movie: The Avengers

Description from IMDB: “Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings together a team of super humans to form The Avengers to help save the Earth from Loki and his army.”

That’s kind of a lame description. Basically Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk, Nick Fury and assorted other characters team up to stop Loki (Thor’s adopted brother) from facilitating an alien invasion.

As you can imagine, most of this movie consists of kick ass action-y scenes. Heroes flying around, stuff blowing up, witty banter. It was all quite wonderful – just the way I like my flicks.

Seeing the characters from various other stories interact with each other was one of the greatest aspects of this movie. They brought along their respective histories and entered into brand spanking new conflicts.

The only complaint I had about this movie was how annoying Captain America was. Next to Iron Man’s wit and intelligence, he came off like a self-righteous dork. I didn’t like him as much in this movie.

The Avengers was totally awesome. I would love to see a sequel. It gets an A.

movie: Cabin in the Woods

I totally spaced the movie post yesterday, so we're having a Tuesday movie post this week.

We watched Cabin in the Woods. 

Description from IMDB: "Five friends go for a break at a remote cabin in the woods, where they get more than they bargained for. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods."

What do I say about this movie? It starts out as one thing and morphs into this almost completely different thing, sort of. It's somewhat easy to guess where the story is going as you watch it, but once it gets to a certain point, the thing just dissolves into chaos. This movie is for people who can go with the flow in a story. If you like weird stuff like I do, you could like this movie. 

The special effects are epic. I can't say much without inserting a spoiler or two, but let's just say, there's a lot to look at. 

Cabin in the Woods is crazy and awesome. It gets an A. 

movie: The Hunger Games

Ah, The Hunger Games. I finally got to see it. I am a patient movie watcher, no? yes.

Description from IMDB: “Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister's place for the latest match.”

I read the book, which might make a difference as to how much I ended up liking the movie. I heard from a few people that they didn’t like the movie. They did not read the book, nor were they the target audience for a YA title book.

Ok, so what I thought of it…

The filming was stark, especially at the beginning. There’s a bit of a bouncy camcorder feel, which wasn’t overly annoying and seemed to settle down after a while.

The story was reasonably faithful to the book, but it did deviate in a few ways.  The essence was still there. The characters were pretty much the same. The acting was fine and dandy.

As with the book, getting to the action takes a while.  Before the actual game, there’s some juicy sci-fi stuff, scenery, weird looking people and clothes, floating trains. Violence was present but not overly graphic, well, except for one particular part.

Like I said before, I heard a few complaints that the movie sucked. However, I thought it was good. You wouldn't necessarily need to read the book to appreciate it. The Hunger Games gets an A-. 

movie: Wrath of the Titans

We watched Wrath of the Titans this weekend, which is the sequel to the 2012 Clash of the Titans. Sequels are almost always iffy things quality-wise, I think. You never know where some executive might decide they need to cut corners.

Description from IMDB: “Perseus, mortal son of Zeus, battles the minions of the underworld to stop them from conquering the Earth and the heavens.”

Liam Neeson and Sam Worthington both reprise their roles, as does Ralph Fiennes whose Hades looks freakishly like Neeson’s Zeus.  Having the same actors return for another round is always a good sign.

Wrath of the Titans is similar to Clash in other ways. Much like the first movie, the visual effects are huge – the scenery and the beasties. Everything is interesting to look at and very well done.

There are a few nods to the original Clash of the Titans (1981) that the observant fan should catch pretty easily. I won’t get into specifics because spoilers aren’t very nice.

Final verdict – If you liked the 2012 Clash of the Titans, you’ll probably like the second one. Wrath of the Titans gets an A. 

movie: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

We finally watched a good movie this weekend. I needed one after last weekend. Those movies were not fantastic. Fortunately, this one is.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Description from IMDB: “With Dr. John Watson about to marry and end their partnership, a disconsolate Sherlock Holmes occupies his time investigating the schemes of his archenemy, Professor James Moriarty. However, when Moriarty warns that he considers the Watsons a legitimate target for his retaliation against the detective, Holmes must save them and get John involved in one last case. To do so, they join the Roma lady Madam Simza Heron's quest to find her missing brother, Renee, who may be the key to defeating Moriarty. Together, the trio find themselves involved in a dangerous international conspiracy led by the Napoleon of Crime in which the fate of all of Europe hangs in the balance.”

As with the first Downey Sherlock movie, this one is packed with action and plenty of comedy. It has a sort of Pirates of the Caribbean quality, with the humor and the way the fight scenes are choreographed.

The interactions between Holmes and Watson are often hilarious. It is a bromance to end all bromances. They vibe quite well together, Watson's good sense (mostly) with Holmes' absurd yet brilliant, often drug-fueled antics.

The addition of Noomi Rapace as a gypsy fortune teller to the cast is a very good one. I love how she's capable of looking like completely different people in her various roles. When I informed the husband she was in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, he didn't really seem to believe me.

Stephen Fry as Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's bro, was another nice addition. While the character is the more level-headed of the brothers, he is still quite quirky. 

Also featured, a significant number of cool hats.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows kicks much ass. It gets an A.

movie: Moneyball

We watched Moneyball this weekend. Here’s a quick description from IMDB: “Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.”

I had mixed feelings about this movie. The acting is really good from Brad Pitt to Jonah Hill (who actually plays a different character this time) to Philip Seymour Hoffman. On the other hand, the story moves pretty slowly.

For example, there are meetings where a bunch of old men talk about which baseball players they want to trade. Not very exciting. Also, there is a lot of tobacco spitting, which is disgusting, even when it comes from Brad Pitt.

Overall, the movie was okay. It wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, so , you know, I guess I’m probably biased from the beginning. Moneyball gets a B-. 

movie: Nowhere Boy

We watched Nowhere Boy this weekend, which is about John Lennon’s teenage years. The story begins with him living with his aunt and uncle instead of his parents and follows him as he finds his way, musically. He reconnects with his mother, and she teaches him about rock and roll and how to play the guitar. He meets a couple of the other Beatles during the course of the story, too.

I don’t really have a lot to say about this movie, other than it was really good. I did some research and the family dynamic in the film seems pretty close to what is known about John Lennon’s mother and his aunt. I will say that the movie ended kind of strangely. It just kind of stopped. I wish there was more to it. Nowhere Boy gets an A-.

book working updates and movie trailers

Hello, my lovelies! Friday is nearly upon us. I don’t really have much to talk about but I thought I should stop in anyway.

Current projects: Devil in the Branch book release on Tuesday. I didn’t forget about it this time. Are you proud of me? I am. I lost track of my days when White Wyrm came out. That thing snuck up on me. LOL

All I need to do is some formatting and Devil is ready to go!

I’m also working on a read-through for Pestilence. I’m really in love with that book, which is a dangerous way to feel when you’re trying to find the flaws.

Off the subject of books, I have a couple of awesome movie trailers I want to share.

The first one is for Wreck it Ralph. I love this for retro gaming goodness. I can’t wait to see it. The second trailer, the one for Robot and Frank, looks promising.

a couple of quickies

Not as much fun as it sounds! Or is it?? I have some stuff to do, so I’m making these reviews quick.

The Big Year

Description from IMDB: “Two bird enthusiasts try to defeat the cocky, cutthroat world record holder in a year-long bird-spotting competition.”

Big Year is actually the name of the bird spotting competition. I had never heard of it before watching this movie, but apparently, it’s a real thing. People travel everywhere to try to spot as many types of birds as possible within the course of a year. In this case, the Big Year to beat consisted of around 730 bird species if I remember correctly.

So, each of these three guys is trying to get their Big Year. Little do they know that their year is going to be big aside from the whole bird-watching competition.  Each of the three primary birdwatchers (played by Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson) will have to decide how to prioritize their lives in relation to the competition.

I love this movie.  The Big Year is heartwarming and funny and strange. It gets an A.

 -------

The Sitter

Description from IMDB: “A college student on suspension is coaxed into babysitting the kids next door, though he is fully unprepared for the wild night ahead of him.”

The big drama starts when Noah (played by Jonah Hill) agrees to go buy coke for this girl who he wants as his girlfriend. God knows why, she’s cute enough, I guess, but she’s obnoxious and bitchy and selfish. I for one would rather have no girlfriend. 99 problems, amIright? Lol

Jonah Hill is an actor I want to like because he seems like he might be a down to earth guy. However, I am never impressed with his acting ability. He plays the same character in every movie. This one is more of the same.

The Sitter was not a great movie. It had some funny moments, some weirdly hilarious bad guys and some warm fuzziness.

A lot of the issues that arose during the story were never resolved. I wondered how he was going to get out of various jams, but at the end of the movie, he could just walk away from them, apparently.

The Sitter gets a C-.

movie: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

I ventured outside for physical activity. It was the first time I’ve been able to do that in a while due to excessive heat. I thought it was going to be miserable because I was hot within like ten seconds of being out there. However, once I got moving on the bike, it wasn’t bad at all.

We watched Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance this weekend.

Here’s the description from IMDB: “As Johnny Blaze hides out in Eastern Europe, he is called upon to stop the devil, who is trying to take human form.”

I liked the first Ghost Rider movie from 2007. I hadn’t read the comic book but I liked the story.

The sequel wasn’t as good. The directing made it weirder and cheesy. I could tell while we were watching it that it wasn’t directed by the same guy that did the first movie. A lot of the movie, character mannerisms and such, felt forced.

The three primary characters were pretty well developed. The special effects were top notch – plenty of fire and explosions. The fighting was well-choreographed, but a bit one sided. Ghost rider could kill people by whipping them with a chain and most of them were ordinary humans, so…not much of a fight there.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance was entertaining but not all I hope it would be. C

movie: The Three Musketeers

I had a dentist appointment today. It went ok, however, when I got home, I proceeded to bite some giant holes in the inside of my numb cheek exactly like he told me not to do. I was actually pulling pieces of my cheek out of my mouth. It was pretty gross.

Anywayz, movie!

This weekend, we watched The Three Musketeers (2011). Here is the description from IMDB:

“The hot-headed young D'Artagnan along with three former legendary but now down on their luck Musketeers must unite and defeat a beautiful double agent and her villainous employer from seizing the French throne and engulfing Europe in war.”

First, I LOVE the name “D’Artagnan”, pronounced like Dar-tan-yan. It’s quite heroic sounding, yes?

The movie has some great action scenes, swordplay, air ship battles. It was reminiscent of movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I really liked the king and queen characters. Painting royalty as spoiled D-bags is too easy, I think. Too cliché. The king and queen in Three Musketeers were funny and sweet.

Another notable character was “Milady”, the aforementioned double agent, played by Milla Jovovich. She was awesomely bad.

Actually, all of the characters were good. This movie was great. I would be happy to see a sequel. Three Musketeers gets an A.

movie: Easy A

Easy A stars Emma Stone as Olive. She wants to impress her friend, so she lies about losing her virginity. The gossip spreads and takes on a life of its own. Before long, she is taking gift cards from boys so they can say they did things with her that didn't actually happen. Relationships suffer, yadda yadda.

This movie is pretty funny. It's geared toward a young adult audience, so it's kind of cutesy. The two best characters are probably her parents as played by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson. Their banter with each other and their kids is pretty hilarious. Amanda Bynes plays a self-righteous snobby girl – also very funny.

I found the fictional school's lax dress code kind of interesting. Olive is flouncing around in bustiers-as-shirts for like 90% of the movie and the faculty seems ok with that. That…would not happen in the Midwest.

So, bottom line? Not genius, but entertaining. There is a minor romantic chick flick vibe, but it’s not too obnoxious. Easy A gets a B-.

Guess what! I just noticed that tomorrow is going to be my 500^th post! Crazy, right?

edit: tomorrow is not actually the 500th post. awwww...the counter thingy was counting drafts that I never published. I'm only on like 495 or something like that.

movie: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

This is a quick one because I have stuff to do.

Description from IMDB: “Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for forty years by Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker.”

The opening credit sequence was intense. It reminded me a lot of a Tool video, just these crazy images of people and tires and black flowing substances, wicked cool.

The pacing of the story was a little slow at first, but it picked up. The violence was gruesome in parts.

The movie had a lot of quiet tension, some nice action. The scenery was desolate. Lisbeth’s makeup, hair, and wardrobe were all very dark. She’s like the ultimate goth-punk. Loved it.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo gets an A-

movie: Source Code

Source Code! Jake Gyllenhaal! What else is there to know? He’s so darned pretty.

Description from IMDB: “An action thriller centered on a soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown man and discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.”

I liked this movie. The story consists of Colter Steven’s character bouncing back and forth between what looks like a wrecked fighter plane cockpit and a commuter train scene that keeps repeating. It starts out the same every time, but it changes as it goes on and he chooses different courses of action.

Most of the plot was pretty predictable, I thought. It also moved a bit slowly at first.

Despite the flaws, it was well executed. The movie had a Lost (tv show) vibe to it, the unanswered questions and Colton’s interaction with the science lab types, all very Dharma.

Source Code wasn’t the greatest movie ever, but it wasn’t bad either. It gets a B.

movie: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Hey there! The movie post has returned from a week-long hiatus. I loved Rise of the Planet of the Apes, so I hate to give it the quickie review treatment, but mama’s got a big to-do list.

Synopsis from IMDB: “Eight years of being raised by humans and now left behind in an abusive sanctuary, a hyper-intelligent chimpanzee will lead a revolution of apes towards freedom from man's torturous exploitation.”

What I loved about this movie, first and foremost, was that it wasn’t some cheap, ride-on-the-popularity-of-the-original-movie cheesefest. This movie could easily stand on its own. The bond between Caesar (the chimp) and Will (played by James Franco) is believable as an interspecies father-son relationship. Intellectually, Caesar is more human than ape, however he still has animal problems - instincts and such that get him into trouble.

The aspect of this movie that I really remember them pushing when it came out in the movie theater was the special effects. They were pretty darn awesome. The facial expressions of the apes, Caesar in particular, were very human. If I remember correctly, they used actors with some sort of motion capture technology. In this movie, it came off as quite realistic.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes = A for awesome.  

movie: No Strings Attached

We watched No Strings Attached this weekend. It was a chick flick, not usually my favorite kind of movie, but it looked like it might be funny.

Natalie Portman is Emma, a girl who has trouble relating to men. She hasn’t really had any real relationships. Ashton Kutcher is Adam. He has had a crush on Emma since they were kids. She finally decides to give him a shot with the condition that they keep the relationship physical.

The movie had a lot of funny parts, and of course, it was romantic. One thing I liked about this movie was that it was a little less cliché than the usual chick flick. I hate movies where the girl is mindlessly chasing the guy around the whole time. That kind of desperation is unbecoming.

No Strings Attached was ok, not exactly art on film, but entertaining enough. It gets a B.

movie: John Carter

John Carter is a really good movie. I am immensely sad that it isn’t drawing a big crowd because it is certainly worthy of one.

Disney’s John Carter is based on the book A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I pasted the IMDB synopsis below.

“Transplanted to Mars, a Civil War vet discovers a lush planet inhabited by 12-foot tall barbarians. Finding himself a prisoner of these creatures, he escapes, only to encounter a princess who is in desperate need of a savior.”

The special effects are amazing. This is just the kind of sci-fi I like – the gritty, more realistic kind. For all my love of Star Trek, it was a bit unrealistically sterile. John Carter mixes primitive warriors with flying ships and aliens with advanced teleportation technology. It’s a rich mix of cultures.
One thing that was fun about this movie was picking out the difference between it and the book.

There was some significant rearranging of story. The Tharks weren’t as violent as they were in the book. There was no air machine. Some of the Thark hierarchy is rearranged. The story is streamlined, but the most important elements are still there.

Even if you didn’t read the book, this movie is very entertaining.

John Carter gets a big, fat A.

Also, on a side note – Disney, your marketing for this movie SUCKED. I loved A Princess of Mars and had no idea that’s what the movie was. It has the most boring title ever and the non-Imax poster says little to nothing about the story. Next time, generate more pre-release buzz. Consult your resident geeks for suggestions. That is all.

geeking the funk out

Why didn't anyone tell me that Disney's movie John Carpenter was actually A
Princess of Mars?!?!?! How was I left out of this loop? Where was I? Why didn't
I realize?

I saw some press, but my eyes glossed right over the words. I finally read an
article. Now I am freaking.

I read A Princess of Mars last year and LOVED it. The story is about a guy who
somehow magically ends up on Mars and becomes involved with all the
interspecies alien drama there. The book was written by the same author that
wrote Tarzan.

I...need to get to the movie theater. I can't believe how awesome this is. The original
book is on Project Gutenberg. It's free for download.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62

Also check out the pics from the movie on IMDb.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401729/mediaindex

must go. movie theater.

movie: Super 8

I adored this movie.

Super 8 is about a group of kids who is making a zombie movie with a home video camera. They’re filming next to some train tracks when there is a horrific crash. The military swoops in and basically takes over the town. They’re looking for something but are tight-lipped about what that something is.

Why did I adore this movie? Several reasons. The general feel of the movie, the story, the grown-up sounding banter between the kids, reminded me of Stephen King. In fact, while we were watching the movie, I actually looked up who wrote it because I thought maybe I missed this book release. JJ Abrams was the writer and the director. You might’ve heard of some of his other credits: Lost, Fringe, Alcatraz, Person of Interest. The man kicks serious ass.

Super 8 takes place in the summer of 1979. I think they seemed to do a really good job recreating the time period, visually. I can’t remember the actual time period of course because I was like 2 years old. But the scenery and wardrobe, etc. all feels authentic and not cheesy in any way.

Special effects were amazing. The story was compelling. Very good. Super 8 gets a big, fat A.

movie: The Hangover 2

Did anyone else think Madonna was awesome in the halftime show? I loved it. I thought it was amazing. I couldn't believe people were ripping on it today. Then I decided that ripping on the halftime act has become a tradition. Musical artists, good or bad, if you play the superbowl, expect some disses. Also expect every molecule of what was on stage to be dissected and evaluated for flaws. geez.

Anyway, so The Hangover 2.

Loved it. Here is the description from IMDb: “Two years after the bachelor party in Las Vegas, Phil, Stu, Alan, and Doug jet to Thailand for Stu's wedding. Stu's plan for a subdued pre-wedding brunch, however, goes seriously awry.”

It was quite hilarious. I read some reviews when it was first out in the theater that said it was exactly like the first, they just did some minor changes. It was similar in places. They wake up with a man lost, this time the bride’s brother. There were a few other parts that I caught, but I’m not going to risk spoiling anything. Despite the similarities, nothing about watching the movie felt stale to me. It was still very entertaining.

However, should there be a Hangover 3, they're going to need to switch the story up some more. The formula they're working is going to get old by episode 3.
The Hangover 2 gets a B-.

And, just because I think it’s super sexy, here is an interview with Bradley Cooper in delicious French. Oh my.