Published by The Reviewer January 19th, 2012
in Movies.
One Sentence: Your master crafted Oscar contender.
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: 20-Jan-2012
Nudity: None
Lets go over the list. Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, A child with a possible learning disability, 9/11, A dead father, Writer Eric Roth, and many others that have worked on Oscar nominated and award winning films. This is your power house collection of people and characters that are are part of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. After the year of crap that we have been given it is easily one of the top contenders for movie of the year. The weird thing is, that award would be for 2012. They could of lead all the nominations for 2011, but instead this movie is your first best movie of the year for 2012.
An emotional look into loss and family Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is not that hard of a pill to swallow. You would think it would be a punch to the stomach the whole movie but I was distracted. I had to see what happened next. I wanted to know more, I needed to make it to the end. The story was so powerful that the drive to see more overtook the sadness. It was very well balanced and wonderfully acted by everyone. Propelling the story forward in an amazing way. Everything about this movie is what you look for in one of the best movies of the year. It was wonderfully done.
So for your movie dollars if you want to see one of the best movies of 2012 right out of the gate, then this is full price movie. It is a little hard to watch, but no so much that it shouldn’t be seen in the theater. I think it is well worth the full price admission. Maybe a Sunday afternoon matinee would be good as well. But I would at least bring a couple of tissues.
Published by The Reviewer January 12th, 2012
in Action Movies.
One Sentence: Gone in 60 seconds on a slow boat.
Rated: R
Release Date: 13-Jan-2012
Nudity: None
Ahh 2012, the top 10 lists are coming out, the Golden Globes are this weekend and this is the time where the movies get bad. January through February is traditionally when the movie studios throw movies when they are only ok, and hoping to make a profit on them. I don’t know if Contraband should be lumped into this stereotype though, because I thought it was a fun crime action movie.
It was pretty much a pure action, low thought movie, but it was constructed well. I had action, tense scenes and some touches of a smart heist movie. It was enough to keep my attention for the almost 2 hour movie. I never felt like I was having a bad time with it, even if the motivations of some of the characters did seem a little flawed. This movie is really all I could ask for in a January movie. Good enough to not suck, and fun enough for me to not have thought I wasted 2 hours. This is pretty good for the first movie review of the year.
Even though the review is a positive one, I don’t think you need to rush to the theater to go see this movie. It is a perfect rental movie. It is not so great that you have to see it now, and it feels like the perfect movie to stay in with on weekend evening. A little action, a little fun, and you save a bunch of money eating microwave popcorn instead of going to the theater. So save your money after your Christmas spending and wait for this one on Netflix.
Published by The Reviewer December 22nd, 2011
in Drama Movies.
One Sentence: The worst Speilberg movie I have ever seen?
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: 25-Dec-2011
Nudity: None
I know that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was also a Speilberg movie, but it was the 4th in a series and he had an awful script to work with. War Horse is a powerful story, not a franchise, and I think should of been dealt with a little more care. It did not feel that way at all. Maybe he is just losing touch with directing. War Horse was a cheese fest.
The whole movie didn’t deliver to me. It felt weird and cheesy and overacted. Everyone in the movie talked about this horse, and how amazing he was, but you never really saw that. You never connected like the people in the movie did. The whole movie felt like we were being forced into an idea that wasn’t real. We were forced to like this horse, and the connection between the horse and the boy. We were being told he did hard things, we were being told he was amazing, but we as an audience never felt these things. Then the ending, wraps up in this weird horrible way, that feels so forced, even if you were connecting a bit with the rest of the movie, the last 4 will kill it for you.
I have been hoping for a new Speilberg directed movie for a while now. However it is with great regret that I must steer you away from War Horse. I do not think it is a great movie, and is not a choice for the family on Christmas. It is a far tamer war movie than his others, but it is a far worse movie as well. I would say it is a sit on your TV for a month before you get around to watching it on Netflix type of movie. It just wasn’t very good.
Published by The Reviewer December 20th, 2011
in Drama Movies.
One Sentence: If you can handle it, one of the best of the year.
Rated: R
Release Date: 21-Dec-2011
Nudity: Lots, including some hard to watch scenes.
I do not know if people are excited for this movie, or if they just have heard it is good because they heard the books were good. I do not feel the buzz for it. I think Christmas is throwing off my radar. Let me clear up the buzz confusion for you and tell you right away what you need to know. If you can handle graphic images of sex and murder, then this is probably the best movie of the year for you. I am not bringing up the graphic images to put down the movie, in fact I felt like they were required for this movie and the story, I am just bringing them up so you are warned in case you can’t handle such a hard to watch movie.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, is another amazing movie in a long line of successes from David Fincher. He creates a multi-layered amazing story brought to life from the best selling book. A tale of pain, murder, misdirection and even Nazi’s. Fincher gets all he can out of Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, in some amazing portrayals with some very hard to watch scenes. A huge cast of supporting characters and stories make this movie not just amount a single killer and deliver so much more than a simple mystery. It touches so much more and delivers a character driven story, where you want to know just as much about the characters as you do about the mystery. It is masterful work.
This is a hard to watch movie. This pushes even further than se7en in my opinion. So beware of what you are getting yourself into for the Christmas weekend. If you are going, do not bring your kids. I saw a lot of teens in the audience, and this is not even close to ok for even teens. I would say it’s not even ok for some adults. If you are ok with all of that, this is one of the best movies of the year, and comes highly recommended. Go see it in the theater if you can.
Published by The Reviewer December 15th, 2011
in Action Movies.
One Sentence: Better than the first.
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: 16-Dec-2011
Nudity: None
I did not like the first Sherlock Holmes movie all that much. I thought it was too much CG, not enough detective. I know it’s 2011 and the audience needs all that for the movie to make money, it just felt hollow and cold. Sherlock Holmes A Game Of Shadows is the movie I wish the first one was. A good blend of action, comedy, intrigue, and suspense. With at least what felt like a lot less CG.
The movie assumes a lot, and jumps right into the story. You do not have to have seen the first movie, but they start right up expecting you have. You will not miss much, it’s just that this movie just gets up and goes right from the start. I think I like it that way. The pace, action and story all are upbeat and don’t really slow down. All while actually telling a fairly solid story that kept me interested. Much better than the previous movie where I felt the story a bit lacking. Of course Downey and Jude are great, and play very well off each other. It all just felt like a much better movie than the first.
I would recommend this movie for this weekend for sure, or for your time off for Christmas. There are some other movies coming out that I am going to recommend as well so if you have to be picky might want to check out all the reviews. But I would pay full price for this one. It was a very fun action flick.
Published by The Reviewer December 15th, 2011
in Movies.
One Sentence: Minnesota makes you crazy.
Rated: R
Release Date: 16-Dec-2011
Nudity: None
The team that brought you Juno is back with another Confused Adult Life Choice Reflection Independent Feeling movie that might or might not be good, but you could never say it wasn’t good because it’s so real. Bleh. I am just about tired of these independent movie characters, they are the same people who complained in Rent about not being able to pay rent because they refused to get jobs.
The whole movie is about shitting all over your pretty awesome life, because you are dissatisfied with it even though you are doing better than most. Clinging to your high school life, and hoping that things would be as they were back then. All while slowly going completly crazy.
I did not feel this movie at all. I get the reflection and loss and the story they were trying to tell. It just did it in a forced uncomfortable way that I couldn’t relate to or empthaize with. I was just sitting there thinking that this movie is making me feel dirty and I don’t care what happens to this messed up girl. She wasn’t worth spending my time on. These types of movies need this relationship between audience and main character and if it doesn’t exist the movie doesn’t connect. This is what happened to me with Young Adult. I just wanted it to be over, I didn’t care what would happen at the end, because the girl wasn’t interesting or sad enough to want to know more about.
If you are going to attempt this type of movie it has to be amazing. It can’t just be ok. It doesn’t have anything else to bring to the table. I just didn’t feel like Young Adult was amazing. It was just ok, and that isn’t good enough in the Independent style to say go see this movie. I would think it might be a renter, but I wouldn’t go out of your way to see it.
Published by The Reviewer December 8th, 2011
in Movies.
One Sentence: 3 musical numbers, 2 funny jokes, 1 horrible movie, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: 09-Dec-2011
Nudity: None
Ugh, do I really have to spend the time to write about 300 words about this movie. It had more than 300 stars in it, so I guess I could try to muster up the strength to give them each one word. Although some of them don’t even deserve one word. There were too many of them, with too many plot lines that were not fleshed out. I don’t even know why half of them were in the movie, they were not connected to anyone else. This felt like the cheaper, crappier, American, “Love Actually.”
I almost didn’t enjoy a single moment of this movie, however there were two jokes that made me laugh. One of which was from Sofia Vergara and the other I don’t remember where it was from. The movie has to be pretty bad however if I can count on one hand the times I laughed at a comedy movie. It also had three musical numbers just thrown into it. Oh it’s time for a random song in between all these plot lines that we have to make work. We have time for crappy songs too! You could see the editing in the movie. You could see lines cut off midstream for time. Lines that mattered for the plot. There was a scene with a cell phone in a cup of rice. As if to imply that said phone got wet. There was no reference to the phone, it getting wet, or it not working. There were tons of moments like this throughout the movie. Lines cut, scenes cut, and feeling all on the cutting room floor.
I really can not think of a single reason why anyone would want to go see this movie. I am talking to you ladies, thinking that this will be a fun Christmas movie to take your man to. It is not. You would have much more fun going to your mother-in-laws house and attempting to tell her how to correctly cook a Christmas Turkey than watch New Year’s Eve.
