Tag: review

When you see me blog about a movie like The Other Woman know this, it’s not my choice to go see a movie like this. I like watching movies and I’ll watch almost anything. I’ll catch dumb comedies. I’ll gladly watch superhero, action flicks. I’ll go see ghost stories. And with The Other Woman, I’ll watch chick flicks.

Yes, it’s a chick flick. In the theatre, the majority of the audience was female. They were grouped mainly in groups of 3 or more in what can be described as girls’ night out. Yet, it was the late afternoon film. We’re all trying to save some cash.

Anyway, the film is standard ladies revenge flick on the cheating husband mixed with girl bonding. Leslie Mann plays the wife whose husband has cheated on her. Cameron Diaz is a high powered lawyer who was the mistress. Then swimsuit model, Kate Upton, is the second girl who mistress. They all get revenge on the husband because he’s a terrible, terrible person. The husband is some generic guy. Supposedly, he’s in Game of Thrones. I haven’t seen an episode.

The surprising part is that it was a Leslie Mann film. She stole the show. Cameron Diaz played second fiddle. I kept thinking about her as the monster from The Counselor. Kate Upton, meh.

I don’t hate the movie, but it wasn’t for me.

2 of 5 stars.

What’s amazing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that the less you know about the superhero, the better the movies turn out to be. Because you don’t know the story lines, your expectations are much lower. You’re also not so worried about the plot lines of the movie diverging horribly from the comics that you can enjoy and be surprised by the movie. The Avengers kind of works that way, but so does Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

This Captain America movie takes place in the present as opposed to the first one taken place during World War II. It finds Captain America in an America he doesn’t understand. He can’t compromise his principles even for his country, and he can’t understand how his country had compromised its principles.

The Captain finds himself embroiled in S.H.I.E.L.D. intrigue. Can he trust S.H.I.E.L.D. to protect the country without compromising the American principles? It reminds me of Agent Mulder and the mantra Mr. X told him, “Trust no one.” Alternatively, “The Truth is out there.” And it is spelled HYDRA!

This is a better movie than the first Captain America. It didn’t get slow towards the end. It actually picked up with all those revelations. And it made Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. a much better television show this past week.

Because I was never a big Captain America reader, I liked this movie.

4 of 5 stars.

Sabotage is a dark, violent movie about the war on drugs and the people who fight it. It’s also an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. It’s not a film with his signature one-liners. Plus, with how dark the film is, you wouldn’t laugh at any one-liner.

Sabotage is about an elite DEA squad led by Arnold. During a drug raid, they steal $10 million from a Mexican cartel. When they go to recover the money, they find its been stolen from them. The squad members then start getting killed, and they are forced to worry about if its revenge from the cartel or one them being greedy.

The lineup for the DEA squad was like a manly-man actor squad. They were all tough. Even the girl — the crazy one. And when she’s the crazy one, then you know this movie will be off kilter. There’s violence similar to that found in The Counselor very cringe inducing and hard to take in. Torture, head shots, stabbing are just a few of the fun stuff waiting.

I figured that Arnold would return to his action form. Unfortunately, he went dark Arnie as in End of Days/Sixth Day. I wanted an Arnie flick. I got nothing but torture and head shots.

3 of 5 stars.

The Monuments Men tries too hard to be an important type film. It was once scheduled for a Christmas season release, a time for Oscar prestige openings. But then it was moved back a few weeks into the current year, and we find it still playing to an audience of elderly on a Saturday afternoon.

The movie tells the tales of the Army men who were tasked to save the treasures of Europe from the Nazis. Ordinary men of arts were gathered together and sent to the front to stop the pillaging of the great arts of Europe. Art restorers, architects, painters, and sculptors were recruited. They made up a small team that poked around the front lines in the latter part of the war finding and guarding important art.

It was a perfectly adequate film for a Saturday afternoon.

3 of 5 stars

I went into Pompeii hoping that Paul WS Anderson would produce a good bad movie like his The Three Musketeers. Unfortunately, it was a terrible, terrible movie. From Kit Harrington, the leading man trying to be Orlando Bloom channeling Erica Bana, to Emily Browning, the romantic interest not filling the Mila Jovovich role, this movie missed on all cylinders. It was derivative of Titanic and Gladiator, and it didn’t try to hide that fact.

Pompeii plot is about the last days of the city under threat of Mount Vesuvius. Browning plays the daughter of the chief merchant of the city. She has just returned from Rome sickened by the political machinations. She’s come home to find that her Senator suitor, Kiefer Sutherland and a weird accent, holds the fate of her father’s ambitions in his hands. Harrington is a slave and gladiator, brought to Pompeii for the big festival. He was a member of a Celtic tribe slaughterd by Sutherland. He’s come for his revenge. He’s joined in his quest by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje playing the Djimon Hounsou from Gladiator. His arch is exactly the same. He’s Harrington’s nemesis first, then friend afterwards. This all happens under the threat of the volcano.

The acting was bad. The story and plot movements were bad. Keifer Sutherland was bad. I wish I had something good to say, but don’t watch this ever.

1 of 5 stars.

August: Osage County is not a movie I would go see, but my mom wanted to catch it. It’s a film adapted from a stage play. It too got an Oscar nod for its actresses namely, Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. I’m not one to judge acting, but I thought that Streep was overboard. I think she got the nod, because she’s Meryl Streep. There’s got to have been more subtle acting to have gotten the nod. I think it would be better.

Anyway, the film is about Streep as matriarch of a family looking to escape from each other. She’s got cancer. Her husband gets her help then goes and drowns. The family, all daughters, gets together to bury him. The gloves come off. They bicker — mother-daughter, sister-sister.

It’s a story about family history. You leave, you love, you come back. You know it all hurts. Especially, if your mother is as demanding as Streep was. Or as big a drug addict.

It’s an interesting film for a Saturday afternoon. It’s not something I want to catch again. It was adequate.

3 of 5 stars.

American Hustle is all about the 70s look. Amy Adams’s plunging neck lines, Jennifer Lawrences’s hair, Bradley Cooper’s perm. You’ll be too busy being amazed by the costume design to really appreciate the film.

American Hustle purports to tell the tale of the ABSCAM scandal in the late 70s. It was an FBI scam to trick congressman and senators into accepting bribes to make a fake Arab sheik an American citizen.

Amy Adams and Christian Bale play the original con men caught by the FBI and ordered to run the scam. They were small time players, but Bradley Cooper’s ambitious FBI agent wants to make a name for himself by going after big fish. The big fish was a Jeremy Renner’s simple Jersey mayor looking to help his constituents. He wanted to bring jobs back to Atlantic City helping people — a good guy? Cooper, a good guy? Bale and Adams good people? Jennifer Lawrence, Bale’s wife, not so good as she plays a loud, no class girl who when she finds out about the scam tries to needle her way into the action and when she gets blocked out takes it upon herself to destroy everything.

I think Bale did a fine job at portraying a small time hustler caught in a too large scam hustling his way out of the jam. Cooper was good as well playing the FBI agent looking to go big time. He was out of control. The girls, Adams and Lawrence, did well too with Adams and her cleavage edging out Lawrences’s Jersey girl nonsense in the heart of this viewer.

This movie is a Golden Globe nominee for best comedy. While there was a lot to laugh at, I don’t think this started out as comedy. It’s just that the con men got themselves into laughable situations. This isn’t an Adam Sandler film. The funniest part is ‘science oven’ — you burned the science oven!

It’s a good flick. Maybe better than the rating I’m giving it.

3 of 5 stars.

47 Ronin is a mess. It’s a movie based on a traditional Japanese tale of loyalty and revenge plus magic, dragons, and Keanu.

The Japanese tale was about samurai whose lord had to kill himself for disparaging another. His samurai, now leaderless ronin, vowed revenge because they thought that the offense was not severe. The 47 ronin of the title plotted for years eventually exacting revenge on their target. The Emperor liked the way the ronin conducted themselves and allowed the ronin to have an honorable ending. They all died in the end.

This version adds in Keanu as a mystically half-breed. Yeah, it makes no difference, but they needed him so that they can add the magic, the dragons, and the vile witch.

Everything has to be epic in Hollywood. That’s why there was the magic, the dragons, and the vile witch. Hollywood must make everything ginormous. Unfortunately, not everything needs the ginormity. The original 47 ronin story has all you need. It’s withstood years and years of telling in Japan. It may withstand the magic, the dragons, and the vile witch, but it isn’t that good of tale with it.

3 of 5 stars.