Shade

Randomly came across this movie and found it hard to resist - stellar cast and a con-artist premise, without even pressing play this movie had a promising start.  Starring Gabriel Byrne, Jamie Foxx (in one of his early roles), Stuart Townsend, and a surprisingly attractive Sylvester Stallone, to name a few names.  This 2003 flick comes off as low-budget, and I found it difficult to tell whether this was a chosen directorial style or simply a lack of funds.  It had the cheesy smoke-filled-room-sad-sax-soundtrack that almost led me to believe that the film was attempting to hit a specific stylistic note, which maybe just did not resonate with me.  However, I do love a good con and this film has a couple to share.

30 Days of Night

In honor of Halloween I made sure to get a scary movie from Netflix.  Now granted that horror is not my genre, so I stayed away from the likes of Paranormal Activity and anything else that could potentially interrupt my sleep patterns haha  I chose this particular film primarily for its (non-glittery) vampire theme, and the presence of Ben Foster.  Much to my dismay Foster did not play a main role, and in fact was barely in the film at all.  My high hopes were crushed, along with my opinion of this movie.  This flick just ended up being kinda, sorta, really just pretty dumb.  There was only one truly scary character, and that is only because she looked like a vampire-alien and surprisingly [to my knowledge] there has not yet been a film that addresses that issue...

HOP - The Thing and The Three Musketeers

Starting off I did not have a lot of hope for this hop, but I was in crazy gotta-hop mode and these two fit together perfectly.  Hence I wound up with a scary movie I told myself I wouldn't watch, and a poor poor excuse for a musketeer film.

THE THING (2011) - Let me start by saying that I did indeed watch the 1982 version of this film, so sort of knew what to expect going in.  The CGI was crazy freaky, and I will admit I jumped several times.  My eyes may have closed for  a moment or two as well... which is why I don't usually watch movies like this!  Very suspenseful, I kept trying to guess who was next on the alien-impersonating-my-body list.  Especially loved how it ended, tying in so perfectly with the 1982 film.

THE THREE MUSKETEERS - This is the worst movie I have seen in a long time.  I think I am being so harsh because I truly love the story and this film was just a mockery.   How the producers got names like Milla Jovovich, Orlando Bloom, and especially Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz to attach themselves to this disaster I have no idea.  Blatantly obvious green screen work, a terribly distracting soundtrack, and embarrassingly bad script are just a few of the piss-poor elements that forge together in what should have been a straight-to-dvd film.  If you want to watch a film about the musketeers I recommend Disney's 1993 version - besides Chris O'Donnell's ridiculous hair it is infinitely better on all accounts.

Limitless

Any movie that takes two viewing sessions for me to watch is not a good one in my book.  I got so bored with the this movie I only made it forty-five minutes in before I turned it off and just went to bed.  But the next day I was like no, give it a chance, and so I finished the film.  The second half was definitely better than the first half, but the whole self-narration aspect kind of drove me crazy.

Interesting concept, with a pill that allows you to access the full power of your brain, best illustrated when used to try and escape bad guys, but overall did not live up to its potential.  Bradley Cooper's pretty face but lack of acting skills may be the reason... no, no, it was the self-narration that killed it for me.

HOP - The Ides of March and Drive

Through no specific planning of my own, I have managed to pull off an all-Gosling-all-the-time hop.  Tight shirts and side-swept hair abounds.

THE IDES OF MARCH - This film had a pretty baller cast, and with it's tight script was quite well acted.  My only real complaint there was that it took me a bit longer than it should have to sort out which character was which, and what their roles were.  To me, initial character development was a little confusing.  I also felt like due to my aversion to politics I missed a lot of subtleties of the film.  Despite this, the film was entertaining and kept me guessing as to the direction in which it was headed.  Who is double crossing who?  Oh right, it is politics.  Everyone is screwing everyone.

DRIVE - This film was a piece of work.  The vision behind this movie is unique, and the execution of that vision is played out with variable success.  The director clearly had specific ideas for each facet of every scene, as every aspect of each shot has a deliberateness about it.  The style here is undeniable - editing, lighting, directing, acting - everything about this film has a strong motivation behind it.  In my opinion it is a little cross-dissolve happy, the pace is a bit jumpy, and the way it jumps from one "feel" to the next is pretty abrupt (such as in the elevator scene) but Drive is a must-see for anyone even remotely interested in film.  The cinematography especially was pretty mind-blowing.

Passion Play

One of the weirdest movie premises, with the most mis-matched cast.  This film is from 2010, after Mickey Rourke did The Wrestler and Iron Man 2.  He should be going onwards and upwards, not skittering sideways.  Bill Murray and Megan Fox also star in this film about a down-and-out trumpet player who discovers a beautiful girl at a carnival - who has wings.  The CGI/green screen effects look dated, like someone is just fiddling with the technology for the very first time.  In their basement.  And the wrap-up, holy crapoly.  We are talking clutching-at-straws-no-sleep-against-a-deadline-how-does-this-end desperation here.  Someone clearly threw in the towel on this film, I am just shocked they got these actors to go down with them.  Well, maybe not so surprised that Fox went along with it...

Contagion

Don't touch me.  And I am not touching you.  Or the phone.  Or that keyboard.  It has been awhile since a virus epidemic movie has been released, and the paranoia is now back.  Not as exciting as Outbreak, or as disturbing as Blindness, this film nonetheless makes you think twice when the person next you coughs.   Overall the movie was a little flat, lacking the ups and downs that most movies need to keep their momentum.  There was no true sense of urgency, so the excitement was sapped.  You just leave the theater feeling dirty, and hoping that if enough of these apocalyptic-scenario movies get released maybe the government will eventually form an effective plan for dealing with those kinds of situations.

Most important reminder from this movie (besides to wash your hands)?  A person is smart, but people are dumb.

The Conspirator

Boring.  Two hours of boredom.  In a film in which the entire plot is based around its characters I formed no emotional attachment whatsoever to the individuals or their predicaments, did not care one lick about the trial, and Justin Long was completely miscast.  The entire thing was stagnant and dry, no life in either the acting or the plot.  A woman who owns the boarding house that hosted the Lincoln assassinators is put on a totally rigged military trial for her alleged part in the conspiracy.  Could have made for some powerful courtroom drama, but not even working in flashbacks could save this walking dead.

Real Steel

I saw this movie with a good crowd.  The kind of interactive crowd that makes seeing a bad movie not quite so bad.  Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that Real Steel was bad, I am just implying that it was not as good as I thought it would be.  The film missed all the moments that could have made it great.  All the opportunities it had to really make an emotional impact it simply glossed over.  Now I bet at this very second you are thinking, hey now hold on you are talking about "emotional impact" in a movie about boxing robots?!  But darn it, just because this is a geeky techno action flick doesn't mean it can just forget about the human story.  And then when it did decide to focus in on the father-son "realization" it pushed it way too hard, and way too late in the story.  Close-up-on-tear-from-boy's-face-to-close-up-on-Jackman's-one-time-lover-back-to-tear-back-to-lover-now-slow-mo-on-Jackman-shadow-boxing-now-back-to-tear.  I can almost feel them in the edit suite bashing out that gem, HA.  All the priceless moments I kept routing for never happened.  But that doesn't mean it wasn't fun to watch ;)

Tron: Legacy

Even the nostalgia I was feeling towards the 1980s' Tron could not save the crappiness of this new version.  Disregarding everything else that was bad about this film, the main problem is that it is completely confusing!  Now I am admittedly not a tech junkie, but the explanations for every major aspect of the plot were such a mumble jumble of incomprehensible jargon that you cannot help but watch like a deer in headlights.  I am not stupid, and this Disney movie is only rated PG, so how is it that I can sit through the entire thing and still not fully understand the premise behind the film?!?  It was also a little odd how there was this good guy who inexplicably went bad and then suddenly at the right moment inexplicably went good again.  No.  Just no.  Although I will give a tilt of my hat to Michael Sheen hahaha

Unknown

It is odd, even with Liam Neeson being one of my favorite actors and the film being in my genre sweet spot, I don't really have anything glowing to say about it.  In fact, I saw it last night and by this morning I don't have any particular feelings towards it at all.  I don't remember loving it or hating it, I wasn't bored as the plot is one of those "guess what is going on" types but at the same time I found myself not really caring what was going on haha  All the elements were there, it just didn't come together for me.