron: Legacy

COSTUME DESIGN
Betty Anne Waters
The Conspiritor
HereAfter
Robin Hood
True Grit

ORIGINAL SCORE
Black Swan
Inception
Robin Hood
Toy Story 3
Tron: Legacy

ANIMATED FILM
Despicable Me
How to Train Your Dragon
Legend of the Guardians
Rapunzel
Toy Story 3

VISUAL EFFECTS
Clash of the Titans
Inception
Tron: Legacy

MAKEUP
Betty Anne Waters
The Conspiritor
Robin Hood




Friday, March 5, 2010

My Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland


My Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland
1/5
2010 has really come off to a bad start. Of course a lot of the movies that have been released I haven't even BOTHERED to watch. Hurry up with the summer blockbusters, and then get to the end of the year with the indie- wanna win awards films. These past months have been horrendus. Alice in Wonderland pretty much contributes a lot to that considering it is and will make a lot of money. The least Burton could do is have the decency to entertain us while counting our money, because we all know he has the talent, he is trying to hard to appeal to the tween office with the bizzare makeup and fantasy things, weren't even good in Alice, the original cartoon made you feel trippy in a good way. This one feels like a bad trip of shrooms. I found none of the cinematography in this film satisfying, the 3D helps very little. The characters were completely unlikeable to with the exception of a couple comic relief characters such as a caffinated rabbit, fat twins, and Alan Rickmans catepillar. The actual non animated actors deliver some of the worst performances i've seen from them. The girl playing Alice looks confused the whole time, Anne Hathaways goody princess was over done, and kind of an annoyance to watch. Helena Boham Carters princess was terrible, she was a comical villan that wasn't funny whatsoever and I was never truly convinced how evil she was acording to the characters.
Johnny Depp tries, and you can give him kudos for that, I won't i'm sick and tired of his drunken walk, his wannabe-stylish characters that just fail. His Mad Hatter was horrendus I hated the character in every way. This film falls right next to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and horrendusness. Tim Burton needs to stop trying to remake classics and make movies through his heart again. Alice in Wonderland is a failure as a kids movie, and art movie, a fantasy movie, an action movie, and a druggie movie. Truly disappointing.