The Rum Diary

2011 - 1/5

I went into this movie completely blind. The only thing I knew about it was that Johnny Depp was in it. I also had no idea that it was based off a book.

Liked:

-The part in the bowling alley when the rum bottles were lined up and a bowling ball hits them.

-Some of the camera angles (under the wooded bridge as the motorcycle drives by).

-Very few selected parts of the script

Lotteman: Blackheads like Braille

Paul Kemp: I thought you said you had a TV.

Sala: No, I said I kind of have a TV. The guy across the alley has a TV. I have binoculars.

-The acting was okay, but the characters were dull.

Johnny Depp as Paul Kemp

Aaron Eckhart as Sanderson.

Amber Heard as Chenault.

Richard Jenkins as Lotteman.

Giovanni Ribisi as Moburg (although I didn’t like his raspy voice; it creeped me out).

Disliked:

-Boring from beginning to end.

-Had zero direction and didn’t really go anywhere.

-Several plot holes (although there wasn’t much of a plot).

-Way to long.

-It was very choppy.

-I kept waiting for something to happen, but it never did.

Little Miss Sunshine

2006 – 5/5

This review has been years in the making. Since its release in 2006, I’ve been meaning to write a full review for this movie; finally 6 years later, I’m getting around to it. It’s been a long time coming and the reason as to why its taken me so long to write this is because I want to this review to do the movie justice. Although I doubt this review will be as perfect as the movie, I know I tried and I never gave up (haha, get it?).

Who better to recommend this movie to me than my Abnormal Psychology professor at SFU! I really mean that because the Hoover family is a dysfunctional one and defiantly on the verge of a breakdown.

This movie was on the darker, quirkier side. One minute you might be laughing, and the next minute you might be crying. Or you might even be laughing and crying at the same time. This movie had a great mix of general humor and adult humor.

Each character has their own flaws and you get a good sense of them as they are introduced because they are so well portrayed. You really get the sense that they are a family that cares about one another. You can’t help but form a bond with them and root for them as they face every obstacle. They were a real family and you got to see every raw moment of it. Despite all the misfortunes this family goes through, it is still very inspiring. It is a simple movie that had one message from start to finish:
"A real loser is someone who's so afraid of not winning, he doesn't even try."

As for the star of this movie, Abigail Breslin. She was phenomenal. Her portrayal of Olive was spot-on and she brought a smile to my face every time she was on screen. Breslin got a much deserved Academy nomination for her role as Olive Hoover. This movie was by far the highlight of her career, which is unfortunate to say because anything she does after won’t ever be as good. Olive Hoover was the most beautiful kid in this movie. This will probably be the only time that I’ve ever enjoyed hearing a kid scream so loud.

The plot was simple, the script was amazing, the acting was perfect, the cinematography topped it all off and the directing brought everything together. If I had to sum up this movie in one word I’d say ‘brilliant’. All in all, this movie motivates you to “do what you love and fuck the rest”.

My favourite line:
Olive: I’d like to dedicate this to my grandpa, who showed me these moves.

Cyrus

2010 - 1/5

I will say right off the bat that the only reason this movie is getting a 1 rather than a 0 is because of the cast/acting (mainly Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei). The characters were goofy, creepy, awkward and weird so the director did have a lot to work with, but nothing about the movie was blended well.

The camera shaking and zooming in was just horrible. Not sure how that was supposed to add any sort of effect.

Even when things seemed to get feisty, it was still dull. There were a couple of times in which something happened and I thought to myself, ‘okay, this is going somewhere’, but nada. There’s a lot of tension between John and Cyrus and throughout the entire film I was waiting for that to amount to something but it never did.

And I’m going to be completely honest here, but do you really think someone like Marisa Tomei would fall for someone like John C Reilly. And we’re supposed to believe that they fell for each other after what, 2 dates? I call bullshit.

I was under the impression that this was a comedy, but I can’t say that it is. Even at the dark comedy level it failed. It was just not funny. It was a flat line for sure from start to finish. I would recommend you avoid this movie.

I read this on IMDB, and I think this person said it best:
“an[d] they wonder why we download the movies without paying... You should pay us for the loss of life while we sat through this crap..”

Gone Baby Gone

2007 – 2.2/5

I remember really liking this movie the first time I saw it in 2007. Now, I can only say that I did like it, but not as much as I did before.

This movie was Ben Affleck’s first directorial debut, and it was noticeable. I think it was trying to make use of the silences, but it was eh. I don’t think it had the impact that Ben Affleck wanted. You could tell he was trying. The plot was decent but it does move at a slow pace. The dialogue has its moments, but there wasn’t anything outstanding.

This movie had a great cast. I said this in my original review and I’ll say it here: although Casey Affleck did a good job but I think there were better candidates. I like how it was addressed that Casey Affleck looked young for his age. I also want to mention that I wasn’t very pleased with Morgan Freeman with this role; I was a bit disappointed. I couldn’t tell if it was the actors themselves or some glitch, but it was hard to understand what was being said most of the time so I had to turn on the subtitles.

Source Code

2011 - 2.3/5

Although it was explained how Source Code works, I still don’t get it; with that being said, I don’t think you really need to fully understand the concept to like it.

I like movies that move at the same pace of the main character because you can’t know more than he does and that’s what keeps you entertained.

It’s worth the watch at least once and Jake Gyllenhaal is easy on the eyes.

The Hunger Games

2012 – 2.5/5

I gave the book 2.5/5, and I felt as if the book was a little better than the movie but I gave the movie 2.5 because the girl that played Katniss did a really good job. I know that a 2.5/5 rating does seem low, but I can’t justify giving the movie a higher rating than the book, and I’m not willing to change my rating on the book.

To some extent it’s hard to compare the movie to the book because the book is almost always better. And to say that certain characters or aspects of the plot were better developed in the book than the movie isn’t necessarily a fair assessment. But then again, the director wasn’t working with a blank slat; it just needed to be put together visually. I know this isn’t feasible, but this movie could have been broken up into 2 parts – but I know that wouldn’t work for a movie like this.

As I said earlier, I think Jennifer Lawrence did a great job as Katniss. I had read the book after I saw the trailer for the movie and I had pictured her as Katniss while reading the book. So once I actually saw the movie, she obviously suited who/what I expected Katniss to be.

Liam Hamsworth did a good job as Gale. From the moment that Gale was introduced in the book, I hoped that Katniss ended up with him. I still do (although I have been told what happens in Catching Fire and Mockingjay).

Josh Hutcherson suited the Peeta as well. The main parts I liked him in were the parts in which he was picked as a tribute and when he was leaving District 12. Once the games started, I didn’t really like his parts.

I love Woody Harrelson. He usually brings so much to a character in any role. You would think that he would be really good in this role as Haymitch, but I don’t think there was much to the character. Haymitch was more developed in the book, but he was bland in the movie.

Elizabeth Banks is okay and I do think she’s a good actress. I can’t help but feel that anyone could have done just as good with the role of Effie. Her outfits were eccentric but I wasn’t a huge fan of them.

I liked Cinna in the book because the connection between him and Katniss was more genuine, whereas it didn’t seem as sincere in the movie.

Stanley Tucci was amazing. He is really making a name for himself lately and he’s a treat to watch on screen. I had a feeling that Caesar was going to explain how the games work and the smaller details. It worked well, and it was well integrated into the movie. He was a good host/announcer.

Of the movies I have seen Wes Bentley in (which I can’t even remember any), I have never liked him. I actually really liked him as Seneca. He looked slick and his acting never seemed forced. I was pleasantly surprised.

I think it is worth watching (and reading) for its originality. There were times in which it dragged, but it was never really boring. The love story portion of the movie was my least favourite part, but it wasn’t cheesy. It was actually something that needed to expand for the sake of the Hunger Games rather than being apart of the story. It wasn’t thrown in for the hell of it; it had purpose. I liked the amount of drama and action.

Random side note:
-Yay that the actor that played Cato (Alexander Ludwig) is a Vancouverite!
-How weird is it that the son and daughter in How I Met Your Mother both went for the roles of Katniss and Gale.

Sleepers

1996 - 3/5

-A very compelling story about the friendship between 4 boys, revenge and justice.
-What the boys go through is heartbreaking and you can’t help but be on their side.
-The trial was very well played. I LOVED every minute of it. Truly brilliant.
-Loved the acting by the 4 boys; they defiantly held their own with the subject matter at hand.
-I wasn’t a fan of the adult who played the adult Shakes.
-Loved Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman.
-I did hate Kevin Bacon’s character, but I thought he did a good job portraying that role.
-For a movie that came out in 1996, I thought it had some really good transitions between scenes.
-It did not seem as if it was over 2 hours long.
-Once you know the back-story about certain people, you’re not as quick to judge.

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Mom’s review:
-It was really good.
-It portrayed a good friendship between the 4 boys.
-They looked out for one another.
-Just for laughs and fun they pulled a prank on a hot dog vendor and they ended up in trouble together.
-They went through a lot of hard times while in the Wilkenson Centre.
-In the end, they all helped one another and produced their own sense of justice.
-When they got out of Wilkenson Centre, at least 2 of them went on to do good.
-Eventually when the Priest believed in what happened to the boys, he understood that justice came in a different form.