Amost Famous was Almost Interesting

I'm not really sure why I started watching this movie.  It popped up on my Netflix account and I figured why not.  I had seen it at Wal-Mart more times than I care to remember.  So, I picked it up and decided to give it a try.

It's kind of interesting.  I mean, I like music well enough, but I've never been to a concert, much less met any band or singer or anything.  I have a friend who's been to more concerts than I could attend in a life time, even if I wanted to.  She knows tons of bands too.  I feel like she might enjoy this movie more than I am.

My other friend might also enjoy it more than me.  She's a journalist.  I never got into journalism... I just talk about movies.

I love Zooey Deschanel.  She looks so young.  I wish she was in the movie more... oh well.

Speaking of people who look super young - Anna Paquin.  I loved her as in Fly Away Home and Rogue in the X-Men movies.  I honestly haven't kept up with her lately; I'm just not into vampires or porn - so yeah.  I liked her in her past work.

Kate Hudson looks young too, but not near as young as anyone else.  I guess she just hasn't changed as much as everyone else.  Her coat, however, does need to change.  It's awful

It really is an okay movie, I'm just not into it.  I'll finish it.

Review to Letters to Juliet

Can I just say that I love Amanda Seyfried?  She's fantastic all around.  I've loved her since Mean Girls and have continued to stalk her through her films ever since.  I wish I had eyes like her ... anyhow, moving on to the film...





I love the concept.  Okay, it is based on something that happens daily, though I'm not sure what groping Juliet's statue has to do with it, but it's nice that people still believe true love exists.  I'm just glad that this story isn't completely based on a falsehood.  At the same time, however, I don't get why Romeo and Juliet is supposed to be the greatest love story ever - they die and don't get to share that love.  What kind of love story is that?

Side Note: Gnomeo and Juliet ... not a fan.  In fact, I'm offended.

Moving on.  I hate this romantic movie slum we're stuck in.  We aren't watchign two single people fall in love anymore.  We're watching girls who are previosly engaged to some jerk only to fall in love with the right guy within a week.  That's terrible.  What kind of comment is that on society: please girls, get engaged, but remember that you're true love is still out there, so keep looking.  AWFUL.

I really did enjoy this movie though.  True love is still true love.  And as idealist as I'd like to be, I am forced to stay realistic.  True love is a rare thing and these romantic movies and books are setting us up to fall on our faces and increase the divorce rate exponentially.  Settle for mediocrity people because the likelyhood of you probably arne't going to find true love.

Still liked the movie though.

An-Other Review on The Other Guys

So this is a really hectic week for me.  Rather it has been.  Last Friday-Sunday, I went on a spontaneous vacations with the family.  It was alright, but I was sick the whole time.  Then, Monday, I went to the doctor because I had been sick for over a week.  I told him and the nurse that I had pneumonia -- I have pneumonia at least twice a year, I know when I have it.  He didn't believe me, so after chest x-rays and another doctor's appointment, he determined that I have pneumonia.  Could have told him that without the extra doctor's appointment and $30.


Along with all of this, I moved back into my apartment today.  Took me about 3 hours, but my apartment and room back in order.  Let me just say that moving stuff and pneumonia doesn't mix well.  You need a nap afterwards.


Anyway, so that left Monday-Wednesday to spend with my boyfriend, who is going to college 3 hours in the exact opposite of my college.  So there is a 6 hour difference.  So, as part of our last day together, we decided to try and see a movie: The Other Guys. The key word there is TRIED.  

I saw up to the point where Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson "aim for the bushes."  EPIC FAIL.  And yet it's so funny that it is almost win.  Almost.


Up to that point, I was fairly amused and somewhat bored.  Yes, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are funny, but I could have watched Dwight and Jim in The Office and be just as amused.  "ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER!" Also, Johnson played the exact same role he did in Get Smart, only his role was cut short by a concrete wall he just couldn't get past.  Speaking of Get Smart, Will Ferrell mirrored Steve Carell's character, and his character from Stranger than Fiction.


This does not mean it wasn't funny and enjoyable; it's just that I had seen it all before.


After that, the movie fuzzed out for the fourth time and the lady said they were having issues with all of their projectors.  When I say fuzzed out, I mean FUZZED OUT.  Think of a giant movie screen with a million different Dippin' Dots on it all having seizures at the same time.  Luckily, we could hear the sound over the drugged-up dots, but some things are meant to be seen AND heard; movies are one of them.


At least we got free tickets out of it.




I'll leave you with a quote: "I am a peacock.  I need room to fly!" - Mark Wahlberg.  For the record, I'm fairly certain that peacocks don't fly.  So keep flapping Wahlberg and we'll see who flies first.

Summer Movie Extravaganza Part Two

1. Captivated by Inception

This is definitely my favorite movie of the summer.  Hands down.  No competition.  It wins, plain and simple, even if Leonardo Dicaprio was in it.  Anyway, Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt couteract my dislike of Dicaprio's acting skills.

My mom didn't think that I would want to see this movie because it's all action-y and stuff, but there is so much more to the film than the genre.  The fact that it was about dreams made me want to see it.  The way dreams can be manipulated and altered fascnates me.  I also like to explore the way the lines between dreams and reality can be blurred.  In a way, it reminded me of Paprika, which also deals with dreams spilling into the real world.

I really like what the movie implied about ideas.  Ideas are a disease, the worst and most dangerous kind of disease.  Once an idea is planted (incepted), you can't let it go.  You are captivated with that idea.  You can't let it go until you understand it fully, and even then, you still think about it.

I also love the way they dealt with the dream worlds.  It's more than just appearing in someone's head.  You have to plan it out.  You have to build it.  You have to make it so real that no one notices that it is a dream because once they know it's a dream, the game is over and you wake up.  And Ellen Page as an architect is wonderful.  Again, I love her.  Even more than that, I love all the prep work shown leading up to the ultimate dream.  It reminded me of the Oceans movies: before the big heist, the audience is made aware of all the work that goes into making the heist happen.

The visual effects in this movie are fantastic.  But that was to be expected since Christopher Nolan directed it and he did The Dark Knight, which was awesome.

The only complaint I have about this movie is some of the execution.  Yes, the dream concept is wonderful and fascinating, but the scene jumps and lack of full explanation make the movie extremely confusing.  Some confusion is okay, but I feel that the confusion in this movie may have been a deterrant.  The concept was complicated enough before everything was jumping around.

In the end, I will admit to absolutely loving this movie.  SO SO SO much.  And it made me wonder about my own dreams.  Obviously, Dicaprio's looks like a huge building with different floors where his wife is and he can see the children playing in the yard.  But what would my dream world look like?  What would other people's dream world look like? So many things to think about... yay. 

 

#2. Not A Lot of Brotherly Love in Brothers

Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman, and Jake Gyllenhaal.  What more could you ask for in a cast?  Portman and Gyllenhaal are awesome and, even though he did that awful Spiderman 3 movie, Maguire is still a passable actor.  In fact, I would say that he has become quite good, especially with facial expressions, since then.  All you need is a fantastic plot and, presto, good movie.  

This movie was hard to watch for me.  I don't do death and that sort of thing well.  People going crazy because they've had to kill so many people is not much better, but I wanted to see it anyway.

I love that when Maguire comes home to his family, there are two distinct reactions.  First, there is the typical "YAY! Daddy's home!" reaction that is seen in pretty much every movie.   It's like a requirement somewhere: when someone comes home on leave, you have to be excited.  

But, this movie highlights another reaction, one that I feel is more natural and that I would likely have.  The other daughter is angry that her dad is home.  Yes, she is grateful that he came home even if it is only for a while, but she is mostly angry because she knows he's going to leave again soon.  Rather than deal with the grief in watching her father go back to war again, she allows herself to feel only anger so that the good-bye will be easier.


I also appreciate what the movie does with the relationship between the brothers, Gyllenhaal and Maguire.  Of course, they are going to fight because Maguire was gone and something could have happened between his brother and his wife, but there is a deeper issue going on.  They disagree on a much more fundamental and ethical issue: killing people.  On the one hand, you have a soldier, trained and praised for killing the bad guys.  On the other, you have the brother who, while seen as unsupportive, demands to know what gives a person the right to kill another, or to decide that they are "bad" and deserving of death.


I felt that the plot of the movie was very well constructed and the psychological battles going on within the characters was displayed perfectly, especially in Maguire.  I do wish that the movie kept the fact that Maguire was still alive secret longer, BUT I understand why they didn't.  If they kept it a secret, they could not have shown him struggling to survive as a prisoner of war.  You would not have seen the reasons WHY he goes crazy in the end.  And the WHY is essential to the movie.


And I love the fact that the word "affair" is never used.  It is implied that it happened, but it is never stated outright.  It reminded me of Doubt; they never say "child molestation", but the audience knows that is the issue at hand.


#3. Clashing with Clash of the Titans









Yet another Sam Worthington movie that I was not excited to see.  I think I may have an issue with him...  Any movie he's in (Terminator:Salvation, Avatar, Clash of the Titans, The Debt), I just don't want to see it.  I don't know if it's him or the type of movies he does, but I just feel a great desire to avoid him.  


Sorry about that Sam. ...Don't take it personally. I don't think it's you, though you could use some acting lessons.  I mean I know you were a robot once, but you don't have to keep being a robot.  I really think it's the movies you choose to be in; I just don't care to see them.

Clash of the Titans came out around the same time as Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief.  Having read the entire Percy Jackson series and seen the movie twice, I didn't see the need to see Clash.  My "Greek mythology" movie watching has been covered for the year, so what could I possibly gain from seeing Clash of the Titans?

Again, I watched the movie with an exasperated sigh. But, like with Avatar, I was with my family, boyfriend, and close friends.  The company made the movie experience more enjoying.


In the end, it was better than I thought it would be.  All the critics who said that it was crap were exaggerating.  No, there was nothing special, but it wasn't terrible.  The only craptastic thing in the movie was the make-up job.  Seriously?  Were all the mirrors broken?


On another note, can anyone say type-casting?  Ralph Finnes as Hades?  REALLY?  He's already Voldemort!  Why not just crown him  "Prince of Darkness" or "Anti-Christ" and get it over with?

Taken With the Grains of Salt

My favorite kind of movie is the kind that does not waste any space.  There are no filler or superfluous scenes.  Every scene, every detail, is used to the advancement of the characters and the story, even if it doesn't seem like it at first.  For this reason, Salt was highly enjoyable, though it is not better than Inception, despite what others may say.

When I sat down in the familiar burgundy fold-up movie theater chair, I had a single thought. For me, this movie had one thing going for it and one thing going against it before it even started.  On the one hand, I am a HUGE fan of Liev Schreiber; always have been.  On the other hand, I am not a fan of Angelina Jolie.  On occasion, I can put up with her (Mr. and Mrs. Smith), but generally, I'm not really taken with her or her acting skills.


That being said, I was both very pleased and pleasantly surprised.  










Schreiber did not disappoint.  He played the role I've known him to play so many times before, the smart-ass, dry guy who always knows what's going on and has a few secrets up his sleeve.  Yes, this is probably type-casting, but he does it so well and I just love it.  And he can play other characters, a la Kate and Leopold.  















Jolie, however, put on a fantastic performance.  I won't go into detail into all the roles she played, but she kept the audience guessing the entire movie.  The only thing that gave her away was a quick flicker in her eyes.  Each time that happened, it was only for a second, but it did alert the careful audience members that she may not be who she currently says she is.  The irritating part, however, is that she always manages to lose her clothing.  The opening scene, she is in nothing other than some white lingerie.  A few scenes later, Schreiber is forced to say "Get your *** - **** panties off the camera!"  Seriously... can we have one movie without her losing clothing?  Just one?








The action-y fight-scenes were pretty epic.  The elevator and the fire-extinguisher rocket were among my favorite moments.  I also liked the crazy chase scene with Jolie climbing across buildings, running through streets, and jumping from truck to truck.  I especially liked that you saw her breathing hard and start to limp a bit during her run.  Finally, someone gets it!  Action star or not, they cannot run forever and not be physically affected by it.  It's just not humanly possible.  I am aware, however, that we are talking about Hollywood and they don't necessarily care about what is and is not within human limitations.


I fear I cannot say much more without ruining the movie.  It is pretty amazing.  And you will have to think a bit, even if you are just going to the movie to enjoy it because it is human nature to try to piece puzzles together and figure out what is going on, and, whether you want to or not, you're going to try and figure out what's going on.  And, in the end, you still might be shocked. 


So be prepared.

Summer Movie Extravaganza

This month, my life has been, in a word, crazy.  Though I am highly grateful that things worked out the way they did, they have not left me a lot of time to blog about the latest movies I watched.  In lieu of making a post for each movie I saw, I thought I would combine each movie I've watched this since my last post (there's only 6) into a single blog post.

So let the fun begin.

#1 Killed by the Killers

Okay...well...my boyfriend and I wanted to see a movie, but we couldn't decide what to watch.  We had narrowed it down to Killers and The Bounty Hunter.  Because The Bounty Hunter was going to be on DVD first, we decided to watch Killers instead. So that's what we did.


The previews for this film made it look fairly comedic, however, most all of the funny points of the movie were ruined from being heavily exploited in both previews and TV spots.  So, in that respect, there was nothing to really look forward too.  Yes, it was funny, but you also knew what was coming, so it wasn't as funny.


Disregarding the previews, however, lets look at the movie.  Well...


1) It has Ashton Kutcher, who is slowly becoming a passable actor in my books, and Katherine Heigl, who I love thanks to 27 Dresses and The Ugly Truth.  The fact that I like these too performers greatly improved my movie-watching experience.  















2) It is predictable in a way only Hot Fuzz could be.  Obviously everyone is out to get them; it's just a matter of when.  At least in Hot Fuzz, you were supposed to be laughing.  With this movie, I'm not so sure.  I think the goal may have been to create suspense, but, honestly, it just had the audience rolling their eyes while they thought, "Oohh, another person out to kill them -- yippee..."  Honestly, the predictability was laughable and highly detrimental to the movie.  The sad part is that even when someone was not out to kill them, the movie still followed a predictable plot.  It was kind of pathetic.


3) Anyone see a copy-right law suit coming about?  Anyone?  Try Mr. and Mrs. Smith OR if you want to go a bit more modern, try Knight and Day.  Second verse same as the first.  All we do is change the names and slightly alter the circumstances and WAH-LAH, a new movie is born.


Despite these there issues I have with the movie, I loved it.  It was corny and cheesy and predictable and I loved every second of it because it was the first movie date that my boyfriend and i had.

#2 The Toys are Back with a Third Story to Tell

This movie is hard for me for two reasons.  

First of all, I LOVE the original Toy Story.  In fact, it is one of my all time favorite movies.  I can seriously quote 75% of the movie from memory.  When the second one premiered, I was quite disappointed.  It was alright, but it was missing the WOW factor created by the first one.  So, needless to say, I was nervous: the movie was either going to suck or rock.  

Secondly, about ten minutes into the movie, my mom got a call that my brother was being rushed into emergency surgery because his appendix had burst.  Since he was three hours away, it was a bit hectic.  After discovering this news, I was highly dismayed and distracted.  I spent most of the movie worrying about my brother: apparently it was a life or death situation. (Thankfully the surgery happened and they cleansed his body of poison and he's safe at home now).

Regardless, however, we finished the movie.

I will admit that the movie is better than the second one, but nothing can surpass the first one.  It was just too great to be surpassed.  

I did like what they did with the plot of this one.  It was relevant, unlike the second one.  I mean, some people have to be thinking: great, Andy has his toys now, but what happens when he goes off to college?  Will he take his toys with him?  If not, what will happen to them?

As sad as I was to see Andy give the toys up, I'm glad he found some place better than the SunnySide Daycare.  I cringed watching the children beat those toys up and I'm not even a toy; I'm a real live human being, but I would NEVER treat my toys like that.

Yes, the plot is simple and predictable and cheesy, but I loved every minute of it.  The moments I paid attention to anyway; I mean, I had my brother to worry about.

#3 The LAST Airbender Movie I Ever Hope to See

Before I start to review this movie, you should know that I am a HUGE fan of the Nickelodeon series it was based off of.  Seriously, I've seen the series completely through at least three times.  I love it.  It is arguably the best non-anime cartoon series in my life time.  So, needless to say, I had some high expectations for this movie.  My heart nearly exploded with joy when I heard they were turning it into a live action film.

...And then I saw it.

First of all, the name pronunciations ticked me off.  I understand that Shyamalan was trying to make the pronunciations sound more ethnically authentic, however, the name pronunciations were already established in the show.  If the names are previously established, use them.  Don't go from Aang to Ong; Sokka to Soaka; Iroh to Earoh; and Avatar to Aw-vah-tah.

Second, what's up with Prince Zuko?  Seriously.  I am exceedingly grateful that Dev Patil got the job over Jesse McCartney, who was the original pick, but still.  Where is his scar?!  If you squint your eyes, you can kind of see what may just have been a make-up mishap.  That scar is supposed to be huge and horrendous.  It's supposed to be so big that you can't stop looking at it.  That scar defines him.  Way to go Shyamalan.  You screwed up one of the series' best characters.

Third, along the same lines, what's up with Iroh and Aang?  Iroh is supposed to be this fat, lazy old man with fantastic humor and wisdom.  Instead, we get the dread lock warrior.  And Aang is supposed to be this goofy kid who has no understanding of responsibility, at least in book one, which the movie was based on.  Instead, we have the all-too-serious Ong, the kid who wants to kill everyone to avenge the Air Nomads. 

Fourth, I have an issue with Katara's narration.  In my English classes, one of my professor would constantly tell us to show him what we're talking about with detail and examples instead of telling him about it.  Shyamalan used Katara to tell the story, rather then visually putting it on the screen.  The worst example of this is the relationship between Sokka and Yue.  In the cartoon, there are two or three episodes showing that relationship grow.  In the movie, we have Katara, the worst narrator ever, saying that "Sokka and Yue became friends really quickly."  FAIL.

Fifth, the epic Avatar State moment at the end of the movie is so lame.  You build up to this epic moment where Aang is supposed to go crazy and obliterate the Fire Nation.  In the movie, you see Aang build up this huge tidal wave and then...absolutely nothing.  He drops the stupid wave and the Fire Nation flees in terror.

Sixth, Shyamalan did a terrible job in choosing what areas to highlight.  The earth benders being prosecuted by the Fire Nation is not that important.  Yes, Haku is there, but he appears only one more time in the series.  Characters he did leave out, however, such as King Boomy, Jon Jon, and Suki are all highly relevant throughout the entire series.

The thing that bothers me the most about this movie is that there was SO MUCH potential.  It could have been great, but M. Night Shyamalan screwed it up so bad. 

I've got one thing to say to you M. Night: you stand alone, just like Commander Zhao, because you wrote, directed, and produced the film.  And THAT is your greatest weakness. If you had let someone help you, they could have told you that the movie was crap before you made it.  Or maybe  you did have help and you fired them when they said what you were doing was awful.  Either way, the critics are right.  Your career may be over thanks to this movie.

One final piece of fail: thank you, McDonalds.  One of the toys happens to be a Kyoshi warrior fan; the kind that Suki would use to battle.  And who is on the fan?  Katara.  FAIL! You can't put out a toy for a character that didn't exist in the movie.  And, even if you were going to, you should have at least been ironic about it and put Sokka on it because he at least had some Kyoshi warrior training.

I guess the visual effects were nice, but that's not enough for me to forgive you, M. Night.  I need more than pretty pictures.  If you wanted to just base the movie off the series, you should have made it different, taking different details from the series and making it work for your movie.  You did it once with the water bending scroll.  You found a way to incorporate it without the pirates.  You should have done that the entire movie, rather than trying to cram twenty twenty-five minute long episodes into a two hour movie.

I say we just Hulk this movie and start fresh, forgetting that this movie ever happened.  Because the only way I'm seeing another Airbender movie is if it's directed by M. NOT Shyamalan. 

#4 Avatard

I will be completely frank with you.  I DID NOT WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE! At all.  Not even a little bit.  It has nothing to do with whether or not I like science fiction movies; it's more of a "the previews looked stupid" issue.  Also, the creator stole the name and font from Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender series.


For reals, I saw the previews and nearly died laughing.  I'm not sure what it was, but I just found the whole concept of the movie to be silly.  It became funnier when a person I know got excited because the humans were the bad guys for once.  I stifled a laugh because me, being the cynic I am, wanted to point out that humans are always the bad guys. People suck, end of story.


Then, when the movie came out, EVERYBODY was excited and talking about how great it was.  Generally, if that many people think something is great, I won't like it.  Also, the more people like something, the more likely it is to become overrated.  My already negative perception of Avatar grew immensely due to this.  I managed to avoid seeing the movie for almost a year, but I knew I would have to watch it sometime because my family loved it.


I was not exactly thrilled to be watching it, but I thought "what the heck?"  I mean, my boyfriend was over and my dad was actually going to watch a movie with us.  Even if the movie was going to suck (like I thought it would), the company I was watching it with would kind of make up for it.  

So, the movie:  


I liked that it had Jake Sully narrating.  I always love it when I get to see exactly what is going on in a character's head.  Sam Worthington, however, could have put a bit more emotion into the character.  Everything he was was so monotone and flat; it was almost like he was bored with the character, so he didn't want to try.  That, or he's actually a robot.  I'm not sure which is true... 


The plot was very blah.  It wasn't terrible, but very much overdone.  You have one group of people who are "primitive" and living off the land, showing it respect and understanding the life within nature.  You have another group of people who are technologically obsessed and think they know better than everyone else.  They're goal is to enlighten the natives and take the land from them.  Wow.  How original.  How many more cowboys versus Indians movies do we need before we realize that this symbolism and analogy is too overdone?


I will admit that visually, the movie had a lot going for it.  It was very pretty to watch.  The problem with that is that I want something more substantial than a bunch of pretty pictures on a screen.


In the end, I watched it, but I was mostly bored.  I can see why some people liked this movie, but I just found it very blah. It was MUCH better than I thought it would be, but, when it was over, all I could think was, "Wow, this is a forever long movie."  That reaction may have been because I was tired, but I think it was also because I got bored with the movie and was just dying for it to end.  I think it would have been better if it were two separate movies.  My boyfriend suggested that they ended it when he jumps on the dangerous flying thing (the one that only five had ridden before) and let the second movie be the big battle between the humans and the giant blue cat people.

#5  I Found This Movie Less Than Despicable

Disclaimer: I felt like crap when I saw this movie, so that may effect my enjoyment and critique ability.

I heard many good things about this movie.  As my brother put it, "It's funnier than Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs."  Given that, I wanted to be absolutely dazzled by this movie because I found Cloudy original, quirky, and odd.  In other words, I loved it.  So, when I entered the theater with my baby brother (so my dad and brother could go see Predators), I had fairly high expectations.

Well...it wasn't nearly as funny as I had hoped it would be. I mean it was amusing as some points, but at others, my general feelings were "meh."  And the little yellow things were just kind of there.  I think the general goal was for them to function as oompa loompas, a la Willy Wonka, but it just didn't work for me.

On the other hand, I enjoyed the fact that the protagonist in the movie was an evil person.  Not only that, but it was a villain battling a rival villain.  It was a nice break from the standard good versus evil.  It was more evil versus more evil.

Also, the movie got extremely complicated and touching on an ethical level: Despicable has a choice to make: he can give up the dream job of a life time and change his entire reputation for three children he hardly knows OR he can take the job.  There are numerous examples I can think of where a parent sacrifices their own desires and needs in the interest of their children. It was sweet in that expect.

Overall, I will grant that the movie is cute and original with the premise of "may the best villain win;" however, it has an entirely too cheesy, heart-warming ending.  The movie wasn't terrible, but it wasn't anything special; it was merely okay.  

#6 When In Rome, Stay Away from the Fountain...

Can I just say that Kristin Bell is the cutest actress in the world.  I love her to death.  She can be sweet and unassuming (When in Rome, Couples Retreat) or she can kick some major butt (Fanboys and Elle in Heroes).  Watching this movie, it was hard for me to remember that she ever played Elle Bishop, but she did.  And her wardrobe was awesome.  I wish I had one like it.  Also, her acting was awesome.  She's just so adorable.

Anyhow...onto the movie!!

Well...the plot was fairly predictable, but it had it's own moments of fun originality.  There were just moments where the viewer was like "Okay, I know what happens next" and then something unexpected happens...usually involving someone getting hurt.  For example, you see the love interest, Nick, jump over a horse drawn carriage successfully (one person already attempted this and failed), only to be hit by car.  Comedic moments like these are what set this movie apart from other romantic comedies.

Despite it's predictability,  I still loved it.  Yes, it's cheesy and cute, but I'm a girl.  I'm allowed to like movies like that on occasion.




#7 Brownwood Lyric Theatre's Production of Annie

Yes, I am aware that this is a play and technically not a movie, but, in my mind, they are close enough.  So, let's start this review with a song.

"The sun will come out, too-maw-woah.  Bet your bottom dollar that too-maw-woah, I'll still have a frown.  Too-maw-woah! Too-maw-woah! I'll still frown too-maw-woah! It's only a day away!"  

Yes, I know it's probably mean to make fun of a little kid who probably hasn't acted before, but still.  If you were an orphan, brought into a family and about to be adopted, you would at the very least smile.  Even if it's the world's tiniest smile, it would still be there.  For this Annie, everything deserved a frown.  The frown worked while she was in the orphanage, but when she's told she's going to be adopted, she makes the world's biggest frown.  FAIL!  Also, for the character of Annie, they should have picked a girl who could be loud.  Again, I know she's a little kid, but I was sitting in the second row and I couldn't hear her half the time.  Plus, she seriously needed a better wig for the curly hair.  It was terrible.

Even if Annie couldn't smile, however, the other orphans could.  During "Hard Knock Life," I don't think there was a single child frowning.  They all had big grins on their faces.  I'm guessing that they REALLY liked scrubbing the floors.  They were adorable though.  Especially the girl who played Molly; even if I can't stand her mother, she was pretty cute.

Despite the children from the "we can't act" school, everyone else was, in a word, brilliant.  Hannigan was wonderful.  DWB was hilarious.  Grace and Drake were perfectly orderly and precise.  And Rooster...well...he definitely was my favorite.  He was just too fantastic.  I am glad, however, that I do not go to school in Brownwood anymore because the man playing Rooster was one of my history professors.  Seriously, I defended my Baccalaureate Thesis to this guy.  But there he is on stage, having the time of his life being goofy.  I will say that it made my viewing experience much funnier.

In the end, I enjoyed it; especially since it was my first exposure to Annie and I knew a few of the cast members.  Fiddler on the Roof (last year's production), however, was so much better.

Surro-got

Surprisingly, I really did enjoy this movie.  I'm not so much into the futuristic/ robots-have-taken-over-the-world movies.  I think they are silly and a big fantastical.  

Plus, I thought the previews for this movie looked a bit silly and lame.  So much so that I planned on not seeing the movie at all.  But, as we all know, life happens and you don't always get to pick the movie you see.  Sometimes, you watch movies because other people want to watch it and you want to spend time with them.

And thus, I watched Surrogates.

I really like the premise that the movie poster sets up:  "Human perfection...what could go wrong?"  Well...everything because humans were never intended to be perfect.  In fact, we are repeatedly reminded that we are far from perfection and that we will never be perfect.  So, that, in itself, is very intriguing; however, this was not enough to pull me into the theater.  It was too predictable: of course things were going to go wrong.  You are dealing with robots AND trying to be perfect --  you're going to screw up somewhere.

Honestly, I don't recall anything too striking about the movie itself.  It was just an action flick.  I watched, I held hands with my boyfriend, I drank some soda, and that's about it.  There was no WOW factor to make it stand out in my mind.



The only thing I really liked was the ending, when everyone is forced to become human again.  Disconnected from their surrogates, people are forced to actually live again.  They are forced to remember that they have limits and that life does suck sometimes, but you don't get to check out completely.  Bruce Willis' wife, for example, refuses to live without her surrogate because she would be forced to deal with her depression and face the fact that her son is dead.  Yes, life can hurt, but you don't stop living.

In the end, I side with the villain.  The surrogates needed to be destroyed.  Did EVERYONE need to be destroyed because they used the surrogates?  No.  But he realized that his creation was completely out of control and it needed to be stopped.  People need to live, not sit in a chair and live vicariously through some sort of synthetic being.

The Truth is Sometimes... Well... Ugly

When this film originally came out, I was unsure of what to think.  Yes, the previews made it look funny, however, I got very mixed reviews from people who went and saw the movie before I did.  A lady I worked with at the time said it was hilarious, but you had to have a twisted sense of humor to enjoy it; it did, however, make a good date movie.  A friend of mine went to see it with her grandmother and was a bit embarrassed after wards.  Apparently, it was not one of those movies you take your grandmother too.  The one that beats them all, however, was when my mom went to see it.  She brought my 13-year-old sister, a good friend of the family, and my 20-year-old brother.  They couldn't even finish the movie.  They walked out with ketchup-splattered faces, especially my brother.  Apparently, he hid his face completely and asked that no one look at him for a while, so he could regain his composure or something. 

So, essentially, that equals 1 yes; 1 maybe, depending on your company; and 1 so offended that they left the movie and promised to never see it again.  This of course made me deadly curious to see this movie.  I mean, how bad could it be that my mom, brother, sister, and friend walked out of?  How bad was it that this friend in particular was a bit embarrassed?

So, when the opportunity arose for me to watch it, I of course said yes for two reasons: the company was good and I HAD to know what made my mom leave. 

Well, lets start with the characters.

I loved Katherine Heigl.  She was hysterical, especially when trying to confront Gerard Butler about supposed lack of respect for women.  And, when she is around Collin, her supposed dream guy, her facial expressions were wonderful.  It was like "get me out of here" pretty much the whole time.

As much as I loved Heigl, I loved Gerard Butler's character so much more.  Sure, he was offensive and a bit of a womanizer, but he was honest.  Whatever he thought, he flat out said it, hence the title "The Ugly Truth."  I appreciated his lack of tact and general smoothness in dealing with people.  And, as much as I hate to admit it, some of the things he said were completely true, whether I wanted them to be.  It also helped that I know a guy who could easily have played Butler's character without even trying because that's just how he is.

My favorite scene was definitely when he took her shopping for the "look" to get the guy.  It was funny in it's own right, but at the same time, I could see myself in Heigl's position.  I would be completely lost.  It would have been nice to have someone show me what I need to know to get the guy.  And the friend I'm thinking of probably wouldn't have had an issue helping me find that "look".


In the end, I will say this.  Yes, the movie is quite a bit uncouth, however, it is not any worse than Made of Honor.  Just saying.  And it was pretty predictable.  There was nothing special about this romantic comedy to make it stand out from any other one.  Except for maybe the end...

She asks "Why do you like me?"  His response is classic: "Beats the [heck] our of me."  I love it. So perfect.