“And there came a day… a day unlike any other… when Earth’s mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common threat… to fight the foes no single superhero could withstand… on that day, The Avengers were born,” says Nick Fury played marvelously by Mr. Samuel L. Jackson.
And born they were. Marvel’s The Avengers stars all of our favorite superheroes from 5 previous movies (Iron Man I&II, Thor, Captain America and The Incredible Hulk). Many have been waiting for this movie to come around and I say it was definitely worth the wait. The film is written and directed by Joss Whedon, best known for creating AMAHZING television series like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Firefly as well as many great films like Toy Story and Cabin In The Woods, so there might be some slight over praising of this movie just because I love him sooooo much.
With 7 big characters and a bevy of smaller ones that all need to get screen time, Whedon does a great job with them all getting their time to shine. It’s something that is one of the best things about Whedon’s writing. That as well as some very snappy and quirky dialogue.
There was also a great mix of drama, action and comedy. It was just so much fun watching. The person that really stood out to me most was Mark Ruffalo in his portrayal of Bruce Banner a.k.a The Hulk. I have only seen the Eric Bana Hulk and that one was let’s just say not that great. As for the lastest Hulk, played by Edward Norton, I have not seen it but I’ve heard and read that it wasn’t bad. I don’t know what it was that made me really like Ruffalo in this. He just did a great job with the part and I also think I liked him because the Hulk didn’t look so cartoonish. Ruffalo actually did all the Hulk movements a la Andy Serkis in the Lord of the Rings trilogy as Gollum.
I would recommend for everyone to see this. It was just 2 hours of pure fun. I saw it 1 1/2 times (I fell asleep a little through the first time, not the movie’s fault it had just been a super long day) and really liked it. Check it out in theaters now.
The Lucky One is an adaptation of a Nicolas Sparks 2008 book of the same name. It’s about a marine named Logan, played by Zac Efron (High School Musical, New Year’s Eve), who return s home to try to find the woman in a picture that he credits with saving his life. He finds the woman, Beth, played by Taylor Schilling (Liked her on the cancelled NBC show Mercy) in a small town in Louisiana and from there, romance isn’t far. Blythe Danner (Meet The Parents, Sylvia) also stars as Beth’s grandmother.
Quick thoughts as I watched this movie.
1. I feel so wrong watching Zac Efron with his shirt off (he’s definitely not bad to look at), making out with this woman because he is 10.
2. There is absolutely no chemistry with Zac and Taylor. I just don’t believe them at all.
3. Schilling looks so much older than Zac. i know she is supposed to play older but they are only 3 years apart in real life.
4. I know I’m already going to get someone who dies in the movie after all it’s Nicolas Sparks, he can’t help himself but at least make me care about the person who dies. The only thing I thought after it happened was, “Tough break.”
5. How did Blythe Danner birth Gywneth Paltrow? She’s so much cooler than her daughter.
6. The little kid is cute and I don’t usually like kids.
This movie is not great at all. Just save your money but if you just have to see it, it’s in theaters now.
Think Like A Man is the adaptation of comedian Steve Harvey’s best-selling self-help book, Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man about enlightening women about the way the minds of men work. The characters are introduced as some of the various chapters in the book i.e “The Dreamer, The Woman Who Is Her Own Man, The Mama’s Boy, etc. The ensemble cast includes people from funny man Kevin Hart, Michael Ealy (My gosh this man is beautiful), Taraji P. Henson, Meagan Goode, Regina Hall, Jerry Ferrara and Gabrielle Union.When I posted the trailer for this back in December (it’s almost May where has the time gone), I wrote that I had no expectations about this movie. A friend and I even talked about how bad it would suck.
Well I can say after seeing it that it most definitely didn’t suck. In fact it was hilarious and most of that is because of that little man Kevin Hart. He pretty stole the show. There were consistent laughs throughout the whole movie. A slight lull here and there but I would find humor in some of those things like when Meagan Good would make a certain face trying to “act” or in some of the more cheesy lines (see most of Goode’s scenes with Rolmy Malco). She was a definite improvement from how bad she usually is.
I think she would be fine if she didn’t play a slight variation of the same character ALL the time) or in some of the more cheesy lines. The ending of the movie was pretty predictable but even knowing how its going to end doesn’t stop you from thoroughly enjoying it. Be sure to check it out in theaters now.
So I’m a little late with this but whatever. Friday the 13th is considered a day of bad luck as well as one where we get our horror fix at the movies. This weekend is no exception as this Friday the thirteenth we get the release of two horror movies, Cabin In The Woods and Detention.
Cabin In The Woods is a movie written by Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and Drew Goddard (Cloverfield) and directed by Goddard. It was a smorgasbord of everything you could think of from horror movies minus the torture porn stuff that we usually see in these kinds of movies. Don’t get me wrong, It still had plenty of killing and blood. The way the movie starts lets the audience in that something is going to be something different about this movie. You aren’t sure what but you are ready. Then it goes into the clichéd horror story that we’ve all seen before. 5 college kids go on a road trip to an isolated cabin for the weekend and the killing begins. After that you are in for the most awesome ride. The movie to me wasn’t necessarily scary but there was so much going on that the entire time you just watch thinking this is so awesome. It reminded me of the horror films from the 80’s that were funny, witty and scary all at the same time. I just love Joss Whedon so much. This movie was the first horror movie that I’ve liked in a long time. Check it out in theaters now.
Detention is a high school slasher movie which stars The Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson, Dane Cook (Waiting, Dan In Real Life) and Shanley Caswell. It’s about a group of kids at Grizzly Lake High School who are thinking about one thing, Prom. They soon find out that a serial killer is on the loose and now they must figure out who’s trying to
kill them. This movie is insane. There are so many scenes in it that felt like they came from a bunch of different movies. I thought the movie was ok. Really random. The thing I really liked about the movie was the soundtrack. It had me dancing in my seat and made me want to watch some of the old Backstreet Boys videos. This one I would save for the Redbox but if you must, Detention is in theaters now.
A ton of trailers for different movies and shows came out in the past few days. Here are some of the big ones.
Tom Cruise in the musical Rock of Ages
The movie has a whole hell of a lot of people in it from Mary J Blige, Julianne Hough, Alec Baldwin to Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti and Malin Akerman. Its just looks like a huge disaster and I’m not sure how this is going to pan out especially with Julianne Hough in the mix. She’s just such a bad actress. See for yourself.
Rock of Ages opens June 15, 2012.
True Blood Teaser Clip
The residents of Bon Temps will be returning this summer and in order to whet your appetites before the premiere, HBO sent out this teaser clip. It looks even crazier than last season’s and last season was nuts. Hopefully it be a great one since it’ll be Alan Ball’s last one as showrunner.
Lily Collins (The Blindside, Abduction) and Julia Roberts (My Best Friend’s Wedding, Erin Brokovich) star in this latest adaptation of the famous fairytale, Snow White. The cast was a pretty good one which also included Armie Hammer (The Social Network, J. Edgar) and Nathan Lane (The Birdcage, The Producers). I thought the movie was ok. I don’t like cutesy. I can only take it in small doses and this one was just too much for me (The exception for me is Tangled. LOVE that movie). Also there was all this hype about Roberts playing against type and being evil but she wasn’t really evil. She was more her character in My Best Friend’s Wedding just snarkier. The movie is great family fun. Take your kids or nieces and nephews or your friend’s kids. They will very much enjoy this movie. Me not that much.
Are you guys ready for Anchorman 2? Will Ferrell went on Conan O’Brien’s late night show, CONAN, dressed as his character, Ron Burgundy from the hilarious movie and announced that there is a sequel coming. Check out the announcement below. The movie is set for release in late 2013.
1. I really love Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes or I most definitely would not be watching this.
2. Man I want a flying horse. Pegasus would be wonderful transportation.
3. Oh gosh why are kids so ridiculous? They are always in the way.
4. What the hell is with Sam Worthington’s hair? He had the same hair in his last movie, Man on A Ledge and it wasn’t a good idea then either.
5. It actually wasn’t a terrible movie. It was better than the first one, Clash of the Titans. But I thought Clash was awful so there was only room for improvement.
I’m sure people are getting tired of all the hype that has been around The Hunger Games for over a year now. Well the hype is warranted. I read Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy last year when a two of my co-workers (Hey Lauren and Steph) couldn’t believe I hadn’t read them. I borrowed the books and I loved them. They were just so much fun to read and quite the page turners. So when I heard the movie was getting made, I was very much invested in who they would cast as the characters from this book and was very much obsessed with every casting announcement they made.
After all the hype and crazy promo for this movie, it came out this weekend and I actually went and spent my 12 hard-earned dollars on it. Everyone else seemed to go spend their money on it as well since it pulled in $155 million this weekend. I thought it was a good movie. I was almost completely satisfied with it. Anyone who sees a screen version of a book they have read will never be completely satisfied with the finished product. So with that I went in just trying to watch this movie like I would any other one.
The movie was good. Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men: First Class; Winter’s Bone) ughh I just love her. I think she was the perfect Katniss. I can’t even think of what other actress could have portrayed her. I also liked Josh Hutcherson (Bridge to Terabithia; The Kids Are Alright) as Peeta. He was just what I had imagined. Peeta in books was taller though but that is a small detail that I can get past. Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, I thought was good but my love for Lenny could have clouded any kind of unbiased look at his acting that I had. He was just so beautiful. I just gosh. That man hasn’t aged a day in 20 yrs. The whole cast was pretty good overall.
I liked the look of the movie as well. I think the styling overall and everyone’s look was pretty good except for the fire dress. Huge letdown. Gosh Katniss looked so ridiculous twirling in that thing. Other than that I was good with it. I can’t wait until the next movie, Catching Fire. In the words of Penny Hartz from Happy Endings, It’s gonna be AH-MAH-ZING!!!! While I wait until the second movie, I shall just reread the trilogy again.
Were you one of the many that watched this weekend? What did you think?
I have seen a lot of movies recently and here are just a couple of quick reviews.
John Carter – One of the worst things Disney ever made. Seriously? They spent $250 million making this crap and then additional money trying to market it. It’s reported that they are going to lose $200 million on this. What a waste. The movie stars Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights series, X-Men Origins:Wolverine) as a man who gets transported to Mars and helps fight for one side in a war to save the people. Of course there is a love interest who is supposed to marry someone else to save her people but falls for John Carter. It’s just utterly ridiculous. The only good thing I could say about the movie is the special effects weren’t bad. That’s about it. John Carter is in theaters now.
Friends With Kids – I have to admit I didn’t love this movie. I really really wanted to. The cast has some great people in it; Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live; Bridesmaids), John Hamm (Mad Men, Bridesmaids), Adam Scott (Parks And Recreation, Party Down) and Maya Rudolph (Up All Night, Saturday Night Live, Bridesmaids). The movie is about 2 best friends who become the only single and childless people in their group of friends. After seeing what having kids does to their friends marriages they come to the grand decision that they should have a child together and avoid that whole marriage thing with each and date other people. You already know how this one ends. It started out going well and then just became such a cliche. The thing is this movie might actually be good but I just had such high expectations and for me it fell short. I think Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein) is talented (She wrote, produced, directed and starred in the movie) but I believe another actress should have played her part. I don’t know who but someone different. It was your basic romantic comedy that tried to be grown up by having a lot of sex jokes. Anyway check it out in theaters now.
Jeff Who Lives At Home – This was the most random movie. When I saw it I didn’t know where it would go but where it did go was random and a little unexpected but all in a good way. This movie stars Jason Segel (The Muppets, How I Met Your Mother, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) as a 30 year old who is just wandering aimlessly through life looking for signs as to what his destiny in life is. It also stars Ed Helms (Hangover, The Office, Cedar Rapids) as his brother and Susan Sarandon (Enchanted, Step Mom, Solitary Man) as his mother. When Jeff is sent on an errand by his mother, he goes on a random adventure which brings him to cross paths with his family in random locations and circumstances. Through the journey, Jeff might find his path after all. It was pretty good in an unexpected kind of way. Jeff Who Lives At Home is playing in limited release.
Seeking Justice – Another Nicolas Cage movie. Sigh. The movie is about a man whose wife is attacked and he is approached by a vigilante group that takes care of the attacker in exchange for a “favor.” January Jones (Mad Men, X-Men:First Class), Guy Pearce (Memento, The King’s Speech), and Harold Perrineau (Lost, The Best Man, Romeo and Juliet) also star in the movie. I went into this with really low expectations. I really expected crap. But I was wrong. It ended up being a not so horrid movie. Believe me its not great and January Jones is just as terrible as ever and Nicolas Cage is clearly phoning it in but it wasn’t awful. I would give it a C. Seeking Justice is playing now in limited release.
Casa de mi Padre – Stars Will Ferrell (Old School, Talladega Nights), Gael Garcia Bernal (Letters to Juliet, Amores Perros, Motorcycle Diaries), and Diego Luna (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Milk). This movie is about a family that ends up in a war with a big drug dealer. It is done in the style of a wayyy over the top telenovela. I didn’t like this movie much. It was absolutely ridiculous. It might have been because according to my friend, a lot was lost in translation. There were many things that were said in Spanish (which the entire movie is in) that are hilarious in that language but when translated and put into English subtitles is not at all. I thought it was going to be hilarious; stupid but hilarious. That’s what Will Ferrell does. I would say Redbox and Netflix when it comes out on DVD. Don’t waste your time. But if you do, it’s playing in limited release now.