A Year In Review : 2012

Just to recap, here's a list of movies with a 2012 release date I saw: 
(in the order I saw them)

The Dictator

The Lucky One

The Hunger Games

21 Jump Street

Gone

One For the Money

Snow White & the Huntsman

Marvel’s The Avengers

Brave

Wanderlust

People Like Us

The Bourne Legacy

The Dark Knight Rises

Ted

Magic Mike

A Thousand Words

Seven Psychopaths

Wreck It Ralph

The Flight

Skyfall

Argo

Premium Rush

This Is 40

This Means War

Jack Reacher

Django Unchained

Silver Linings Playbook

The Paperboy

Whip It

2009 – 2.3/5

-I wanted to see a movie that would be fun.

-I had no idea that Drew Barrymore directed this movie! Well done.

-I think that Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page make a good pair. I thought that there would be more interaction between the 2; that Page would be the main character and Barrymore would be a secondary character, but that wasn’t the case. Page was the main character, but there were a few characters that could have been considered secondary characters.

-This movie was the perfect fit for Ellen Page. She truly belonged in this movie. It couldn’t have been casted any better.

-Nice treat to have Kristin Wiig in it. She didn’t have a huge role, but I thought she fit very well.

-I also love Daniel Stern. I think Bliss’s family was very well cast.

-The movie didn’t have an amazing screenplay, but it worked with what the movie was. One of my favourite line that was said “Great. Celebrate meritocracy”.

This Means War

2012 – 0.5/5

-I had no idea it was filmed in Vancouver. It was nice to see VPL, BS and HMV (btw, lol at that).

-The sound effects during the fight scenes were bad enough that I feel as if I need to mention them. They were a lot louder than they needed to be and frankly, we all know a real punch/slap/kick doesn’t sound like that.

-The only actor that was believable as the character was Tom Hardy.

-It was sooo cheesy.

-Tom Hardy and Chris Pine are good looking, so that’s the only reason this movie didn’t get a 0/5.

-As for Reese Witherspoon, she’s starting to look old.

-I think the idea behind this movie was an attempt to please both genders: a romantic comedy for the ladies and action for the guys.

SPOILERS (not that it matters because you shouldn’t watch this movie):

-How is being British a ‘flaw’ considering Lauren said she likes Tuck’s accent?

-The very last scene was stupid. The words that came out of FDR (and btw, wtf kind of name is that?) made me want to punch him so badly (when he said that he had slept with Tuck’s [ex]wife before they even met).

-Lauren should not have ended up with either guy.

This Is 40

2012 - 1/5

Defiantly not Judd Apatow’s best work. Not by a long shot.

You know when you get into a fight and you start to get a headache? Ya, so by the end of this movie, I had a headache because of all the fighting. I wouldn’t have minded as much had it been balanced out with enough comedy, but that wasn’t the case. In my eyes, the movie was advertised as ‘the sort-of-sequel’ to Knocked Up, so it was fair to assume that this movie would be a comedy. But that’s not what I got. I wouldn’t even be able to tell you what genre I’d categorize this as.

Just before the 2 hour mark, I turned to my friend and said that this was a very long movie. Even at that point, I saw no end in sight because it seemed as if nothing was getting resolved. It doesn’t follow the typical movie scheme, so it was hard to tell where this movie was going. My friend pointed out that it probably seemed longer than it was (although it was long) because all the fights were repetitive. Even when a fight was semi-resolved, it would come up again. It was pretty much the same fight over and over again.

I was expecting this movie to be more centered around the family (the mom, dad and kids) and for it to have a small cameo by Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl. Instead, I got a movie that was full of random characters that didn’t belong, which lead to random events/situations that didn’t need to be in the movie.

The weird thing is that I thought most of the comedy came from the secondary characters and their one-liners. That’s unfortunate because Paul Rudd is one of the funniest actors in Hollywood, but his character was kind of dull. He plays that role so well, and that’s pretty much the same role he’s played in every movie, but the screenplay for this movie wasn’t as good. The only other characters I actually really liked were Melissa McCarthy (as Catherine) and Chris O’Dowd (as Ronnie).

Overall, I would not recommend watching this movie. It didn’t have any memorable lines in the dialogue or moments that you would look back on and enjoy. It’s very unfortunate because I’m a fan of Judd Apatow. If this is any indication of what his movies to be will resemble, then I’m worried.

Last thing I want to mention is that if you do decide to see this movie, make sure to keep watching as the credits start to roll. If Apatow didn’t add that very last part, I would have left the movie a very grumpy person.

***SPOILER ALERT***
-It was annoying that both Pete and Debbie had issues with their dad’s. Near the end, when they both said that they’re not the ones with problems, it’s their fathers. That seemed like a cop-out; a simple ‘resolution’ to end the movie.

-There were a couple of awkward moments that didn’t need to happen (Pete asking Debbie to take a look at his ass and Debbie giving Pete head).

-It’s mentioned once by Debbie (Leslie Mann) that her and Pete (Paul Rudd) need to see a therapist. Further into the movie, when a fight is about to break out, Debbie states that the therapist told them not to argue, but to talk things out without taking shots at each other. That ‘argument’ had to be one of the dumbest parts of the movie.

-The storyline surrounding Sadi’s boy crush was unnecessary, but at the same time, McCarthy wouldn’t have been in it, and she was hilarious. I got the most laughs with her scenes.

-I love Jason Segel. I think he can be very funny and I love how his characters are never really characters; it just seems like he’s portraying himself (if that makes sense). I bring this up because I don’t think he should have been in this movie at all! There was absolutely no rhyme or reason for him to have a role… even a small one.

-Speaking of people who didn’t belong, I don’t think Megan Fox (as Desi) and Charlyne Yi (as Jodi) should have been in the movie. The whole situation with Debbie’s store and the theft of money was pointless (it turns out that Desi is an escort and Jodi is high as a kite). It had no place in the movie, other than having Megan Fox in the movie. Her role was completely unnecessary. I rolled my eyes during the scene in which Desi and Debbie go clubbing and run into NHL players.

Premium Rush

2012 - 1.1/5

I wanted to watch a movie that would not require much thought. From the get go, I had put this movie in the ‘mindless movie’ category and now that I’ve seen it, I know I wasn’t wrong.

Likes:
-I liked the camera angles when it seemed as if you were going along with the rider (you see what the biker sees).

-I didn’t mind the narration in the beginning. JGL has a good voice and it suited a voice over. I also liked how it didn’t happen through the entire movie – it was a select few parts.

-I liked how a map of Wilee’s ‘to and from’ location was drawn out. It was a nice visual.

-This movie got straight to the point in the first 10 minutes. I hate it when movies like this drag it out for longer than it needs to be. Everything was spelled out for the viewer with as much time as needed and it moved on and that worked for me.

-It doesn’t go forward in chronological order. Usually movies like this destroy that concept, but I actually think this movie did a good job. Some flashbacks weren’t necessary, but they weren’t too long.

-JGL a great actor and I like watching him on screen. I have a feeling he only signed up for this movie because he was genuinely interested in bikes… rather than be in it just for the money (because lets face it, it did come out a week after The Dark Knight Rises).

-I thought this movie would be all about bike tricks and cool moves (?), but it only happened in one scene. I liked how the director tried to away from the idea that he should just throw in cool bike tricks to make the movie seem ‘cool’.


Dislikes:
-First 20 minutes were really good, but after that the tone changed and the characters seemed a bit whinny.

-I f**king HATE how movies like this always have a girl that 2 guys are competing for. It’s such a stupid thing to add. Things like this always make the movie worse.

-The script was TERRIBLE!

-What was with Bobby Monday’s voice as the movie went on?

-The plot was advertised as a ‘chase movie’ and that’s what you get. The reason as to why Bobby Monday was chasing Wilee and why Wilee was trying to get the package to the right person was just plain stupid.

-In the first 20 minutes I actually cared about Wilee and his wellbeing, but as the movie went on, it was trying to get you to care about Nima and her situation, but I didn’t.

Argo

2012 – 4/5

The day I saw this movie: December 13, 2012.
The day I wrote the review: January 8, 2013.

It has taken me almost a month to write this review, and within the last couple of days I was wondering as to why that was. What it comes down to, is that I wanted to write a review that was as good as the movie itself. I kept putting it off because I felt like it would take a lot of time to write. I guess I had the idea that I’d have to analyze every aspect thoroughly in order to write a review that truly got what was in my head, out in text.

When I first heard about this movie; a [based on a] true story about American’s being taken hostage by Iranians in the late 1970s, with the main story surrounding the 6 that escaped and took refuge in the Canadian Embassy(?), it immediately went to the top of my to-see list and stayed there till the day I saw it.

This movie had a trio of actors (Alan Arkin, John Goodman and Bryan Cranston) that have been at the top of the game for the last decade or so. That alone makes it worth watching. They are all such incredible actors, and it’s movies like this that really makes them shine. It was a movie rich with character and the actors were perfect.

The cherry on top however, is that not only is Ben Affleck the main character in this movie, he directed it as well. Since Affleck started his directing career, he has earned the right to be at the top. And lets face it, with every movie, he’s gotten better and better (although I will admit that I liked The Town a tad bit more than this movie, and Gone Baby Gone finishing off the list).

I really want to write a review that is free of politics that exists between Iran and America. But this entire movie is pretty much the poster child of the dislike for each country for the other. I’m going to throw this out there, and this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but this movie does a have huge bias. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not making any attempt to justify what the Iranians did, but lets face it, it is a movie that came out of Hollywood, USA.

A few points I wanted to mention:

-At first I didn’t know what I thought of the cartoon drawings (at the beginning of the movie) that explained how the situation came to be, but once the drawings for the fake movie ‘Argo’ were shown, I felt as if it did tie into the movie.

-There were a lot of close ups of Affleck’s face and usually I’m not a fan of that. In this case, I did like it because I think it added to the movies intensity and Affleck’s character. To me it showed how he had to keep a straight face and his emotions in check during such a stressful situation.

-This movie had a subtly great script. The dialogue wasn’t something that really stands out, but once you take a minute to look back, you realize that it had a solid screenplay (my favourite line being “You can Argo fuck yourself!”).

-There is a Locked Up Abroad episode on the National Geographic Channel based on this ordeal. Check it out!

Rango

2011 – 0.2/5

It started off really strong (which I wasn’t expecting), but it hit its peak very quickly (within 10 minutes), took a nose dive down, and leveled off after that. When it first started, it seemed very promising, and I guess I wasn’t expecting the storyline to turn out the way it did; it was lackluster.

I never fully understood why the turtle mayor was holding water back from his community (other than to ‘control the water, is to control the people’), but there wasn’t much substance to it. That’s all there was to the storyline and I found it to be a too thin for my liking. It wasn’t truly memorable, aside from having a plot that has been down MANY times over. For a movie that was intended to be watched by kids, I thought it had a few dark aspects that shouldn’t have been added.

As for the characters, I felt as if all of them weren’t well rounded. None of the characters were ones you feel in love with right away. I really liked Rango in the first 10 minutes before he created who he wanted the townsfolk to think he was…but once that happened, I thought “oh, it’s going to be one of those movies”. Unless I missed it, I don’t think the movie explained why the girl lizard froze every now and then; it was stupid.

I didn’t mind the voiceovers for all the characters: Johnny Depp as Rango was pretty good. I was expecting the voice to be the same voice that JD had in the Pirates movies. There were times in which his voice would go in and out of that voice.

Things I liked:
-The animation of Rango was really good. I didn’t care for the other characters/background.
-I thought the reference to Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas was cute.

This movie does not have the full package and I have to say that I am surprised that this movie won the Best Animated Feature in 2012, but then again, when you take a look at the competition it probably was the best pick.