Posts

Showing posts from June, 2012

Your Sister's Sister

Image
I figured that any movie starring Emily Blunt would be good, but Your Sister's Sister fails to take advantage of its cast due to its slow plot. The story is uneven at times, and it undermines the movie as a whole; ultimately the movie plays out more like real life than a scripted movie, and there's a reason for this. The film opens with a group toasting to the memory of their friend Tom, who died a year earlier. Tom's brother, Jack (Mark Duplass, Safety Not Guaranteed ), almost ruins the party by giving a melancholy toast, so his best friend Iris (Emily Blunt, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen ) suggests he take some time for himself and relax at her father's cabin; they live in Washington and the cabin is right on the lake, making it a great spot to "get away" for the weekend. Jack decides to bike to the cabin (as well as take the ferry), and when he arrives he encounters someone unexpected: Iris's sister, Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt, TV's United States

Magic Mike

Image
Contrary to what you might believe, Magic Mike (aka "the stripper movie") is not just about stripping and dancing. It's actually more of a cautionary tale against "the life. The trailer will make you think the movie is going to be all fun and games, with a love story between Channing Tatum and the main female lead thrown into the mix, but it turns out the "main female lead" is barely in the movie, as the film focuses more on the dancers and Tatum in particular. "Magic Mike" (Channing Tatum, The Vow ) is almost thirty and has been stripping for six years. His real passion is designing custom furniture, but he needs a loan from the bank to be able to pursue that dream, and because his work is cash-only (wink, wink), Mike's credit is too poor to get a loan. He has a side job working for a roofer, and it's there that he meets Adam, aka The Kid (Alex Pettyfer, In Time ), who he recruits to be a stripper. Alex is strapped for cash, so thi

Ted

Image
I had pretty low expectations going in to Ted , and I wasn't disappointed. Parts of the film were hilarious, but other parts seemed to drag. I read a tweet that said something like "If you want to see Peter Griffin in bear form, go see  Ted ," which I very much agree with - the director and writer of the film is Seth MacFarlane, who voices Peter Griffin in the often raunchy TV show Family Guy , and you can definitely see his humor coming through in the movie. John (played as an adult by Mark Wahlberg, Contraband ) is a lonely boy growing up, and when his parents give him a kid-sized teddy bear for Christmas, he's overjoyed. He makes a wish one night that his teddy bear was real and could talk, and when he wakes up the next morning, lo and behold, Ted greets him with a smile. John's parents are initially freaked out by this, but soon say it's a "Christmas miracle!" and Ted quickly becomes famous as news outlets rush to interview him. We then f

People Like Us

Image
I had seen the trailer for People Like Us a while back and it looked interesting, so when the chance arose to see it at a screening, I was excited to see the movie. The film lived up to my expectations, for the most part, although it would benefit from a shorter runtime; it clocks in at about one hour and fifty-five minutes. Sam (Chris Pine, This Means Wa r) lives in NYC, on the other side of the country from his mom (Michelle Pfeiffer, Dark Shadows ) and dad. When his father passes away, however, he and his girlfriend (Olivia Wilde, In Time ) fly to L.A., arriving late and missing the funeral. Sam's father was a music producer, and Sam remembers him as being distant and never spending much time with him, which is why Sam has only returned to L.A. a handful of times over the years. When his dad's lawyer meets with Sam regarding the will, Sam finds out something rather startling: his father has left $150,000 in cash in an old shaving kit, with a note instructing Sam to make

One Night Stand

Image
Actors performing a musical in One Night Stand When I was an undergrad at the University of Michigan, I was also in the Residential College (a smaller college within the main one), and each year they would put on "Kamikaze," in which writers, actors, and stagehands would come together and write and perform a play. The catch was that they had only twenty-four hours - one full day - to write this play and then have the actors learn their lines. The play always came together beautifully, though, and this is the idea behind the movie One Night Stand ; the difference being that the team must compose four fifteen-minute musicals, with at least two songs and a dance number in each. Needless to say, this is a daunting task, but with a team of Broadway, TV, and movie pros working together, it can definitely be done. The film starts out in the wee hours of the night and early morning, when the composers and writers break out into teams and write four musicals. They have Polaroids

Brave

Image
Brave was definitely not what I expected. Though I had heard it was one of the first Disney/Pixar movies where a strong heroine determines her own fate, rather than waiting around for a prince to rescue her, the film veers off-topic about midway through the movie and soon becomes unrecognizable from the initial plot. Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald, No Country for Old Men ), pronounced "MEH-reh-dah," is an unusual princess. She lives with her family in Scotland - her mother, the Queen, and father, the King, and her three adorable, but often mischievous, triplet brothers. Merida likes to practice archery in her free time, so when suitors from the other Scottish clans attempt to prove their worth to her, she decides on archery as the game of choice. Merida decides that since she is a first-born, she too can compete for her own hand in marriage - her freedom. Her mother (voiced by Emma Thompson, Men in Black 3 ), however, strongly disagrees with this, and tells Merida th

Safety Not Guaranteed

Image
I was excited to see Safety Not Guaranteed because it stars Jake Johnson, who plays Nick on TV's New Girl . However, actors Mark Duplass and Aubrey Plaza really steal the show, playing a man who thinks he can travel back in time and a girl who agrees to go with him, respectively. As the movie opens, we see Darius (Aubrey Plaza, TV's Parks and Recreation ) interviewing for a job, and boring her interviewer by retelling almost her entire life story. She's graduated from college and is currently an intern at Seattle Magazine, where she accomplishes such exciting tasks as stocking the restroom with toilet paper. When one of the writers, Jeff (Jake Johnson), pitches a story about a newspaper ad he saw, Darius jumps at the chance to work with him, and Jeff chooses her and another intern, Arnau (Karan Soni, 1600 Penn ), to travel with him and stake out the man's Post Office box. The ad reads: "WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You

New Disney movie MALEFICENT to be released in March 2014

Image
Angelina Jolie in the title role of Maleficent Maleficent is one of Disney's evilest villains, from the 1959 film Sleeping Beauty , and she will get her own movie come March 14, 2014, with Angelina Jolie in the title role. It will also star Elle Fanning, Imelda Staunton, Miranda Richardson, and Juno Temple, among others. Angelina Jolie seems like she would make an excellent evil queen! The movie is also in 3D which might lend an air of "witchiness" to the film too. Will you check out Maleficent  when it hits theaters? From the press release: Burbank, CA (June 19, 2012) – The Walt Disney Studios announced today that production began Wednesday, June 13th, on “Maleficent,” starring Academy Award®–winning actress Angelina Jolie. Directed by two-time Oscar®-winning production designer Robert Stromberg (“Avatar,” “Alice in Wonderland”), in his directorial debut, and produced by Joe Roth, “Maleficent” is written by Linda Woolverton (“The Lion King,” “B

Rock of Ages

Image
The plot of Rock of Ages is essentially filler between catchy songs. Girl moves to L.A. to "make it big," girl meets boy, girl also gets to meet Stacee Jaxx, one of the most popular music stars in the '80s, there's conflict, etcetera. But we all know we're not seeing Rock of Ages for the plot, but rather for the music, so this can be overlooked - and the music scenes definitely deliver. Sherrie (Julianne Hough, Footloose ) takes a bus from Oklahoma to L.A. with the dreams of being a famous singer. On her first night walking the Sunset Strip, her suitcase is stolen, and she meets Drew (Diego Boneta, TV's Pretty Little Liars ), a singer/guitarist who works at The Bourbon, one of the more prominent clubs on the Strip. He gets her a job as a waitress, and their romance begins. At the same time, The Bourbon, owned/managed by Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin, TV's 30 Rock ) is in financial trouble, and nothing he or his business partner Lonny (Russell Brand,

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted

Image
To prepare for a screening of the third installment, I decided to rewatch the first two Madagascar movies. To educate the uninitiated, the Madagascar films follow a hippo, a giraffe, a zebra, and a lion, who lived in the Central Park Zoo in NYC but somehow found themselves in Madagascar (movie #1) and then Africa (movie #2). In the third installment, the zoo animals go to Monte Carlo to find their friends the penguins, who can fly them home to NYC. The film starts off in Africa where the second left off, and Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller, Tower Heist ) is depressed and wants to go back home to NYC. For Alex's birthday, his friends Marty the zebra (Chris Rock, What To Expect When You're Expecting ), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith, TV's Hawthorne ), and Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer, TV's Friends ) make him a sand castle-like replica of the city to cheer him up, but it doesn't work very well. The zoo animals can't go home until the penguin

Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding

Image
You might think you've seen Peace, Love, and Misunderstanding before in some incarnation or another, and you wouldn't be completely wrong. Although the "aging hippie grandma reunites with daughter and grandchildren" story isn't totally original, this film manages to put a fresh spin on the genre, with both the the script and acting very well done. Diane (Catherine Keener, Trust ) is talking with her husband Mark (Kyle MacLachlan, TV's Sex and the City ) in their kitchen one day when he abruptly blurts out that he wants a divorce. Hurt by this news, she grabs the kids (Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene , and Nat Wolff, New Year's Eve , respectively) and makes the drive from NYC to Woodstock, back to her freewheeling mother (Jane Fonda, Georgia Rule ) whom she hasn't seen for the past twenty years. Grace is nonetheless delighted to see her daughter and grandchildren, and thus begins an epic few weeks for the clan.

GIVEAWAY: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island DVD/Blu-Ray

Image
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island  came out on DVD and Blu-Ray yesterday, and you can win a copy here for FREE! Check out the widget below, and then enter in the Rafflecopter form. Contest will end next Thursday, June 14th, at 12:01am EST  so make sure to get in your entries before then!! You can read my review of the movie here as well. Good luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway

For the Love of Money

Image
Although the story in For the Love of Money is true, and spans over twenty years, the film is often confusing, and characters are introduced and then taken away in the blink of an eye. Though it boosts an interesting array of actors such as James Caan and Jeffrey Tambor, most of the more well-known actors have only small roles in the film, yet are billed as if they are the main actors in it. The story starts in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1973. Isaac (later played by Yehuda Levi, TV's The Arbitrator ) works in his family's restaurant and bar, which also doubles as a "Monte Carlo" (a casino) in the back. They've had some troubles with Tommy (Edward Furlong, The Green Hornet ), a small-time gangster who likes to mess with people, and he tries to play a nasty trick on an employee of the bar, to which Isaac intervenes. Soon, the family closes the bar, and sends Isaac and his cousin Yoni (later played by Joshua Biton, Larry Crowne ) to Los Angeles so that they will be saf

Snow White and the Huntsman

Image
Now that Mirror, Mirror has come and gone from theaters, we can focus on the darker, more serious of the two Snow White movies being released this year: Snow White and the Huntsman . The trailer made the film look deliciously dark, and it definitely was; styled after the original Grimm's fairy tales, which are far too sinister for children, the new film is a mix of Pan's Labyrinth, Robin Hood , and Alice in Wonderland . King Magnus lives in medieval England with his wife and daughter. He is heartbroken when the Queen - his wife - dies, until he meets Ravenna (Charlize Theron, Young Adult ), who is a captive of an army that comes to the kingdom to challenge his army. He marries her the very next day, but on their wedding night he's in for a surprise: Ravenna is an evil woman who marries kings and destroys their kingdoms, and she stabs King Magnus in the heart with a knife. His daughter, Snow White, finds the King dead and tries to escape the castle, but Ravenna catches h

The Intouchables

Image
I had heard many good things about The Intouchables before seeing a screening of it, as it had screened several times before in my area, and was looking forward to seeing it. It definitely lived up to the hype, which makes sense as it's the second most successful French film of all time at the French box office, and it is one of the funnier movies I've seen recently as well. The wealthy Philippe (Francois Cluzet, Tell No One ) is looking for a caretaker, as he was paralyzed in a hang-gliding accident and is unable to move from the neck down. He interviews a slew of qualified candidates including Driss (Omar Sy, Micmacs ), who doesn't even seem to be taking the interview seriously. Nonetheless, Driss sticks in Phillippe's mind and is hired. Driss is a poor kid from the projects and could definitely use a job, so he agrees to take it; the fact that the position comes with his own room and bathroom appeals to him too. Driss and Philippe quickly become friends, and Dri