Catching Up On Movies

Remember when I used to go see movies, and then give my opinions of them? Those were the days. As part of this return to blogging, I present the movies I've seen but haven't written about. Grades for all, a few needed comments on some. Unfortunately, the 2014 portion of the list is rather barren, in great part because of my financial situation, which is pretty horrible at this time. So I'm not sure how many more films I'll see from here on out.

2013

The World's End: B-plus
Kick-Ass 2: D-plus (If I recall, the off-beat charm and humor of the first film -- in the midst of all the violence -- was gone from this one. Juvenile and stupid.)
Lee Daniels' The Butler: B (Based more loosely on the true story than it should have been, and some of the actors portraying Presidents were jarring.)
You're Next: C-plus (Very much a mixed bag, with some good acting but a ridiculous plot.)
The Conjuring: B (Very old school. Not like today's horror films at all.)
Don Jon: C-plus (I love love love Joseph Gordon-Levitt and this film was his baby. It just got old and dumb pretty fast.)
Gravity: A
Machete Kills: C-minus (Pretty disappointing. I had to watch the first film On Demand and that was over-the-top fun. This was more over-the-top dumb.)
The Counselor: F (I walked out of this pretty fast. I didn't even make it to the scene where Cameron Diaz humped a car.)
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa: B
Carrie: C-minus (So unnecessary. And setting it in the present, with smartphone videos and the like, didn't help.)
Thor: The Dark World: B (A little better than the first, which isn't saying much.)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire: B (Not as good as the first, which is saying a lot.)
American Hustle: B-plus
Saving Mr. Banks: A
The Dallas Buyers Club: B-plus
Frozen: C (So, so overrated! The film is overrated! "Let It Go" is overrated! The movie took forever to get started, the story wasn't all that exceptional. It's not that the movie and song are awful. It's just that they're not special. Why did people make such a fuss over it? Overrated!)

2014

Anchorman 2: B-minus (Again, had to watch the first On Demand. Not as good as the first, but a rather clever comment on the advent of 24-hour cable TV news and what it would become.)
The Lego Movie: A (Everything is awesome!!!!)
Muppets Most Wanted: B (It's like they're making minor changes and reissuing the first Muppet movies. First came the movie in which the Muppets get together (or get back together). Then there's the sequel where a Muppet is framed as a criminal. If they make another, expect the Muppets to hit New York City again.)
Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier: B-plus (Not only did this movie turn out well, but it rejuvenated the Agents of SHIELD TV series. It's a miracle!)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2: B-minus (Why did they reboot this so soon? And why is it not better?)
X-Men: Days of Future Past: B (This was very good in a lot of ways, but I think my expectations were raised by the pre-release hype.)

Quick Reviews (Catching Up Again)

Yeah, I fell behind in discussing movies again. Seeing as how you don't pay me to do this, though...anyway, I'll start with the one that's not really a 2012 movie: "Finding Nemo," which was re-released in a 3D version this fall. Of the Pixar movies, there are only three I haven't seen in full. I've seen parts of "A Bug's Life" and have no intentions of ever seeing "Cars 2." So "Nemo" was the only gap in my Pixar resume. I liked it a lot but didn't love it. If it were on my 2012 movie list I'd give it a grade of B.

"House at the End of the Street" started out slowly but I ended up enjoying it more than expected, especially since it didn't involve a supernatural murderer-come-back-to-life the way it seemed (at least to me, from the little I heard of it going in). And the revelation at the end was a surprise. My grade: B-minus.

I wasn't totally enthralled with "Looper." As much as I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I didn't like how they used some prosthetic nose getup to make him look like Bruce Willis. Like "Men in Black III," the time-travel machinations didn't make sense, and even though a meta commentary by Willis' character essentially told the audience that we shouldn't worry about time-travel continuity making sense, I can't go for that (no can do). A certain amount of logic is required. My grade: B.

"Hotel Transylvania" presents Adam Sandler as an animated Dracula. The idea of a hotel that caters exclusively to monsters and keeps them from contact with humans was sort of clever, but it wasn't what it could be, and, I repeat, Adam Sandler as Dracula. My grade: C-minus.

Quick Reviews: Hope Springs, Premium Rush

As I sit down to write this, it occurs to me that this might be a good pattern: two movies in one post. That way I won't feel too pressured to get a post done immediately after I see a movie, but at the same time I don't get too far behind. Of course, if I disciplined myself I'd post right away anyway.

"Hope Springs" had a much more serious tone than I expected. Either that or the attempts at humor fell way flat. It was odd to me. A long-married couple, Arnold and Kay (Tommy Lee Jones, Meryl Streep) are so set in their routines that Kay becomes unhappy and, against her husband's wishes and using her own money, books a week-long trip to coastal Maine for intensive couples' counseling with a therapist (Steve Carell). Much of the movie I felt like it was more of a drama (again, maybe I just didn't connect with the jokes or something). I also felt like Arnold was a total jackass and his wife should've just dumped him. But hey, this was meant to be a comedy, or a comedy-drama, and that just wasn't going to happen. I didn't really start laughing until we got to the point where Kay was about to practice oral sex by using a banana, and the real reason I laughed was because, let's face it: MERYL STREEP WAS ABOUT TO GO DOWN ON A BANANA. Still, it was well-acted, and if I ever need couples' counseling I want Steve Carell to be the therapist. My grade: B-minus.

Never feeling serious at all, despite the action and violence, is "Premium Rush," in which the always-awesome Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Wilee, a bike courier racing against the clock in New York City to get a very important envelope delivered, while a corrupt police detective (Michael Shannon) is after him, intent on getting the envelope himself. It was interesting to see the slo-mo technique used to see how Wilee (yes, that's how it's spelled and yes, there are references to Wile E. Coyote, although it's not an apt comparison considering how the bike courier is actually more like the Road Runner) instantly calculates the safest way to zip through crowded intersections. It might be interesting to see someone use this technique and show what's going through the mind of Peyton Manning as he makes his reads before firing a pass. Anyway, this is another example of mindless summer movie that's easy to sit through. My grade: B.

Quick Review: The Dark Knight Rises

I suppose this is a not-so-quick review. Then again, the movie was 2 hours, 40 minutes long. (And I managed to sit through it without running to the bathroom. Woo-hoo!)

It seems impossible to discuss "The Dark Knight Rises" without mentioning the mass murders in Aurora, Colorado. I'm still angry that much of the hoopla and excitement for this movie was wiped out by the actions of an evil individual -- not to mention our nation's pathetic excuse for gun laws. Since it happened, I haven't seen a single advertisement for the film. (On the other hand, we also got a respite from those slimy political ads, as the Obama and Romney campaigns, and the super-PACs supporting them, suspended their advertising.) Still, it only slightly tainted my enjoyment of the film.

Looking at the trilogy as a whole, Christopher Nolan did a masterful job of telling what is really one long story with multiple themes. "The Dark Knight Rises" goes back to plot points and themes in "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" and weaves them into the film coherently, tying everything up extremely well. It even borrowed some from various story lines in the Batman comic books. (Does Bane break Batman's back? I'm not telling, just like I'm not telling whether or not Batman dies, as has been hinted and rumored.)

Specifically concerning the finale, it lived up to all of my expectations, particularly in regard to two of my fave actors. Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle was her usual marvelous self. She's never actually called Catwoman in the film; no mention of cats at all, only her master skills as a thief, thus avoiding the campiness usually associated with the character. (I'm not complaining about the camp: I adore Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman.) And Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a cop -- the trailers gave away nothing about why he was important to the story at all, but it pays off, especially with a hat tip to another Batman character at the very end.


To be honest, though, I think "The Dark Knight" was slightly better than "TDKR," mainly because of one aspect: Bane. No complaints about Tom Hardy, and I even was able to understand most of what he was saying under that mask with that weird voice, which still wasn't as annoying as Christian Bale's Batman voice. But even before Bane's motives were somewhat undercut by a plot twist near the end, as strong and powerful as he is, there's a little lacking when compared to the brilliant madness of Heath Ledger's Joker. My grade: A.

Quick Review: 50/50

I'm not sure if it had something to do with "Green Hornet" or not, but I'm starting to tire of Seth Rogen's act. I suppose his character in "50/50" was supposed to act the way he did. After all, he was in a sense playing himself. "50/50" was written by Will Reiser, Rogen's friend, and is loosely based (so much so that their names are changed in the film) on Reiser's being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and how Rogen helped get him through chemo, and then surgery. The movie explains why Seth...I mean, Kyle, reacted the way he did to Will's...I mean, Adam's situation. Adam is played by the always adorable Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and whether Adam's dealing with his medical situation or the responses of his friend, his mother (Anjelica Huston), his needy girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard), or his fresh-out-of-college psychologist (Anna Kendrick), Gordon-Levitt never fails to connect. I'd have rated this higher but, you know, I'm just getting a little tired of Seth Rogen. Sorry. My grade: B.

My Week In Comics 7-28-10

We start with the bad, and work our way up...

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne 4 (of 6): I alluded to this last week in my comment on the first issue of "Time Masters: Vanishing Point." This series has turned into a train wreck. Bruce Wayne has gone from prehistoric-era Gotham to witch trial-era Gotham to high seas pirate-era Gotham, and now he's jumped through time again and is in the Wild Wild West-era Gotham. And this story involves Jonah Hex. You may remember there was a Jonah Hex movie earlier this summer. It was a huge bomb. So is this book. In the first issue Bruce was incoherent, then was able to speak normally (for the era he was in). In this issue he doesn't say a word. I barely have any idea what's going on and I'm not sure I care.

Gotham City Sirens 14: This book is losing me as well, although more slowly. The last few issues have been tightly focused on one or two of its three stars, meaning the interplay between the three that was so entertaining is mostly missing. Here, Poison Ivy is checking out something interesting at her job at S.T.A.R. Labs, something that turns out to be dangerous. Meanwhile, back at the home they share, Catwoman and Harley Quinn haven't heard from Ivy in a while. They decide to give her a little more time. Then, separately, they get into costume and go looking for her at S.T.A.R. So at least they're all in the same place...

Action Comics 891: We get a look at a few of Lex Luthor's dreams...contrived as they are, as they've been placed into his mind by Mister Mind, an alien telepathic bug. So it's sort of like "Inception" without the different dream levels and Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. There's even a cameo by Superman, sort of. It's nice to see some version of Superman in his own book. Suffice to say, Luthor is still on his quest for the power of the Black Lantern rings, and his robotic substitute for Lois Lane is by his side.

Quick Review: Inception

If you're looking for a complex film that will make you think, "Inception" may be your film. Honestly, though, while there's much to like about it, the extreme complexity at times worked against it for me. Leonardo DiCaprio is Cobb, a thief who, because of something that happened involving his late wife (Marion Cotillard), is unable to return to the USA to be with his children. What he steals, it seems, is ideas. With the help of some sort of device and some sort of sedatives, he and his team are able to enter a target's dream and manipulate things in order to learn some piece of information that the target is trying to keep secret. Cobb's team (including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy) is hired by a businessman named Saito (Ken Watanabe) to do something different -- instead of taking an idea from someone's mind, implant an idea instead. This is what the title refers to. The target is a rival businessman (Cillian Murphy), and if Cobb and the team are successful, Saito will arrange things so that Cobb can reenter the country and be reunited with his kids. There are various levels of dreams, and time advances more quickly in deeper levels, and...well, I can't do it justice. It is, as I think I've made clear, really complex. It kind of takes a leap of faith to accept everything without wondering about the rules of the dream states that are presented. Also, normally in a film you're rooting for the protagonists to succeed. In this case the protagonists are essentially criminals. As it went on I wasn't sure if I wanted them to succeed or not. Still, it is visually brilliant and well-acted, and the ending is certainly worthy of debate...although just before the very last scene played out, I knew exactly what would happen. My grade: B-plus.

The "(500) Days Of Summer" stars dance!

I thought this was really cute. The stars of "(500) Days Of Summer," Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, in a music video for "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here" by She & Him -- the "She" is Deschanel, from EW.com's PopWatch blog:

Quick Review: (500) Days Of Summer

While "The Ugly Truth" follows a standard formula, "(500) Days Of Summer" is all over the place. The "500 days" in the title is literal. Summer (Zooey Deschanel) is the woman that Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has fallen in love with. Tom's problem is that Summer doesn't believe in true love. The movie skips back and forth in time to different points in their relationship, both good and bad times, which keeps you wondering if there's a chance that they'll stay together. (Disclaimer: not all 500 days are shown in the film. Otherwise it'd be really long, and boring at times as well.) Tom's best friends and his younger sister, one of those way-too-mature-for-their-age little girls who are way too prevalent in films, are there to support him through it all. Deschanel seems to be making a habit of playing these quirky characters, and she does it well. However, Gordon-Levitt's excellent performance is the key. You feel his exuberance and his pain. He's becoming one of my favorite actors...although I'm not sure if that will be enough to get me into the theater to see the upcoming "G.I. Joe" movie that he's in. My grade: A-minus.