So remember this is a rated R movie.  It is not for your kids.

I was a bit surprised by Sausage Party.  I was a bit worried about it, it looked like a cash grab and that the animation was going to be very poor.  I am glad to report that I was wrong on both counts.  It was well put together and funny and the animation did not suck at all.

I think I will start with the animation, which was very well done.  Animation and art direction actually.  Everything looked amazing, the personification of all the food and non-food products was very well thought out.  It really helped deliver the point of the jokes and the commentary of the movie as a whole in a way that would not have worked if they were not talking food products.  While almost literal in their symbolism, I think having it be so blatant helped with everything this movie was trying to say in the subplots.  The subplots were what I liked most about this movie.

The top level story was a little too simple and almost too cartoony for me.  It really felt like too young of a story line for the movie they were making.  They had all this stuff going on behind the main storyline that was far more interesting and really made the movie feel smart.  Then you had this main plot point that was not smart enough.  I don’t think it is enough to make me disregard this movie, because I still had a lot of fun with it, but it did let me down a little bit on what I think could have been something a lot better.

Everyone did good voice work and the characters were very fun.  The jokes were solid.  I would not say this was the funniest movie I have seen by this team, but it was solid enough.  Overall I would say this movie is good enough and looks pretty enough for you to go see in the theater.

I used Kate McKinnon’s poster for Ghostbusters because I think she is hilarious and I think she was a big issue with Ghostbusters.  She is representative of exactly what I thought about the new Ghostbusters.  They had an idea and they executed it incorrectly.  With Kate McKinnon, I am not sure if this was the character she created or was directed to act that way, but she was underused and very odd.  Not in a funny way, in a weird way, a way that stuck out and left me confused.  There were a lot of choices in this movie that left me confused.

I am just not sure what this movie is.  If it is a comedy, it was not very funny, and very slow.  It had so many slow parts, that could have been more silly or more something.  There were some scenes that just drag on.  If it was a thriller or action movie it wasn’t those either.  The threat was not really a threat, and it didn’t feel scary, or exciting.  Not that I was expecting scary, I was just expecting something.  It was almost like a science documentary of made up science terminology where people tried to make up the silliest things that sounded real.

It was an explosion of special effects, in a movie that did not need special effects.  We know what the ghostbusters beam looks like, and we know what ghosts look like, you do not need to spend all the time making pretty ghosts.  Make a funny, interesting story, that is what people want.   It really just got lost and did not work for me.  I didn’t hate it, and I don’t think the haters have even seen it, but I am just disappointed because it could have been so much more.

First I must disclose something before I write this review.  I received a package from the marketing group for Keanu.  I received a plush Keanu kitty and a calendar with all the photos of Keanu in the various movie poses that are part of the story.   Here is an example of one of the pictures from the calendar.  If you want to see all of them, they are in the movie…so if you want to see them you better get to the theater.

These pictures are awesome and I think well worth the price of admission themselves.

Some of you might not be into kitty movie call backs and really want to know if this movie is any good and if you should plop down your hard earned cash.  The trailer doesn’t sell it very well and you are worried I get it.  Even though the photo above should be enough for everyone.

Keanu is a semi fun movie that doesn’t live up to its full potential.  It is funny, I had a good time watching it and I felt like they could of done so much more.  Keanu feels like the type of movie that will be played on Comedy Central every Sunday for the next 10 years.  Like Harold and Kumar.  It was solid and isn’t bad in any way.  It just wasn’t amazing either and that is what we all wanted.  Something amazing with Key and Peele and a kitten.  I felt like the cat was under utilized, they could of done so much more with him.  While the movie is funny, it just doesn’t have the punch of getting off the network TV leash and having a rated R movie to do a lot more with.

I want to convey that I did have a lot of fun watching this movie and felt like it is worth seeing even in the theater, it just wasn’t the comedy home run I wish it was.

I am ashamed.  I prejudged, based on a trailer.  I try not to watch trailers in general, they are horrible misleading things, that can skew the experience of a movie quite a bit.  It can make you think a movie will be the best thing you have ever seen, only to be woefully disappointed.  Or as with The Night Before, it can make you think you are about to see a horrible pile of crap, but are given a wonderful movie watching experience.

The Night Before has everything you want in a Christmas rated R movie.  A solid funny movie, with something redeeming and wonderful in the end.  This is not a dark R rated comedy with nothing of value.  It is smart, cute, funny, adult and charming.  It has a great ending and is way better than that horrible trailer is making it look.  Seth Rogan is in top form in this movie and is so funny, it is one of my favorite characters he has ever played.  This movie deals with friendship, family, growth, and all those things that we want to think about around Christmas.  It does not pander, or force those messages either.  They feel natural, and part of the story.

I know that The Hunger Games comes out this weekend, so getting you to go see The Night Before is going to be hard, but I am going to try anyway.   This is the movie we need for Thanksgiving.  The Hunger Games is ok, but this is the better movie.  Everything about it feels far better than The Hunger Games and if I had to pick which one I was going to see this weekend (If I did not have kids with me) I would pick The Night Before.

The First Night Trivia:  The man who plays Mr. Green is also General Zod, and does not have a twitter account.

I feel like I grew up on the original National Lampoon’s Vacation, and to some extent European Vacation as well.  Not just watching the movies, but they seemed like they were about my life.  We did road trips to amusement parks all the time, and I just felt like I had a connection to these movies.  The first two are the only one’s I ever considered really amazing, and the rest were just beating a dead horse.  So when you make a reboot of something that has already been done to death and is something that is part of our culture, it is going to be hard to get over. I think they have a little bit of leeway with Vacation however, because there is not a lot of lore, or story arc.  The kids were never the same, and it was just a comedy, and it played out more like a sequel.  They did it right, a reboot that was actually a sequel.

So if you have seen the red band trailer, you know this movie is rated R and at least looks pretty funny.  I would say this is exactly my review of the movie.  It is Rated R and is pretty funny.  It isn’t going to win any awards and I had a fun time watching it.  I really like Christina Applegate, and I really liked that they had the woman doing some of the slapstick stuff, and making some bad decisions as well.  Equal rights for all idiots!  It was done very well.  It stood on it’s own and I could see this becoming a new franchise, as long as they keep up with the R rating and don’t water it down.  This movie also has one of the best opening credits sequences I have even seen, so make sure you are in your seat before the movie starts.

This is not the best comedy of the year, but it also isn’t a waste of time.  I would say even paying for this movie might be worth it, if you are looking for a comedy and already saw Trainwreck.  If you are looking for action though this weekend Mission Impossible wins out over Vacation.

The reason I wanted to start writing movie reviews, was to stop paying for movies.  I went to so many movies, the expense was just getting so high, so I decided to figure out a way for me to save money on something I love to do.  I still love going to the movies most of the time, and I still love movies.  This is not my job, this is a side project that I do, and I do not see every movie.  So I think that is why I disagree with most critics on Pixels.

Pixels is a fun movie, it has jokes, video games, amazing CG, Peter Dinklage, and nostalgia.  It is a Happy Madison production, and it does follow Happy Madison’s formula that they seem to pull out for every movie, hot women, underdogs, random jokes, and not a lot of depth.  I think this is where the difference is between something who loves movies, and who’s job it is to watch movies.  Pixels if rated against Inside Out, or Ex-Machina is no where close to as good, but I don’t care, and you should not either.  Pixels is just a fun movie, it has a Giant Pac-Man, and an amazing Centipede, Q-Bert and so many other little awesome things in it.  It looks amazing, and for the most part is quite funny.  What else do you need?  This movie is a fun summer movie, and as always that is how I rate my movies.  How much did I have fun watching it or how much did I enjoy it, and I enjoyed Pixels quite a bit.

If you know you are getting into a Happy Madison production, and you accept that you will have just as much of a good time with Pixels as I did.  Ignore all the critics including me, and go see it if it looks good to you.  On the 3-D front, this was a conversion movie, so not natively shot in 3-D.  Which is a shame because if it was, I bet I would say go see it in 3-D.  It was still quite amazing looking in 3-D for a conversion movie, so you might even want to put up the extra cash for it.

I have never watched this show.  It just seemed like a bunch of douchebags being rich dicks, and their useless friends who are even more pathetic.  So I have no context of this movie in relation to the show.  Obviously it seemed like going into the movie I already had a bias.

After watching the movie, would I go back and watch the show?  No I would not.  However the movie isn’t bad.  It does seem like I was right in my assumptions, douchebags being rich dicks.  They are not as bad as I thought though.

Entourage feels like I long episode.  A good long episode, with lots of cameos, a solid script and some funny moments.  It really came out as less angry and more about some solid friends, who for the most part are tight and do not hurt each other.  Which is something I was not expecting.  I think if they had even focused more of the behind the scenes of making a movie and less about the women and relationships with women, it would have been an even better movie.  However they needed to get the boobs and the random girls in the movie and it seemed to take away from a lot of the main focus and helped it get lost along the way.  This complaint is minor however and for the most part I did have fun watching Entourage.

I think there are a lot of people divided on this movie.  I understand their bias, but I think even with that bias they might have a good time with this movie.  It isn’t necessary to run to the theater to pay full price.  I think most people will have fun with Entourage.

Rated: PG-13

Nudity: None

I was excited.  I find Sofia Vergara quite funny on Modern Family and I have always liked Reese.  So I figured that this would would be pretty good.  I figured it would at least be fun.  A new attempt at a woman’s action comedy that didn’t have Melissa McCarthy in it.

It was none of those things.  It felt like a horrible sitcom style show put into movie format.  With weak jokes that were geared toward the lowest common denominator.  I was clearly in the minority however because the audience loved it.  Laughing and in the comments afterward everyone said they thought it was hilarious.   To me it felt weak, poorly put together, rushed, and having a real weak plot that did not make much sense.  Which is fine for a comedy if it is funny.  Neither leading lady felt like they had the feel for this movie down and it just didn’t work for me.  I think I laughed twice in the whole movie.  These two did not work together and it shows through painful jokes and slow scenes that are strung together by the supposed plot that felt like it was put together by the action comedy dart board.

I am so sad to say this because I wanted to like this movie but this is a complete skip.  No matinee, no money should be spent on this movie at all.  It wasn’t even worth the free Hot Pursuit branded nail file I got the screening.

One Sentence: Get funnier.

Rated: R

Nudity: Boobs and Wangs

I think Get funnier might be a bit too harsh, because I did laugh watching this movie.  It was a funny movie, but I didn’t think it was a hilarious movie.  I didn’t love it.  I felt like there were some slow parts of it.  So I guess Get Funnier was a bit too harsh.  I had a hard time coming up with one sentence to say about this movie.   Easily forgotten.   Funny sometimes.

I think that Hart and Ferrell didn’t work well together.  It just didn’t gel for me.  There was something stopping it from really working, it is very hard to put my finger on it.  It just was an OK movie.  I think that is the full extent of it.  It had some funny parts, but was almost 2 hours long and it just had some parts that could have been slimmed down.  They tried a little too hard in some parts, and just try hard enough in others.  It felt like it wasn’t thought out, and they didn’t use their edit button enough.  They could have cut some things and still gotten the story right, and kept the pacing up to keep it funny without slowing down.

It was entertaining and I had a good time watching it, I just will not really remember it later.  I won’t watch it again and I would be a little upset if  I paid full movie price for it.  I think it is at least something to see this weekend, since there is so little to watch in theaters right now.  So a matinee viewing might be worth it for those who love Kevin Hart of Will Ferrell.  Everyone else I think can rent it.

One Sentence: I am not sure what is going on in this one.

Rated: R

Nudity: Yes

After Credits: None

Um…I am not sure what happened with this one.  There are all these flashy things, that are pulling in all these directions and it sounds exciting, and smart.  The kind of things that make you want to act like you know what is going on so that everyone around you doesn’t think you are an idiot, but in reality everyone is lost.  Boats, Dentists, Runaways, prostitutes, FBI, drugs, kidnappings, and this and that and the other.  It all just leads to some funny scenes that are not really going to make much sense at the end.

I would say that I liked Inherent Vice, or some of Inherent Vice.  I did think it was funny in some parts.  I did like the acting for the most part, and I did like some scenes.  I liked the relaxed feel of everybody, weaving in and out of each others lives and stories.  I thought that was well done, but with that ease came a loss of what the hell was going on.  By the end of the movie I was watching resolutions, that I understood, but I did not know how we got to those resolutions.  Since I enjoyed the scenes so much that led to these resolutions, not knowing how we got to them is I suspect bad writing.

I think this movie was saved by the actors ddeliveringthe best they could with what they had.  It fell down with delivering a full story, and makes for a less than amazing movie experience.  I think this one in a rental for those that really love anyone that worked on this movie, but I think most people can stay away from it.