Friday, April 9, 2010
Hot Tub Time Machine
So last weekend got a chance to sit down and watch a movie, that at first glimpse i said out loud, you have got to be kidding me. Not a hope, i am going to sit down and watch this.
Well after a few drinks and rounding up at least one member of the movie crew i relented and the following is what i came up with.
Hot Tub Time Machine is a movie that really for all intensive purposes is exactly how the title depicts it. Three buddies and one step child go back in time to the 1980’s to relieve one of the best weekends of their life. Yes i know what most people are thinking and i probably would have given up right then and there. However, the story goes that Adam (John Cusack) and his buddies Nick Webber and Jacob head out as a part of an intervention weekend for their friendships. They head out to a ski lodge where they had some amazing times 20 years ago. Well silly drunken night later they wind up in the hot tub time machine.
What follows is about 85 minutes of what you would have to say are some very funny laugh out loud moments. Really the story is secondary here, to the sight gags and retro 80’s humour and kick ass soundtrack.
Please don’t expect much from HTTM as it is very light on plot and character development. This isn’t going to win any Oscars, however if you are looking for a low budget comedy that really draws alot of comparisons to The Hangover (2009) there is some similarities.
The characters aren’t nearly as memorable however some of the “situations” that the guys wind up in are way over the top and really kept the crowd not only entertained throughout, but laughing wildly in some areas.
For me personally John Cusack does pretty good films or just god awful stuff ( Gross Point Blank 2005) and this one was surprising to say the least. Overall if you need a good laugh, and aren’t easily offended it might just be a good bet to be entertained.
The Good- The 18A rating, which allows the story to not be some tired, boring cliche movie.
The Bad- There are slow moments to this movie, but mostly are offset with some pretty wild humor.
The Ugly- The bet in the bar and when the boys lose, all i can say is. “Damn, its as big as my forearm”
The Verdict- Hot Tub Time Machine gets 3.5 out of 5.
Posted by Ryan at 11:54 AM 0 comments
Friday, April 2, 2010
How To Train Your Dragon
Back from the tropical vacation and apologies as this column is a bit tardy. However last weekend got a chance to get out and see the new dreamworks animated film.
How to train your dragon tells the story of a young viking by the name of hiccup who is growing up (kind of) and learning the ways of his people. This includes battling and killing dragons, whom attack the village in the beginning of the movie.
During the attack young hiccup (voiced by Jay Burachel) manages to take the down the impossible to catch night wing dragon, however no one believes him. He winds up going out into the woods and sure enough he stumbles across it. This is where the movie really takes hold, as they relationship develops between the dragon “toothless” and hiccup. Hiccup comes to find out that dragon’s aren’t exactly what you would say as the killers he was led to believe.
With all of that being said, there seemed to be alot of mannerisms of these dragon’s taken from dogs and especially cat’s. It seems to impact my level of enjoyment watching the movie, because i could almost directly relate to the relationship i have with my big furry orange cat. Amazing how deep the creators of this movie managed to take the rather simple kids story and turn it into something more than just a kids film.
Gerard Butler (300) voices Stoick, father of hiccup and the tribe leader for the vikings. I suppose its me, and i have never really found anything Butler has ever done as outstanding, but his voice is so distracting. Just reminds me of fat bastard from the Austin Powers movies. Stoick decides its time his son learns how to slay dragons and enters him into dragon training, well with the things he learns from his new friend “toothless” he basically managed to tame all of the dragons he encounters in his training without hurting them.
The movie goes on from there and i won’t spoil the resolution but only to say that it left me thinking it was better than i thought it would be.
Visually this movie is stunning, and in 3D it DOES add to the presentation. Along with that, I always appreciate the humor that writers and directors put into kids film just to make the adults giggle a little, and they really came across with a strong effort in that department.
The Good- The 3D effects, the writing and the simple yet effective method of not over telling a good adapted story.
The Bad- Gerard Butler. Least he kept his clothes on this time
The Ugly- Wasn’t blown away (pardon the pun) but it was better than i thought.
The Verdict- How to train your Dragon gets 3.5 out of 5.
Posted by Ryan at 10:22 AM 1 comments
Monday, March 15, 2010
Precious (DVD Release)
Precious (Based on the novel Push by Sapphire) has become a juggernaut in the past 1o months since its wide release in North America. This movie has won critical acclaim by most and a few oscars along the way. It has been on the must see list for a while now.
It’s always rather interesting to take a virtual unkown actor and actress and see how well they take command of the lead role. Enter Garbourey Sidibe whom really i’m not sure many of us had heard of up untill her role in this film. She was discovered by Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey and given the opportunity of a lifetime, and it appears she hit a home run.
Precious tells the story of a Clarice Jones, and inner city 16 year old girl who is the mother of one with a 2nd on the way. She is given the opportunity by principal to attend an alternative school in Harlem for kids who might have the opportunity to do something with their school lives.
What stands out in the beginning of this movie is that the director Lee Daniels and the cast really bring the reality of this young woman’s situation to life. I was struck by how the first interaction between her mom (Oscar winner, Mon’ique) and her had to rival the opening of inglorious basterds for best opening 20 mins of a movie from 2009.
I suppose i can’t go this long without actually saying how just unreal Mon’ique is in her role of Precious mom and how unsettling the prevailing attitude of her tone throughout. Deserving an Oscar, in fact it truly was an memorable performance in every aspect.
The rest of the film is a bit formulaic, but really there is such so much going on with this movie. The underlying story, and the characters are larger than life it really overshadows any imperfections that might come out in the final product. Really i rather was taken a back at least a couple of times that the level of intensity that this movie brings out. In it’s story, acting and its plot twist.
The Good- Mon’ique is amazing and Sidibe is just as great in her role. Also, credit really has to go to almost rookie director Lee Daniels. This movie doesn’t drag on for long stretches and is never uninteresting.
The Bad- Feels like we have seen this story in one form or another at least once or twice.
The Ugly- Kids name is: Mongrel. Otherwise hard to poke fun at this movie.
The Verdict- This is a powerful and inspiring movie that really reminded me at least how bad my life ISNT. Put this at the top of the list of movies to see.
Precious gets. 4.5 out of 5.
Posted by Ryan at 5:07 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
The Post Oscar Blog and Brooklyn’s Finest
Yes i know it has been a few days longer than it should have been however I am back loaded for broke with some random thoughts firstly about the Oscars.
I think i have have had more conversations about how on god’s green earth that AVATAR doesn’t win best picture or best director. Let’s be clear here, AVATAR is a juggernaut. It is an entertaining film, but when it comes to topping Oscar’s list, it was never going to happen. How many SCI FI movies have won the best picture oscar?? Exactly 2. So the odds were not good. Oscar loves a good story and something that is directly going to impact the audience in an emotional way. Between THE HURT LOCKER and AVATAR, the better story and in reality the better movie won.
Christoff Waltz won the best supporting actor, and not a suprise here other than the fact if there was an oscar for best overall preformance, male or female he would be the run away winner this year. Amazing performance in Inglorious Basterds, and while the movie didn’t rub everyone the right way, Quinton Tarninto’s original screenplay was a fantastic effort in the big guy’s opinion.
For me and many other’s the feel good moment of the night was Jeff Bridges winning for Best Lead Actor for his portrayl for a country singer who has fallen from grace in crazy heart. Yes i called this when it came out originally, but its hard to argue against THE DUDE!!!!
Finally as a note about the two host system with Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. These two were fantastic together, the paranormal activity spoof made me laugh out loud. Really good presentation overall.
This year really hit a home run for the Oscars, and gained back alot of credit AND ALOT MORE VIEWERS IN THE PROCESS.
Brooklyn’s Finest-
I will admit i am a bit of a sucker for cop drama’s and i did say out loud when i saw the trailer for this the first time a few months ago, i wanna see that movie.
Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes and Ethan Hawke star in this somewhat complicated tale that contains about 3 seperate story lines. Richard Gere plays a cop with 20 + years on the police force he is into this last week as a cop before retirement, and really the preformance along with the story is not memorable. It meanders along at a snails pace, not giving us much to go on and i didn’t feel like i should care about the character enough to want to know what happens.
Ethan Hawke plays a dad who is also a cop. He returns to the big screen under the direction of Antwan Fouqa whose last film TRAINING DAY won an oscar or two.
Hawke’s Character is sorta of stuck in a moral dilemma throughout this film. He has a family of 6 to feed in a house that is full of mold but yet he cannot afford to move them on a cop’s salary. Given the opition to get make a quick buck off of drug money, it really doesn’t end the way i thought it would, but the performance seemed mailed in at best.
Finally there is Wesley Snipes and Don Cheadle who are really the stars of the this film. Cheadle who has won an Oscar in his career makes masterful return to the big screen playing and undercover cop stuck in way to far undercover and wants out. Cannot say enough good things about his effort in this movie. Really good and makes the movie almost worth seeing overall.
The Good- Cheadle and Snipes, great storyline and good characters make it an interesting tale.
The Bad- The cliche cop movie that was really 3 stories in one. 1 worth watching, 2 that wouldn’t make a straight to dvd release interesting.
The Ugly- Richard Gere. Just not a good effort. Reminded me of watch nick cage on screen. Dull and every expression is the same.
THE VERDCIT- Don’t pay full price.
Brooklyn’s finest- 2 out of 5.
Posted by Ryan at 9:26 PM 0 comments
Monday, March 1, 2010
The Crazies
While the word “remake” of the might strike fear into the hearts of horror movie buffs throughout the land, i suppose i wasn’t really sure what to make of a rehash of George A Romero’s 1973 picture by the same name.
Timothy Olyphant stars as the pierce county town sheriff David Dutton who begins to encounter strange goings on in his small town. The first scene we happen to come upon takes place in the middle of a high school baseball game. While the 18A rating may have lent itself to a gory opening encounter really there wasn’t a lot of marvel at.
The story progresses to find out that that there may have been something more that the U.S Government may have been involved in and it could explain the zombie like people that keep cropping up throughout this film. At one point they basically give away what happens and the story goes on from there.
There is not alot of substance to this story, and really that is a good thing. We seem to have a surplus of bad movies who take themselves far to seriously and therefore you get some of the totally ridiculous remakes of the recent past i.e HALOWEEN 2 directed by Rob Zombie.
What works about the Crazies is there is enough development in the story to keep the audience interested. There is no major drama here, and the drama that is there is laughable at best. There is not a TON of gore or violence here which will attract MORE of a crowd than just the drunken buffons who go see a movie on a Saturday night with their friends. Finally, George A Romero was a consultant on this movie, which instantly lends some “Street cred” to the picture.
There is not alot that can be said that was terrible about the movie. Yes the actors sometimes tried to over act and yes the movie is very campy and story doesn’t really fly in some ways. But it is a decent film. I can’t remember the last time i ACTUALLY ENJOYED A SCARY MOVIE .
By no means is this going to win any Oscars, or revolutionize the film industry but its pretty impressive what Breck Esiner (Sahara) did with the 7 million dollar budget.
The Good- Esiner’s direction to keep the very basic story on the rail and going in the right direction.
The Bad- Few sequences of the movie could be shorter but for 1 hour 41 mins, its pacing is decent.
The Ugly- The principal and the pitchfork. Enough said.
Overall the Crazies gets.
3 out of 5.
Posted by Ryan at 12:58 PM 0 comments
Monday, February 22, 2010
Shutter Island
Martin Scorsese brings to the big screen his latest creation staring Leonardo Dicaprio as Us Federal Marshall Teddy Daniels sent to investigate the disappearance of one of inmates housed on Shutter Island.
Last we saw Leo was in Revolutionary Road in 2008 and was received with rather mixed reviews overall.
Enter Shutter Island where there are a couple of certainties when your talking about a Scorsese picture.
1. A story that you will need to keep notes on to stay involved
2. Great Character Development
3. An ending that will either totally make or break the movie.
Without giving to much away, Shutter Island tells the story of the US Marshall Deputies who investigating the mysterious disappearance of an inmate. It is for all who are interested a mystery, sort of. Shutter Island’s trailer much to its credit doesn’t give much away as to the real plot and there are some significant turns that are at best predictable.
Ben Kingsley plays Dr.Cawley and really doesn’t add alot to the movie. But with that being said it’s Ben Kingsley and that man can get a pass on almost anything since Gandhi or even more recently Sexy Beast.
Now let me be clear, there is plenty more to this story that meets the eye. Lots going on, however a few drawbacks that were noticed with the film. Mostly the story, which was felt that was good but it wasn’t one of those GREAT movies you come to expect from Scorsese. I think we were all waiting for the WOW factor moment, that really for the most part was just a whimper.
Its hard to be critical of Martin Scorsese, but please if THIS is your first experience with him do yourself a favor and go and pickup Gangs of New York, The Departed or The Aviator first.
Shutter Island is a marginal recommendation. Dicaprio is good and Kingsley is good, but i think we have just come to expect more out Martin Scorsese movies.
3 out of 5.
Bigmovieguy's Blog 