Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts

I'll say it, I don't like A Christmas Story. I think I have a specific sense of humor and this is the opposite of anything I think is funny. I don't know if it's because I'm female or what, I just don't get why everyone loves this movie so much.

Aside from the classic X-mas Movies, Jingle All the Way probably wraps up what I find humorous about Christmas. Specifically the scene where they play It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year as the shoppers go ape sh*t. Now that, to me, is funny in a very sad way.

Yes, me and my 32 year old self went and stood in line to watch New Moon with a bunch of teen girls. Surprisingly though, there was quite the mix of older people, many of which were in their 40's and 50's, men included.

As far as my review, I thought it followed pretty closely to the book. The changes that were made were good ones. Of course, there were little things that could be picked apart like the fact that Jacob was not towering over anyone, which I thought they might've made an effort to do with camera angles and such.

Another little thing that just seemed odd was how out of shape the other wolves appeared in comparison. I mean they elude to the idea that Jacob gets as big as he does because of what he becomes, but the other wolves, not so much.

Other than that, there's not much to say. There are so many previews out that you feel like you've already seen it by the time that you do. I mean one thing that bothered me is that, when I read the book, the fact that he turned to a wolf was a surprise, but they show it in all the previews. That sucked!

I will say that I thought it was a big step up from the first movie, but it does stand as a fan movie more than just a good movie. I know someone compared it to the new Star Trek movie that was out, that was good whether you were a fan or not and that's true because I liked that movie and am not a fan of Star Trek at all. With the Twilight movies thus far, if I weren't a fan, I don't think I would have thought anything special about the movies. If you are a fan though, you're gonna see it no matter what.

My husband and I went and did something we haven't done for a couple years, since my son was born. We saw 2 movies in one day!

I knew I wanted to see Couples Retreat the first time I saw the trailer. Vince Vaughn & Jason Bateman, come on, that's comedy gold. It was a legitimately funny movie, with laugh out loud moments throughout the whole movie. Mind you, I'm not a laugh out loud person, so that's saying alot to have a consistent level of humor throughout.

I will say though, that I don't know if I would have thought it was so funny if I were not married because a lot of the humor comes from being relatable.

After I had set my sights on seeing Couples Retreat, I saw a trailer for Law Abiding Citizen and figured I had to see them both. With 300, Gamer, and now this under Gerard Butler's belt, he's fast becoming #1 B.A. actor of the moment. Thank goodness too because I didn't think much of him in The Phantom of the Opera. Action suits him much better.

As far as Jamie Foxx goes, after the whole Miley Cyrus comment, I don't care to see him in anything anymore. It's sad because I used to like him, but now I can't stand him.

That aside, this movie kicked butt. It really was good...good plot, good action. The ending could have been different for my taste, but I don't want to give anything away.

I can't not mention Gamer, now that I brought it up. Well, I saw Gamer with Gerard Butler and Michael C. Hall a.k.a. ”Dexter” and I really liked it. Butler plays Kable, a death row inmate who is put into a "game" where he is controlled by a player, Simon, in order to try and gain his freedom. Hall plays Castle, the games inventor and the true puppet master.

The movie is shot very much like a shooter style video game and can get a little rough on the senses after awhile, but that is the only real con of the movie. Overall, this movie was full of pros, the first being the cast. Butler and Hall gave me something to watch while my husband enjoyed the action.

Though there was a lot of action, there was a real storyline as well. I was actually excited to see where it would lead, which can be a rarity with action films. I thought it ended well and was happy that I spent the money to see it, which is getting to be a rarity as well. I lucked out with all of these.

I was a big fan of Patrick Swayze when I was younger. I know he had many big hits, but I even liked his action movies, Point Break, Road House, Next of Kin. Not that they weren't likable but I was just a little girl when they came out. I don't know maybe that was my Dad's influence on me. I also liked Steven Seagal a lot back then too. So, when he dies, expect a post about him.

Once I got into my teen years, my girl crush on Patrick Swayze faded, but I always thought he was a good actor. Though he didn't get too many great parts later in life, he was in Donnie Darko, which I loved.

Still my favorite Patrick Swayze movie is definitely between Ghost, Dirty Dancing, and The Outsiders. I'll tell you, it is a super close race. They were all great.

I mean Ghost had a great cast, a great story, and a great ending.

Dirty Dancing was sexy and light-hearted and made you want to dance.

Then, we have The Outsiders. Also a great, great cast, though no one knew just how great at the time. Also a great story with a solid ending.

In fact, The Outsiders is my favorite. What sets it apart is the fact that I can watch this movie over and over and over and find something new every time. It is a true classic, of which Swayze was a very important part.

Now this is for my favorite movie based on a Stephen King book and not the books themselves because, frankly I've probably seen more of his movies, than I have read his books. Mind you, I have read a lot of his stuff in the past, but not too much recently.

What got me thinking about it was that I just watched The Mist with Thomas Jane who was also in King's Dreamcatcher. Both movies, like most of King's stuff, could have been really good, but fell far from the mark.

Notice I say most because there's no denying he's had some great successes, which explains why we excuse the crap he puts out the rest of the time. Focusing on the good, there's the classics like, The Shining, Misery, Stand by Me.

Silver Bullet and Christine hold special places in my heart because my dad and I liked to watch them together. Those two, along with The Green Mile, Dolores Claiborne and Pet Sematary II are my personal favorites, but my all time favorite has to be The Shawshank Redemption.

I know it's almost like cheating because Shawshank doesn't even seem like a Stephen King movie, but it is based on his short story, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.

This movie is one I watch every single time it comes on. I don't even know why, but I love it that much. I'm guessing the cast has a lot to do with it. You can't really go wrong with Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. True they're both in a lot of movies, some not so great, but they are always likable. Even when they're playing bad guys, you forgive `em because you know they're good guys in real life.

It's just a great all-around story. Of course, I haven't read King's original story and don't know how much it differs but I'm betting the movie's better than the book and that is a rare thing.

Expectations, we all have them. When we see a movie with our favorite actor, we expect to like it. When we hear our fav artist has a new album coming out, we expect to want to buy it and play it out. So what happens when our favs don't meet our expectations? It sucks. here's my examples:

The Happening by M Night Shyamalan. I love everything M. Night has ever done and then this comes out and it looked soooo good. I could not believe how wrong I was. I watched it twice thinking I must have been mistaken the 1st time. No, not only wasn't I mistaken, but I found myself asking the question "did he make it bad on purpose". It was so bad, surely there was a method to his madness. No matter how I try and justify it the whole thing was just horrible.

I did not love the second season of Flight of the Conchords which is really disappointing because I loved the first season with a passion. Honestly, the first season was some of the funniest stuff I have ever seen.

To their defense, they admitted they struggled to make a second season and thus it doesn't look good for a 3rd season. I'm disappointed because I was hoping they could redeem themselves, but I'm still a huge fan and will look out for their cd's in the future.

Usually I do my reviews on my other blog, RnR Reviews, but I decided they might be more fitting here.

Most recently, I went and saw Funny People with Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Leslie Mann. I'm not usually an Adam Sandler fan, but my husband wanted to see G.I. Joe; and I was not about to sit in that sausage fest, so I decided to go see something else while he partook in some childhood fantasy. Honestly, timing wise, I didn't have a lot of options and thus, I was left with Funny People.

The one thing that gave me some hope going in was knowing that Judd Apatow had written it and I knew I'd liked some of his other stuff, Pineapple Express and Fun with Dick and Jane being a couple. Mind you, this was a small hope. After seeing this movie, however, I know the name Judd Apatow does not equal quality.

Talk about sausage fest, I have never heard so many references to men's junk as I did in this movie and I wish they said it that nicely. The language was just fowl and unnecessarily so. I mean some fowl language would have been fine, but this was overkill. Even James Taylor had a fowl mouth in this movie. That's crazy!

Once you get passed the language, which is hard to do, the movie didn't seem to have focus. It was like a man's idea of a heartfelt, meaningful drama and it missed the mark BIG time. I mean I shouldn't want the character to die, but I kind of did, especially toward the end. It was over two hours long and it felt like six. I don't know what the point was, but it made me question whether I should have seen G.I. Joe instead.

John Hughes passed yesterday and it leads me to question what was my favorite of all his works. While I liked Weird Science; Planes, Trains & Automobiles; She's Having a Baby; Mr. Mom, title of "the best" comes down to three movies:

Ferris Bueller's Day Off -A classic. Everyone who sees it loves it. My nephew is 20 and he watches it all the time. I think it was good, like so many of Hughes' movies, because it mimicked a high school fantasy. He'd take school experiences that we could relate to but make everything work out in the end-genius!

Now, there's a movie out about high school life every week, but he was the pioneer.

Mind you, not everyone was as adventuresome as Ferris; but most of us have skipped school and had escapades where we were scared we'd get caught in the end.

Pretty in Pink- Duckie, Blane & Steff, come on, those characters are so memorable and relatable too. The lovesick guy who follows the girl around who only wants to be friends. Of course, it all works out in the end though. Only in the movies.

The Breakfast Club - A phenomenal cast. I think it made people actually want to go to detention. People in detention usually don't end up bonding and paired up with a girl in the end, but that's the fantasy of it.

For me, and this was extremely hard because I like them each so much, I'm gonna go with The Breakfast Club. Truly, only by a smidgen.

I was watching Burn After Reading and it made me think about all the different roles John Malkovich has played. While he can play a belligerent a** like nobody else, he has also played one of my most loved roles ever, Lennie from Of Mice and Men.

Note I'm talking about my favorite John Malkovich role, not movie; though it may just be my favorite movie too now that I think about it. Yes, actually, Of Mice and Men is also my favorite John Malkovich movie.

His portrayal of that character was perfect. If a person were to screw up that role, the whole movie would be shot because it hinges on you loving that man. And oh, how we loved him. The vulnerability he showed was unparalleled. Yes, I know there's been dozens of great mentally challenged characters in movies. Sean Penn in I am Sam was also one of my favorites, but I think Lennie tops that.

When George goes off on Lenny and talks about how easy life would be without him and Lennie says, "If you don’t want me I can go off ... in the hills an’ find a cave. I can go away any time.", man that kills me every time. It was so believable, I just wanted to sweep him up and console him. Now that's acting.

Finally, True Blood's 2nd season has started! I thought the premiere was good. I don't want to spoil anything though because I hate that sh*t.

When I watched last season I had yet to read the Twilight saga, but I was told it was similar. Now, I can truly compare.

First we have True Blood's "Bill" (left) compared to Twilight's "Edward" (right). These are our lead hunks, if you will. Now Edward's got it on this one I'm afraid, both the character and the actor. He's better looking, but it isn't just that. His character just makes more sense as the romantic, who'd possibly wait hundreds of years for a girl, type of guy. Bill is more rugged and I think he'd be too mature to put up with his leading lady, Sookie's games.

And man, Sookie plays games like no other. Every episode she throws herself at him only to be pissed at him by the end. No way some hundred year old man would put up with that.


















Then we have True Blood's "Sam" (left) compared to Twilight's "Jacob" (right). In some ways these guys are even worse romantics because they're the guys waiting in the wings. They also happen to have some pretty similar qualities about them, though they are not vampires.

While the character Jacob is most my type, the actor who plays Sam (Sam Trammell) wins this one for me.

















Speaking of Taylor Lautner aka Jacob, I'll never understand why they didn't have Steven Strait play the part. He just fits more what I pictured when I read the books. He is built, looks good with short or long hair. What was the problem?

Absolutely nothing against Taylor Lautner except that he does look so young that it feels wrong to like him. Yes, I realize the characters are in their teens but let's be real, the reach of these books has went way beyond. I know people in their 50's who's read them.






Aside from the characters, I like that True Blood isn't just a huge tease, but they could almost stand to pull back a little with some of the sex scenes. Twilight, however, could stand to have more. Of course, that's not going to happen, but a little balance would be good. Basically, one shows a slut and the other's a tease. I don't know which is better. I know that True Blood could stand to have Sam get a little more screen time. That's all I'm saying on that.

Oh yeah, and there's some girl characters in the two as well, but they're nothing to rave about in my opinion.

I know everyone's talking about Twilight because it just came out on DVD and so I thought I'd get on the bandwagon.

You can read my movie and book reviews on my blog RnR Reviews.

Having read the books, I know how it ends, but for the fun of it, the question is posed, "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob"? Well, as far as the movie goes, Rob Pattinson (Edward) over Taylor Lautner (Jacob) because Jacob is too young for me. They both are really, but Jacob looks illegal.

In the book, however, I might have chosen Jacob. He's more aggressive and he's warm. Edward is passive and cold...likable but as a human, who wants to snuggle up to a statue?

Of course, all of this is mute because after seeing Jackson Rathbone (Jasper) without the horrible white make up, I'm wishing he played a bigger part in the series. I'd so be "Team Jasper". Rathbone, like Pattinson also has a band, called 100 Monkeys. YouTube does have some stuff if you want to check them out.

In celebration of my blog's one year anniversary, I'm re-posting my top 5's. Scroll down to see the list.

Silence of the Lambs. Now, this is a personal choice based on the fact that this movie had a profound affect on me. I originally saw the movie in the theaters when I was 13 (to give you an idea of how old I am). I actually saw it with my half sister, which I specify “half” because my more immediate family wouldn’t have let me see this movie.

However, I was so glad she did because I discovered a passion for criminal psychology as a result. I actually got my degree in it and I even later tattooed the death's head moth on my back in homage.

There was something about seeing a bad guy, Hannibal Lecter, portrayed as a likable character that intrigued me. I don't know if it was that it hadn't been done or if it was just my age, but I had never seen that before.

Typically, a character like his would have been shown to be a crazy monster. The fact that he was portrayed as an actual intelligent human being made me wonder what drove such people to commit horrible acts, but I digress.

That aside, the movie is truly chilling to the core of my being and there aren’t a lot of movies who would get that description from me.

Okay, what's the deal with the new Punisher: War Zone? They just did a Punisher back in `04 with Thomas Jane (right) as Frank Castle that I thought was pretty awesome.

Now, if I had to guess, I'd say this is a grittier version for hardcore comic fans; but let's get something straight, nobody's a true bad ass unless men want to be him and women want to be with him. This new guy is okay, but Thomas Jane encompassed both things. This new guy, Ray Stevenson, may be great for guys to watch, but what about the ladies?

Don't get me wrong, I get that Hollywood versions, bringing in big guns like Travolta, can ruin things for true followers, but Thomas Jane is the only Punisher for me.

Feel Good Sports/Coach Movies, like The Express: The Ernie Davis Story-- I don't know about anyone else, but I cannot be the only one who is sick to death of these movies. You know the ones, there's some team who's down and who no one believes in. Then some coach comes along and everyone tells him to give up on them, but he isn't going to is he? No, against all odds, he's going to make them winners. If not winners in the game, winners in their hearts. Ahhhhhhhh.....snore.

It's been done already. Yes, they have all been done but these movies in particular are so similar to one another that it really is just about changing the cast. I mean we all know what's going to happen. Why do people enjoy these movies? It baffles me.

Another stream of worthless crap is the romantic comedy, like What Happens in Vegas. We don't like each other then we do and in the midst of it we're going to have a few laughs. I can't do it. I'm sorry but I think you have to be lonely, extremely bored or a completely different person than I am to enjoy these.

I mean I can name at least four of these exact movies herself: The Holiday, In Her Shoes, The Sweetest Thing and A Life Less Ordinary. Ashton Kutcher's no better, doing movies like: A Lot Like Love, Guess Who and Just Married.

Then you have people like Drew Barrymore who doesn't do much else. I think she thinks if she does enough of these movies she might learn something about love in her own life. Lord knows her choice of men leaves something to be desired.