The Big Year- rental

The Big Year

When this was released last year I remember it getting pretty good reviews although looking at rottentomatoes.com I see it only had a 39% approval rating.  A movie about three guys doing extreme bird watching?  Was I going to waste my hard earned peso's on this movie?  Not a chance!  Jack Black?  I can't stand him.  He is so obnoxious I want to give him a good slap.  Not crazy about Owen Wilson either.  How long has it been since Steve Martin was in a good movie?  A LONG time.

I accidentally recorded this on my DVR thinking it was a different movie.  Guess what?  It was actually a pretty good movie!  I know many will think I'm sniffing glue again.  No way can a movie about three grown men spending their time looking for birds be a good movie.  That's the hitch.  The bird watching does not really have much to do with the movie.  It could be stamp collecting or playing chess.  It really is a relationship movie.  That and showing how stupid men can be when the competitive nature kicks in! : >


Black plays Brad Harris.  He has always enjoyed bird watching and wants to take it to the next level.  There is a magazine that keeps a record of most birds seen in a year.  It's completely on the honor system.  No pictures or other verification needed.  Brad has a strained relationship with his gruff father who does not get his son wasting all this time looking at birds.  Steve Martin is Stu.  He is a retiring executive with a very understanding wife who befriends Brad.  The record for birds is held by the master, Kenny Bostick (Wilson) who is obsessed with birds and even more holding on to the record.  His wife is not understanding and their relationship is unraveling at a fast pace.  


As I said I normally don't care for Jack Black.  Here he is very constrained and likable as he really wants to mend his relationship with his dad.  


This movie won't win any awards but I enjoyed it.  I was touched at the end and felt the acting took what clearly is a goofy subject and made it watchable.  

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises

I'm not going to put a rating on this movie.  There are MANY of you out there that LOVED the past two Dark Knight movies.  Some that think the second movie was one of the GREATEST of all time! I'm just not one of those people.  If you fall in the category above you should probably stop reading now and go to the movies.  If you loved the first two movies I feel sure you will like this one.  Three is not as good as two.  It will still surely make $100 million in it's first week in theaters even with the tragic events of opening night in Colorado.

I am not sure why I don't really care for these Batman movies.  Lots of action and those things going boom.  There are just too many things that if you strip off the glitz and show that just don't make sense. I know I'm too picky with some of these.  Wish I could be like my movie buddy Ted and love every movie I see.

The movie starts with a bang with our bad guy Bane (played by Tom Hardy who was great in Warrior but wasted here since you couldn't see his face for 99% of the movie) taking over a flight with some exciting action.  Later when you think about what was done you will understand it made no sense.

Christian Bale does a good Batman again this time.  I'm not sure I understand why one minute his is a cripple using a cane and the next he can beat up 20 bad guys and leap tall buildings.  The highlight of the movie for me was Anne Hathaway as Selina (Catwoman?  They never really say).  She is way better than I thought she would be.  She also shows she can be pretty hot in black leather when she's not skeleton skinny and a boys haircut.

One last gripe.  I'm over the superhero's having a high ranking official even with overwhelming evidence that the superhero is helping people (Batman, Spiderman...) is convinced he is a criminal and does everything in his power to bring him down.  Where did Commissioner Gordon go?  Did he die in the last one?

If you loved the movie and think I'm all wrong I'd love to hear from you.  I think the original Batman with Michael Keaton are far better than these movies.  This movie is right at three hours long and could easily be 45 minutes shorter.  I'm not sorry I saw it.  I'm just not going gaga like so many others.

Savages

Savages

Rating 4 out of 10

When I bought my ticket for Savages I wasn't expecting an elaborate plot line.  With Oliver Stone directing I didn't really even expect it to make sense.  I mostly expected a good action revenge movie with a high body count.  I guess for the most part I did get that.  With the good cast I just expected a little more.

Taylor Kitsch is turning into a pretty good action star even if he can't pick a good movie to be in (John Carter?).  Here he plays John.  He and his partner Ben are drug dealers in Souther California.  Not content to just sell to all the legal pot places they have out there they start selling on the illegal market.  As is always the case their stuff is always the best around.  True these two are drug dealers BUT there are good drug dealers. They are nice to everyone and even help the poor kids in Africa get fresh water in their off time.  They also share the same shapely blonde girlfriend (Blake Lively) who likes to get high alot and have sex with both guys.

When the mean Mexican drug cartel wants them to join up with them they politely say no.  The leader ( Salma Hayek- I'd watch her read the phone book) doesn't like people saying no.  She sends her head thug Lado (Benicio Del Toro- He used to be a good actor.  Here is is more of a crazy joke) to kidnap the blonde girlfriend.

That just makes John and Ben mad. With the help of corrupt DEA agent (John Travolta when he wasn't getting a massage) goes after the bad guys (gals).

The story just doesn't play out well.  A movie like this has to speed along and keep the action rolling.  Instead this one seems to drag you down the road where you know what is going to happen and wish it would just get here.  Throw in a really stupid ending that will make you say bad words and I'd say rent this one if you must.  It's a shame Oliver Stone wasted such a good cast.

People Like Us

People Like Us

Rating 6.5 out of 10

In a Summer movie season where most go boom or shoot web from their wrists this is a smaller "people" movie.  It won't change your life or even make you want to see it multiple times, but if you like movies like this you will be glad you saw it.  If nothing else it gets you in a cool air conditioned theater with a comfortable seat.  Overpriced popcorn is optional.

The movie is mostly well acted with a pretty good cast for this small of a movie.  Chris Pine plays Sam.  He is a mover and shaker smooth talking salesman type with the pretty girlfriend (Olivia Wilde) that he can't commit to. When his estranged dad passes away he doesn't even want to go to the funeral.  He was a bad father who had little to do with him ever.  Michelle Pfeiffer plays mom who is there try to defend dad and smooth the bad feelings between the two.

In the will the family lawyer hands Sam a shaving kit that turns out to be full of $100 bills.  Unfortunately there is a note in there too that says the money is for a sister he never knew he had.  Frankie was birthed by another woman and they never met even though they lived in the same city.  Frankie is played by Elizabeth Banks.  I'm not usually a fan of Liz but she does a good job here as the single mom just trying to get by.

Sam really does not want to give her the money.  He decides to meet her not telling who he is to decide if she is worthy.  Somehow he likes the shaggy headed smart mouth teenage son.  I don't know what it is about Hollywood and teenagers.  This father of five just wanted to give the kid a haircut!  Anyway...

You can probably guess most of the rest of the story but it doesn't matter.  It's a nice little story that is well acted and worth a look.

The Amazing Spider-Man

The Amazing Spider-Man


Rating 8 out of 10

When I heard they were doing a reboot of SpiderMan only ten years after the original I had to scratch my head. Spiderman III was only released five years ago and it wasn't very good.   Then I hear Spidey is being played by that skinny nerdy guy from the Social Network Andrew Garfield?  Just sounds like a bad idea.  Then I saw a few of the trailers with the giant lizard guy chasing people around NYC.  Okay, I'll give it a try.

I'm sure my comic book nerd brother inlaw can explain to me the big difference in the plots.  This story while similar to the 2002 SpiderMan movie is similar, but also is way different.  Emma Stone is far better than Kristen Dunst.  That does not really matter since they are different people.  MJ, the love of Peter Parkers life is not in this movie.  Now there is Gwen Stacy.  I have not hear of her.  Then again I haven't read a comic book since middle school.  I hear Gwen is also a character in the books.

This Spider-Man movie deals more with the childhood of Peter Parker and what happened to his parents.  Explains what his dad was working on with another scientist before dad dropped Pete off with Uncle Ben and Aunt Mae.  The movie pace drags a bit here as we are being told a story we have mostly heard before.

Once he figures out his powers and stitches his suit the action starts.  The bad guy is a big lizard guy that is out to turn everyone in to lizards like him.  The big star of this movie is the effects.  Clearly things have improved a good bit in ten years.  They were quite impressive in the 2D version we saw (I don't like 3D at all!).

This is a good summer movie that is fun to watch and lots of things go boom and miles of spider webs are spun.  I wouldn't say it's better than the first one, but it's better than most of what is out there now.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Rating 5 out of 10

Okay, no one see's the title of this movie and expects (or even hopes) this will be a great movie.  At best you hope it's not too cheesy and the action scenes are good.  I admit I was intrigued at the thought of one of our great presidents wielding a silver coated ax killing vampires and delivering karate kicks like Jackie Chan.  I went in with low expectations and it still fell slightly below the bar.

The story starts when Abe was a small child.  He was a good kid who loves his mother.  When he see's a vampire kill Mom he swears he will make all vampires pay.  When he gets older he hooks up with a man who promises to make him the best vampire killer ever.  He also learns vampires are everywhere in every major US city.  For some reason they are worse in Springfield, Illinois.

Abe mostly gets into politics so he can keep tabs on the bloodsuckers.  The vampires are big into slavery.  They can use the slaves to work a year or two then have them for lunch, literally.  So when the Civil War breaks out the vampires on the side of the South.  In fact in some of the final big battles it was all vampires voting for the South.  Luckily the good guys have Abe and his ax on their side!

The effects are good at times, cheesy most of the time.  The acting is ok for mostly unknown actors.  In fact one of my neighbors has a part in the move of one of the Senators helping Abe get his political start.  It was interesting seeing him pop in there.

This would be an interesting tongue in cheek rental in a few months when it hits the shelves (are there any video shelves left?).  Don't pay full price for the movie.