Year One feels like the end product of a small child making up a story as they go along. Seemingly random events occur for no other reason that it might be a little amusing and keeps the plot moving. With the Ghostbusters having a 25th anniversary revival I was looking forward to getting on the Harold Ramis bandwagon and enjoy this movie, but it seems that Egon needs to stick to PKE-Meters and leave the writing to Apatow’s other cronies. This movie rambles on and never accomplishes anything besides the simple gags that we all have seen from the trailer.
Jack Black and Michael Cera play the same roles they have for the past five years, though Black fits the bill and works with the formula. The odd-couple pairing doesn’t fair so well for Cera, who’s 100th iteration of his Arrested Development role doesn’t work with a caveman wig on. In fact this movie simply highlights how horribly typecast his career has become. With cameos by anyone who ever made you laugh before, this film has all the ingredients for a hilarious movie- but unfortunately the sum is less than the parts. It really feels more like a costume party for funny people that somehow ended up being videotaped.
Honestly you really should skip this one. I didn’t have the highest of hopes for it from the outset but after sitting through this mess I feel compelled to save anyone else the bother if I can.
Transformers was a massive hit and a movie I really liked. It’s flawed to a degree that any legitimate critic can do little but point out all the faults, but what it lacked in Oscar nods it made up for with good old fashion ass-kickery. Transformers 2 follows suit and is exactly what everyone is expecting; a second high octane adrenaline romp with amazing eye candy, awesome action and some good laughs. It’s the quintessential summer blockbuster. Is it a ‘good’ movie? No probably not. But is it is a must see experience that is just all out fun. What I like best about Transformers 2, is that everything that was good in the first one is created exactly the same way in the follow-up. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it they say, and apparently Michael Bay agrees with that mantra.
Unfortunately the roster gets padded out with too many new robots that are never really fleshed out. With the exception of the ‘Twins’ all the new characters go largely unannounced and feel very tacked-on. Somehow their inclusion is able to rob enough screen time form the original cast of mechanized monsters just enough that they seem shortchanged. Mainstay Bumblebee is the most notable victim here, which is a shame because he is my favorite character. Optimus Prime fans won’t be disappointed however as his role is actually increased from the original and is jacked up with extra-badass for good measure. Megatron, the previous villain is overshadowed now by a more evil and more powerful enemy; The Fallen, who honestly is a pretty weak enemy. Why not just have the exact same plot but by Megatron’s design instead of diluting his evilness and bringing in someone more senior than him? Doesn’t make sense to me. The first movie had too many humans (Anthony Anderson I am looking at you) and this movie seems to have too many robots.
Eye candy-wise this movie definitely delivers. The transformation animations are still spectacular and some of the battles are really pretty gritty and epic. From the giant wheel-bot rampage in the first act, to the massive, multi-transformer beast, 'Devastator' at the films climax- the cgi is simply amazing. I do worry that the novelty of transforming cars has been overshadowed now and that things are only going to get even bigger form here on out. The charm of a boy finding that his car is a guardian robot is lost in the sequel and the characters seem more jaded to the idea of transforming aliens than they should be. Ok its two years later, but come on…that semi-truck just turned into a talking robot! We don’t need to simply see bigger and bigger robots to keep the Transformer franchise engaging- I hope that Bay and co. can see that.
Speaking of jaded, maybe I am just getting picky, but Meghan Fox was a little weird looking in this film and was not the knockout she was in the original. I think its largely due to a change in her character, who now has been reduced to a waif of spends most of the movie doting on Shia laBoeuf. But the real damage comes form her botoxed looking lips. Those things are as big as some of the robots in this movie- chill out lady!
All said and done this movie is exactly what everyone is expecting, including myself. It’s big, its expensive and its good old fashioned summer fun. This is why they invented popcorn. And Cameros.
I always had my reservations about Pixar’s Up. To be perfectly honest, when I first saw the concept sketches and promotional art for the movie I had genuine worry that Pixar might have dropped the ball. With such strong entries in the stable like The Incredibles, Toy Story and the recent Wall.e, Up has a high bar to hurdle right out of the gate. Unfortunately I don’t quite think it cleared the post.
Up falls into the sub-category of less than stellar Pixar movies along side A Bugs Life and Cars. These are not bad movies, not by a long shot, but they just don’t blow me away like their other classmates do. Up honestly feels like it should have been a Pixar short, shown before a real entry to the prestigious library. The main character, the plot and the whole approach to the film seems like it could have been a 5 min charmer before a big film. It’s pretty much an atmospheric music video, stretched out over an hour and a half.
Visually it’s of Pixar caliber, and the animation is top notch. Pixar are the best of the best when it comes to CG animations and Up has all the polish and frills that we have come to expect from these guys over the years. The characters are rather charming and the pairing of the grumudgeny old Carl with the overly enthusiastic boy scout; Russell, works quite well. They are an odd-couple pairing that bring out the best in each other, which is quite enjoyable to watch. The movie is actually very morose at times and the back story on Carl is rather touching. People where crying during a Pixar movie…that’s weird to me.
Once the heartbreak tapers off, the adventure begins and unfortunately after the adventure gets underway, sheer randomness takes hold and the movie starts to fall apart. Ok a guy ties balloons to his house to sail away on an adventure…yes that’s pretty weird, but these movies are allowed a fantastical element or two. But it’s when an army of talking dogs in biplanes, a chocolate obsessed, 15-foot rainbow toucan and an airship piloted by a madman join the mix this movie just felt too oddball to be taken seriously. On one hand our hearts are bleeding for a old man who wishes to fulfill a promise to a long lost love, and on the other we have to deal with a talking dog who wants to take an extinct bird prisoner. The randomness robs the movie of any real soul and we are left with a rather empty movie when the crazy-dust settles.
The scenery is fantastic, the modeling and animation are phenomenal and the main characters are rather endearing. However everything else is a soulless romp through randomness, and that ultimately hurts this movie.
When I started out as a blogger I was a little hesitant to really dig into the idea of a glorified online diary. What’s the point of sharing these posts with people may or may not even know? Who cares? After giving it a go primarily as a method of communicating my goings-on with those I left behind when living in Orlando, I found myself thinking like a blogger. If I did something cool or came across something interesting I instantly started thinking “oh I need to get this up on my blog!” and started thinking what I wanted to say before I even got to my computer. My life soon became a string of events that where justified solely by an online presence. If I did something, I did it to blog about it later.
Simply put, Twitter is killing my blog.
How could I go from positing 5-6 times a week about anything and everything, to barely getting 5 posts off in a month? Its not the fact that I am back home again, because my 2nd blog took off right where the Orlando one left off and boasted just as many posts as its predecessor. Honestly the downfall of my blogging fervor is that little blue birdy that everyone is talking about: Twitter.
The ability to shoot of a rapid posting from my phone at any point, is much more appealing than sitting down at the keyboard and hammering something out at the end of an evening. Twitter is so much faster, better streamlined and much simpler than a fully fledged blog. It’s Facebook and Blogspot’s illegitimate lovechild. All the benefits of both, with none of the drawbacks. Social networking has never been easier and neither has blogging. I still like posting more than 140 characters once in a while, particularly movie reviews. But Twitter has undeniably put a dent in my (and many others) blogging by appealing to short attention spans, hunger for updates and the need for social networking.
The Hangover pushes a lot of boundaries and relies a lot on shock value to fuel its gags. But where films have tried and failed before, the Hangover actually pulls it of and has the whole audience laughing from start to finish (especially the finish).
The key I think is that while these characters are the cause and effect of all of their misadventures, they are not necessarily the focus of the movie. The characters all have their own roles to play and they fulfill them well, but the truth is that you could sub any one of them out for another actor and the movie would still stand strong. I don’t mean to say I’d like to swap-out Cooper, Helms or Galifianakis- far from it, they are brilliant together. But their movie is hilarious despite their efforts and its nice to see that the comedy doesn’t hinge on their celebrity to make it funny. The end result is something genuinely hysterical, not a movie we feel should be considered funny simply because of all the components. We’re all fed up of Will Ferrell playing the same character and making a fool of himself (see this week’s box office open for Land of the Lost) and this movie goes to show that you don’t need to have big stars doing slapstick with a silly voice to get a rise out of the audience.
The premise is as simple as they get and harkens back to director Tod Phillips’ Old School in its effortless, but rewarding approach to story telling. These guys aren’t really ‘everymen’ and this isn’t an ‘everyman scenario’ (when taken to the extremes that this movie does) but somehow the characters and story connect with the audience by simply being outrageous and perverse enough to make you stop and think “yeah that’s pretty much what I’d do if I found a tiger in my bathroom… or if my friend got punched in the face by Mike Tyson…”
One of the best parts about the way the movie came to a head was that during the whole film you are with these poor guys who are trying desperately to retrace their debaucherous night, and have to follow a trail of evidence that implies that things got pretty wild. Then at the end of the movie there is a surprise that allows the audience to see (with an odd mix of utter disgust and pure jubilation) exactly what did transpire at that fateful bachelor party. The payoff was unexpectedly rewarding and ties together all the terrible events that where implied and hinted at through the film.
For the Memorial Day weekend Eric, Sarah and I headed up north to the Hamptons to visit Paul and Christina. They moved up about a year ago and I’ve often said I’d go visit but have never made it up. This long weekend served the perfect opportunity to take a road trip and do just that. Being that my car doesn’t have AC and Eric’s car cannot go in reverse anymore, Sarah stepped up as the wheelwoman and drove. It took a little longer than we’d have liked heading up due to the holiday traffic but we made it eventually. It was really nice to see Paul again and spend some time with the newlyweds in their own home. We hot up a few of the popular Hampton shopping districts to meander about and grab some grub. We also drove along the shoreline checking out the massive mansions that line the coast. Some of the houses out there are absolutely beautiful. Others…not so much. It seems that some people think that ‘massive’ is the only criteria for a multimillion dollar house, and forget about taste…
We went to a local brewpub so I could get my fill of regional brews, aswell as a local bar that was featured on Kitchen Nightmares; Finn McCool’s. When we weren’t out drinking and eating we headed back to Paul and Christina’s house to hangout with Roxy, their adorable dog, and just enjoy each other’s company. I look forward to going back during the summer months to enjoy the season bars/clubs that weren’t quite open yet.
The ride home was a bit hectic as we missed our exit and ended up having to navigate downtown Manhattan with a failing GPS. It was a little scary, but cool to get to see the city again; albeit for a few minutes and from the confines of Sarah’s Yaris. Snapped the piccie below on the way out. Fun weekend.
Sunday, Sarah and I teamed up with Katie, Aaron, Eric, Coy, Chelsea and Jason to take on the 2009 Post Hunt, in DC. The hunt is organized by the Washington Post Magazine, and is a series of riddles and puzzles spread out across the Freedom Plaza area of the District. Thousands showed up from all over to race to the finish and take a shot at the $2000 reward. Our team wasn’t really in it for the money (not that we wouldn’t take it of course) more so the thrill of the chase and see how far we could compete. The contest consisted of 5 lesser puzzles hidden throughout the area that competitors needed clues and a copy of the Post Magazine to locate. At each location there was a different riddle awaiting the teams- each yielding a number as the solution. Once all 5 solutions where found the numbers corresponded with a series of clues also found within the magazine. Those, combined with a clue that was presented by Dave Barry after a few hours had passed, was the super-puzzle that offered the grand prize. We put a solid dent in 4 of the 5 puzzles and solved 3 of them correctly- which is more than we where thinking we would. Collectively as a team we where pretty good, though I felt like dead weight to a degree, with only a few useful revelations to contribute. Check out the official Post Hunt website to see the puzzles and the solutions. They are worth watching! I was very impressed with the production value that went into this thing. It was a Da Vinci Code/Carmen Santiago hybrid, and a ton of fun from start to finish. I am really glad we went out for it, and look forward to trying our hand at it again for the 2010 Hunt!
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