The Rum Diary (2011)

Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)

Real Steel (2011)

Horrible Bosses (2011)

Green Lantern (2011)

This was a fun romp into another comic book themed movie, and I think it was put together rather well. Technically, the special effects worked, never seemed out of place and the story provided an engaging but straight-forward plot for us to follow along on. There was some lack-of-depth with the main moral of the story being that courage overcomes fear.

Ryan Reynolds is always fun for me to watch, I enjoy his delivery of mostly sarcastic remarks, filled with attitude. That was lessened to a certain degree here, because he had to play for most of the film, but it's still present and fun to watch.

Being the focus of the film, it's only natural that our hero become the most powerful of them all, but I think some depth could have been achieved if all of the green lanterns would have been more involved here. The flipside of that being as it stands, it's a hero coming-of-abilities story, and enjoyable as just that.

Early on we're treated to a flashback of his father dying, and that's used as the basis for the fear that he has to overcome. While an adequate plot device, it also felt weak too. Maybe I'm looking into it too much, especially seeing as it's only a PG movie so it's aimed at a wider audience, but a better establishment of the fear, or experience would have gone a long way.

There certainly weren't any twists and turns here, but they made a glaring omission in terms of tying off loose ends, and that seems to leave room for a sequel, which I'm sure is their intent.

Finally, it's a fun ride, with good special effects, and I enjoyed watching Tim Robbins in a more mainstream flick.

Platoon (1986)

This movie is hard for me to rate. In so many ways Full Metal Jacket is my favorite Vietnam--nay, war movie--ever. That aside, there was a lot to like here. I enjoyed the transformation of Taylor from a cleancut rookie into a battle-hardened soldier who's actions end up mirroring the actions of a commanding officer he despises.

The movie is wrought with symbolism, everything from the U.S. soldiers honouring their dead by bringing them home whereas they discard the Vietnamese dead with bulldozers and group burial plots to rebel and Nazi flags seen, although, the Nazi flag seemed out of place to me, and I'm not sure what it represented.

One thing that stuck out to me was the lack of soldier code names. Sure, there were some, but these are names that were used in iconic fashion in FMJ, yet here the soldiers mostly go by their last name. I can't help but wonder if Stone was trying to differentiate his film from the onslaught of Vietnam films that came out in the 1980s.

Arthur (2011)

Michelle and I wanted to see a comedy, and since Michelle likes the 1980s original, we decided to watch Arthur. Truth be told, I had extremely low expectations. I expected to get two hours of Billy-Madison-style manchild mixed with a poorly told love story. Instead, we witness great character growth with well-done, albeit a bit over-the-top, humour, even a few one-liners that bore timing and delivery remarkably similar to High Grant.

I haven't seen Brand in other films, and my impression was that he'd be more like say Bruno, but instead he's witty and endearing. The movie hints at further depth to this 'no work, all play' boy-in-a-man's body, and we see Brand sparkle with this at moments, and all out shine with it by the end. Mirren and Garner provide antidote to Brand's constant humour, while tertiary characters provide Brand with fuel.

Gerwig was amazing as the down-to-earth love interest, and really struck me as the long lost child of Elizabeth Shue--I've now spent an hour or so with Google trying to determine some familial relationship, to no avail. Resemblances aside, she really captures the audience with stability in her performance, you just can't wait to segway into the next scene with her.

As an aside, this sort of comedy is something that I've always hated about the genre: the inevitable climax. I like the character growth films develop from this peak, but have always hated the emotional valley we have to go through before being lifted back up and watching the credits role. Maybe I've always misinterpreted what a 'comedy' should be.

Mars Needs Moms (2011)

I'm constantly looking for new movies to watch with my kids, especially ones that I'll enjoy too. I've reviewed some recently that just weren't enjoyable by adult audiences and I think that's hard to swallow given how much credence is allotted to box office success, and if the parents aren't in theatres, the kids aren't either.

Mars Needs Moms delivers a movie that I enjoyed, and my kids did too. I didn't check the MPAA rating before I started watching it, but looking now it's PG, which would have clued me in to the possibility that the thematic elements might be concerning. As it were, my youngest got a little freaked out during some scenes, but all-in-all was probably OK.

I read an article awhile ago that said the effects can take awhile to sink in for children. I remember about 2 months after seeing Despicable Me, my youngest started wearing a toque everywhere like the main character Edith, so I can definitely see that the effects take a while.

Noting the MPAA rating now, I've been struggling with a way to determine age appropriateness for animated films, and I think G ratings are going to generally be for younger ages (say, 5 or 6 and under) where as PG ratings might be for older kids. This is something for me to keep my eye on in the future.

The movie itself was good. Throughout the movie I kept wondering if it wouldn't have been better as a live action film, since it really had the live action feel. While the credits rolled, they showed all the actors on a motion capture stage in full motion capture gear, so the whole thing was motion captured, which clearly improved the final product. With movies like Avatar doing this too, I can't help but wonder how many movies in the future will follow suit, if you pardon the pun. Maybe Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within would have been a much better film too!

Sucker Punch (2011) [Updated]

I liked it! Sucker Punch is getting a lot of flack from movie critics and watchers alike, but I think it works.

It is not your traditional movie, it's stylized. Some are suggesting a new subgenre be proclaimed, such as video game style, or music video style or something. While it's unique, and could be a subgenre, I'm not shouting that from roof tops just yet.

I think the film suffered from it's PG-13 rating. I mean, you've got short skirts, fishnets and burlesque style, yet we're targeting a 13 and over crowd? I'm anticipating a director's cut to flesh out the dirty bits a bit more... maybe Snyder will add an extra hour of footage like he did with Watchmen.

Adding this footage might be a double edged sword. One of the elements that was prevalent throughout the movie is the musical score. If you look at Vampire Diaries, each episode essentially has a sound track for it. That's crazy, considering there could be 20 episodes or more to a season, but it's also a great way for an artist to get on the scene--if you pardon the pun. Now, Vampire Diaries is definately targeting teens, but probably has a cult following of housewives too. Sucker Punch, on the other hand, would have been much better without a teen-focus, if that was in fact Snyder's intent. We'll just have to wait for the extended cut to see for sure.

Call me voyeuristic if you must, but one of the key elements of the film is that the main character, Baby Doll, can dance hypnotically, and the ladies use this dance to provide a distraction while they get up to nefarious things. I would have liked to see that dance woven into the scenes where the ladies are up to no good. I figure in this day and age, there's enough choreography out here you could convince me that a dance is hypnotic with "all that gyrating."

I'm glad Sucker Punch managed to take thirty million from the box office. I think Zack Snyder has spectacular style, and his film making needs to be rewarded, however there's a very real risk of him falling off the deep end. I also have to wonder how much of a future a director has if he has to slash 30-50% of his entire film before it hits theatres. Watchmen had a theatrical runtime of 2 hours and 43 minutes, and through a Director's Cut, then finally the Ultimate Cut, Snyder managed to extend that to 3 hours and 35 minutes. That's a lot of his vision he has to remove before a theatrical release.

On the other hand, maybe Snyder is just capitalizing on the modern age. Release a movie that provides a polarizing experience into theatres, then capitalize on publicity and multiple releases through extended editions. Kudos to you Snyder, if that's your plan. Kudos also, if that's not your plan, but your vision is just so deep you're willing to lose 45 minutes of footage with each theatrical release! Kudos, either way.

Update (July 1, 2011): It's interesting, while I did enjoy this film, I wasn't head-over-heels for it. As mentioned above, I felt they could have expanded on some of the voyeuristic aspects of the film. Based on this, I wanted to see what people were thinking of the blog, and stumbled across this review: http://thehathorlegacy.com/sucker-punch/

The Hathor ladies kind of blew my mind. I completely did not see the rape alegory in the film, and they've hit the nail on the head. I'm now more interested in watching the extended edition of the movie, as Snyder said it's his favorite version, and if that's the case I can't help but wonder if some of the hidden meaning won't show further.

Unknown (2011)

Some actors don't want to be typecast. I remember reading that Vin Diesel didn't want to do XXX 2 because he'd just done a sequel (which, arguably was a sequel in only the vaguest of definitions--Chronicles of Riddick sequelling Pitch Black). Then here we have Liam Neeson who did Taken back in 2008, and I swear during the first 45 minutes it just felt like some merry go 'round knock off of Taken. At that time, I also figured he was being typecast, but looking at his IMDB bio, it's clear he's been doing a lot of work, so there's minimal risk there.

All that being said, once the plot thickened, as it were, this movie proved itself as unique with a compelling story, and all the bells and whistles we've grown to love of good movies (explotions, car chases, etc.).

If you're into mysteries, this one would be great for you. Michelle usually figures these things out in 20 minutes flat, but Unknown kept her guessing until the very end.

Limitless (2011)

OK, so in a previous review I ranted about movie trailers that include clips not found in the theatrical release... here we have a trailer that includes all it's best scenes in the trailer. Take a look:



All that juicy dialogue with Robert DeNiro, all of it? Yeah, mostly at the end. "I was limitless." What? The movie is called Limitless, so why don't we get to experience more of his limitless-ness? Most of it was tacked on to the end, or glossed over.

Premise is cool, production quality was there, I just felt it fell short a bit. Something more akin to Antitrust where he gets the cool job and you see some growth and fun before the conspiracy kicks in wouldn't have been more inline with what I expected, and would have appreciated.

Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

So let's get this out of the way: I hate it when previews for movies contain lines that the theatrical release does not. Ocean's 11 did this, and The Lincoln Lawyer did this "Why can't you get a real office?" "What's more fun, my office or mom's office?" when his daughter is in the car. See the trailer:



Why do they do this? I guess the movie marketers do their own thing, but still, it just pisses me off!

Aside from rants like the above, this was a great movie. Probably not Matthew's most powerful performance, I do like to see him do a bit more, but in general good movie, and the twists and turns kept me on my toes.

Michelle read the book, and said it stayed true to the book, so that's always a plus with movies.

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

So, apparently I'm a bit of a science fiction nut... but oh well, there's worse things to be. :)

While I found the pace somewhat slow, I really enjoyed this film. The scenes with Matt and Emily running through doors struck me as probably the best "foot-chase scene" I've scene. I think that should be a new genre, similar to car-chase movies. :)

Conviction (2010)

Good movie. I found the pace expectedly slow, but the acting was well done.

No Strings Attached (2011)

Much better than a lot of the Valentine's Day fare out there. It changed some of the roles and appealed to my emotional side. Natalie did a good job of growing her character emotionally, and Ashton gave his usual solid performance. Sure, he's type-cast these days, but we like him, so who cares.

Rabbit Hole (2010)

I was expecting something different. Even from the movie poster above I anticipated the characters to use their emotions to take them down dark paths or something. Instead, the movie was generally less emotionally intense than expected, the acting was great, and I ultimately enjoyed the movie.

Due Date (2010)

It was very funny! Zach gave his usual candid-but-hilarious lines, and Robert was respectably entertaining!

Love and Other Drugs (2010)

I found myself unusually engrossed in the relationship Jake and Anne had. Anne gave a great performance that was raw and attractive.

The King's Speech (2010)

Very well acted, from the pompous performance by Geoffrey to the growing-into-majesty by Colin, there's a lot to see here.

The Fighter (2010)

I want to punch something. Maybe it's all the familial drug use during the first half, and the low-income family scenes, but I was annoyed by the start of the movie. Staying the course, as I often do, and now I feel rewarded. In the last three minutes my heart rate was up, and I nearly cheered.

Parts they got right include an accurate representation of the characters (at least, according to the last few minutes of showing the real people that inspired this movie).

Parts they could have done better? Well, I love Mark, he's a great actor. I like most of his movies. Here, when he's not in the ring, he's almost dead on his feet, with Christian dancing around him. I didn't like the imbalance of energy.

Amy... WOW. Incredible... comparable to Elizabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas. Raw, confident, enthralling.

In retrospect, I have to give it to the writers and directors... they likened the pace of the movie to the pace of Mickey's fights. With the bell rung, and the championship title won, I think I can respect that.

And finally, to be cliche: watch it till the end, it's a knock out.