Couples Retreat

Sorry everyone that I have not posted in a couple days, but life has been busy here as I have been out of town. On Monday night we relaxed before I went out of town by watching Couples Retreat starring Vince Vaughn. While this movie had its funny moments it really struggled to be a consistently funny comedy. This movie took some great comedians, a group of hard working actresses and a tropical location and for me fell flat on its face. An interesting controvery that has come out of this movie was that of the movie poster in the UK. For some reason they decided to take the African American couple off the poster.

For me Vince Vaughn gave a couple of great one liners while in the domestic location, but the movie struggled to be funny during the rest of the film. As many times in todays day and age they seemed to try to rely on crude humor that does not come off as funny. Many times they move immediately to crude humor because that will get the laughs out of the juvenile teenagers.

The whole premise of the movie centers around four couples going to this island paradise as part of a couples skills building seminar with one of the couples going to work on their marriage and the others not realizing that participation is mandatory and that they can not relax and just have the fun like they planned. Of course, as they go through the therapy it is apparent that all the couples have issues that really but their marriages in jeopardy for the majority of the movie. And then in a very unbelievable way immediately all four of the couples solve their problems in the last ten minutes of the movie in a very unorthodox way. While I understand that resolving all of the relationships gives the good feeling ending that everyone desires it would be more effective if we could see a gradual resolution rather then the immediate change in the relationships that happens.

To me the biggest disappointment in this movie was the "Guitar Hero" duel. While this could have been a great moment of comedy this did a complete bellyflop and went way too cheesy that made the scene painfully unfunny and stupid. This movie ended up falling short because either the screenplay writing really was weak or the actors adblibbed too much in trying to be funny and did not play off each other as well as would be expected. Jason Bateman, delivered a very lackluster performance that was far from what would be expected of him. Also they definitely struggled as the chemistry between each couple was not believable.

If you are in the mood for inane, mindless comedic action then this just may be a movie worth renting. Be warned that there are a lot of innuendo based jokes. While this movie may be worht the redbox rental if you are in the mood, I would suggest really making sure you are in the mood for mindless movies. For this movie I am only giving it one and a half buckets of popcorn.

-The Movie Man-

New Moon

Well I know everyone including the women have been on edge waiting to see if I would review New Moon. I know the women have been waiting to see what "The Movie Man" thought of this movie. While I was fortunate enough that Kellianne went and saw this movie in theater with a friend. Tonight I saw New Moon after we got the little man in bed for the night.

New Moon was a leap and bound improvement from the first movie Twilight. Of course the aspect of this that helps the most was the fact that due to the success of Twilight. The success allowed for a bigger budget which led to a more refined end film. The first thing that was very apparent was the special effects, in the first movie the special effects were very cheesy and very amateurish. They spent the time and money this time around to make the special effects seamless so as to flow with the movie. Also Chris Weitz directing helped to really focus the film to telling the story using the music along with the visual effects to give the movie the much needed improvement from Twilight.

This movie gave us a much better look into telling us more about Jacob Black. Of course this meant the introduction to showing us that members of Jacob's tribe including himself are actually werewolves. While the CGI on the werewolves was amazing, there are aspects to the werewolf that is far from loved. For me the way that you do not want to make them angry because they will turn into werewolves and can not control themselves necessarily for a moment is very Incredible Hulkesque. This was very unneeded and to me seemed to weaken the tough aspect of a werewolf in a way that was very similar to the weakening of the vampire in the first movie.

While the acting is far from stellar, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner deliver performances that carry the movie. They work well on screen together and have a strong chemistry together that is very evident. Stewart plays the awkward teen role very strong and really helps you believe the pain and suffering she is experiencing in not having Edward there by her side anymore. With the chemistry Stewart and Lautner have it is hard to not want to root for the two of them to end up together at the end of this series. I can see clearly now after seeing this film how the Team Jacob/Team Edward debate took hold with the fans who have read the books.

Unfortunately while Stewart and Lautner had a strong chemistry together, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart seemed very awkward and almost forced. And like any movie based on the lives of teenagers it has its moments where the actors are over the top when not needed.

After seeing this movie I am going to give New Moon two and a half buckets of popcorn out of five. While this may never be a movie that I watch regularly, it is one that could be enjoyable to watch every now and then. The biggest downfall in my mind to New Moon is that it builds for a big climax and at the end it kind of lets you down on giving you a big fight scene that helps give resolution. Guys if you want to earn points with your significant other go out of your way and suggest you rent it some night to watch together.

-The Movie Man-

Labyrinth

I have decided that every Thursday I will introduce those of you that read this blog to my Awesomely Bad Movie pick of the week. Now you may ask what an awesomely bad movie is, well it is pretty simple, it is a movie that is so bad that it is actually an enjoyable movie to watch occasionally. The wonderful masterpiece that I will introduce to you tonight is that of Jim Henson's Labyrinth. Labyrinth is the story of a young teen who wishes her baby half brother, to be taken by the Goblin King Jareth and her brother will be kept unless she can successfully navigate through Jareth's Labyrinth in a matter of thirteen hours.

With Labyrinth being directed by Jim Henson it is only natural that one would see a movie full of muppet created characters. Henson does not disappoint, as the Labyrinth is chock full of unique and interesting characters that help or try to hinder, the heroine, young Sarah in her journey to make it through the maze in time. Two of the most memorable characters are taht of Ludo and Didymus. Ludo is the lovable gentle giant goblin of the labyrinth, who Sarah rescues and befriends. Didymus on the other hand is a little small animal of some kind, who believes he is a knight, who believes in chivalry and makes up for his tiny size with his heart when it comes into going into battle.

The character of the movie that takes this over the top is Jareth, the Goblin King who is played by none other then David Bowie. Being a rock star, it took nothing for Bowie to play this role over the top whether its his over teased 80's metal hair to the songs that he sings throughout the movie, especially his song meant to seduce Sarah to being with him. Yet, his character is played so over the top that after seeing the movie you too will think that this role was specially made for him and could not have been portrayed by anyone else.

With this movie being made in 1984 the technology and use of the muppets may have been very progressive for that time it would be very interesting if Hollywood were to remake this movie today it would be interesting to see how today's CGI and visual effects would affect our view of this movie. With today's technology the remake more then likely might change this movie from an awesomely bad one to just a bad movie. It is the acting of David Bowie, the use of muppets and the costuming of all the different characters that give this movie an awesomely bad movie designation.

Along the scale for an awesomely bad movie I am going to give Labyrinth two buckets of popcorn out of five. With an extra bucket of popcorn going to David Bowie himself because of his hair and costumes that take the character of Jareth way over the top. If you are in the mood for a movie that will make you laugh and is one that is enjoyable to watch every now and then, I would highly recommend renting Labyrinth.

-The Movie Man-

Rudy

In honor of St. Patrick's Day I thought I would do a review of one of the classic sports movies out there. Now some of you may be saying, wait a minute how is Rudy a St. Patrick's Day movie. Well, in trying to think of a movie for St. Patrick's Day, I had to think Irish. When thinking Irish I thought they like to get drunk then fight, so that led naturally to Fighin' Irish. Which leads to Notre Dame and the first movie I thought about was Rudy.

Now I will admit upfront that I may be a little biased in my review of this movie because it is not only one of my favorite sports movies, but it related to me as I grew up. I was always one of the shorter kids growing up so like Rudy in sports I had to make up for my lack of height with my heart and hustle. Rudy grew up in a small steel mill town and is a huge Notre Dame football fan growing up and dreamt to play for Notre Dame. Rudy lacked the size, speed and general athletic ability that most college football players posses, but he worked to make up for this lack of ability with his drive and heart.

As director David Anspaugh, delivers a masterful job at telling this story that is based on a true story. A tough aspect in directing a football movie is that of the on the field action and depicting it in a way that allows the viewer to see the scenes like they are watching a regular football game and not just quick cut scenes of football action. Anspaugh though is able to successfully contradict the action of the football scenes with the differences of the touching moments and more storyline based scenes in the movie.

Sean Astin gives a powerful performance as Rudy and makes you truly feel the heart and emotion he has to play for Notre Dame football. Astin plays Rudy, so boldly that you truly believe that he is an avid fan of Notre Dame, and that playing for the Irish is the most important dream to go after. In the movie this is one of the first movies that helped launch the career of Jon Favreau. Favreau gives a great performance as D-Bob, the awkward student teacher, that looks to Rudy to help him with finding a girlfriend in exchange for to help Rudy with his studies.

Jason Miller, plays Ara Parseghian head coach of Notre Dame and antagonist in the movie. He is portrayed as the villain who does not want to give Rudy the opportunity to dress for one game like the previous coach had promised Rudy at the end of the previous season. This was one of the liberties in the story that they took in telling the story. Coach Parseghian in actuality was the one who suggested Rudy dress for the final home game of the 1975 season. One fact that most may not remember is that Joe Montana and Rudy were actually teammates during the 1974 and 1975 seasons.

The greatest aspect of this movie is the score. Jerry Goldsmith has given a score for this movie that immediately takes a listener back to the movie even if they have not seen the movie in years. In a football movie with football scenes the score is a very important aspect to tie the football scenes into the rest of the movie. It needs to tie it in because most of the time the football action sequences do not have the dialogue, but the score allows it not to be dead sound time.

This movie is one of the best sports movies because of the great acting from not only the stars but the supporting cast as well. I give this movie four buckets of popcorn out of five. I would highly recommend renting this movie if you have never seen Rudy or have not seen it in a while. This movie is definitely one that any guy who has a dvd collection it needs to be included.

-The Movie Man-

My Life In Ruins

One of the results of being married is that many times you end up getting to watch movies that you would not normally select for yourself. The opportunity to watch a "chick flick" with my wife happens because it is important to select movies that gives her the romance and emotional connection that she at times loves to watch rather then just the guy movies all the times. The other day I went to the Redbox with a mission from my wife saying that I knw what she likes, because of that I selected the movie My Life in Ruins.

This movie stars Nia Vardalos who was the main star in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Vardalos plays Georgia an American academic who lost her job teaching in Athens. She ends up working as a travel guide in Greece. Georgia has found that each tour group has a goofy couple, a frat boy, a depressed teen, a couple that is fighting, divorced women on the hunt and a funny guy. This group is no exception but along the way Georgia rediscovers herself and is able to refind her romantic side. This film uses the age old "chick flick" formula of two unlikely friends slowly falling one for another through one characters ability to grow and rediscover herself.

While there were many moments that I found myself trying to keep myself focused on the movie, I greatly enjoyed seeing, albeit just on a screen, the ruins of Greece. While the ruins were great the Parthenon seemed to lose a little of its luster as cranes were in the screen and looked like they were being used to possible hold up some parts of the ruins. It would have been much better to have moved the spotting of the scene to a different angle so that the cranes would be out of the shots of the Parthenon.

I did enjoy the performance of Richard Dreyfus, who plays the funny guy on the trip. Dreyfus gives some great advice and helps bring the message of the movie that it is important to take advantage of the moments we have in life and to not be too stiff for we never know when we may not be able to have those moments anymore. Dreyfus give probably the most memorable line in the movie about a pill made by pfizer and paid for by Medicare. The characters on the trip helped give the movie its comedic moments that help keep the movie from getting too serious and dull. Sheila Bernette plays an elderly woman who just so happens to be a kleptomaniac. It is rather quite funny to see the different ways in which she distracts shopkeepers to put objects into her bag.
T
his film though did not have much depth to it and was just below alright. I am giving this movie one bucket of popcorn out of five. This movie although not great was worth the cost of a dvd rental from Redbox.

-The Movie Man-

2012

So for the weekend we rented 2012, and got immersed in the end of the world based on the end of the Mayan calendar on 12/21/12. I went into watching this movie with very low expectations knowing this was a disaster movie and that it would be more important then ever to allow for the suspension of disbelief.

2012, was directed by Roland Emmerich who is known for directing such movies as 10,000 B.C., The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day and The Patriot. While the plot of a disaster movie does not change much from disaster movie to disaster movie, Emmerich was able to give the disaster movie with a whole new twist. I do not want to spoil it for those who have not seen it, but I will say that this disaster was known by some that gave them plenty of time to prepare for when they believe the disaster will happen. Even with this great twist the story was not as strong as it could of should have been. Emmerich though is able to give great visuals and using the technology available to him to provide us with great visuals of destruction as the impending disasters hit the cities.

This movie for the most part did not give us anything new to expect in a disaster movie. The film used the same formula that has been used for disaster movies. This formula consists of catastrophic event after event happening in an area that the hero/heroes are in to allow for tense moments that have the intent to make you wonder about what may happen to the heroes but to allow them to narrowly escape disaster time after time.

Unfortunately, a disaster movie for the most part does not give a screenplay that requires a strong performance from the cast because the action in the movie takes away from some strong performances. While John Cusack seems to mail in his performance, in part this is due to teh fact that the screenplay was not strong enough to give a real depth of character for his role and make you truly care for the character. On the other hand Woody Harrelson, playing a conspiracy theorist radio host lunactic who will remind everyone of someone that they may have come across in their travels through life.

In the words of Randy Jackson I would have to say that this movie was just "a'ight," but was worth the price of a redbox to rent. This may have been a movie that I may have enjoyed even more if I had seen it in the movie theater with the full effect of the surrounding sound and the destruction on a huge screen. I would give this movie one and a half  buckets of popcorn out of five buckets, but I would recommend renting it if you go in with an expectation of it being a typical disaster action movie.

-The Movie Man-

New Iron Man 2 Trailer

In case anyone did not stay up super late to see Robert Downey Jr. on Jimmy Kimmel last Sunday after the Academy Awards, Downey Jr. brought with him the new trailer for Iron Man 2. The trailer teases us all with more looks into the plotline, including the introduction of a new nemesis for Tony Stark to battle wits, in a rich Brit named Justin Hammer. Hammer is out to show how much of an antique that the Iron Man suit is by building his own army of robot soldiers with heavy armor. Additionally we get to see more of Stark's longtime friend Rhodes (Don Cheadle) as "War Machine" helping Stark battle off this new threat. With all the cool technology that is being shown in Iron Man 2 they save the best for last. In the original comic Tony Stark used to carry the Iron Man armor with him in a briefcase, just in case he was needed to save the day. In homage to the originial comic, Downey Jr. has a briefcase that holds the armor, but with an added twist that was not how the briefcase was used in the original comic. Well enough of me talking about the trailer. Here is a link to the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNQowwwwYa0

-The Movie Man-

Alice in Wonderland (IMAX 3D)

In Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton delivers a visually dazzling take on the classic tale by Lewis Carrol. Working with Johnny Depp, the seventh time is the charm for Burton in delivering a stunning cinematic film that will appeal to moviegoers no matter what a persons movie tastes may be. The cinematography throughout the movie allowed Burton to bring Underland to life through the use of vibrant colors and Burton's vision to contrast the vibrant colors. The vibrant colors, in the IMAX 3D experience, brought the movie off the screen in a way that was like you were actually there, in Underland, and not sitting in soldout showing of a movie! The visual effects in this movie are stunning. It is amazing that even with the amount of CGI that had to be used to develop a movie that delves this deep into a fantasy world, one does not get the feeling that the actors are standing in front of a green screen, but that of smooth transitions between what is real life and CGI.

The costumes are dazzling in their attention to detail. From the intricacies of the Red Queen's attire and the attire of her court to the simplicity that is Alice's dresses. The photography is spot on whether it is the tight camera shots to show off all the detail in the costuming or that of the wide landscape moving shots showing off the beauty that is Underland.

Johnny Depp continues his tradition of playing a unique, yet odd character, Depp gives a outstanding performance as the Mad Hatter! Depp not only successfully transformed into the role, but he was able to give depth to a character that is very complex. Depp's portrayal transforms the Mad Hatter to a character that could be the real life personification of what someone reading Lewis Carrol's books would picture the him to be.

While there are many great performances from Crispin Glover, Helena Bonham Carter, relative newcomer Aussie Mia Wasikowska and the voice compliments of Alan Rickman as the Blue Caterpillar. Anne Hathaway gives a very awkward performance as the White Queen. Her character comes across as trying too hard to be an ethereal flowing queen; I was bothered and distracted by the attempts of her hand movements to show how regal and flowing of a Queen she was.

Going into Alice in Wonderland, knowing Tim Burton seems to have a flair for giving his adaptations a dark twist, I was expecting a similar dark adaptation. It was a pleasant surprise that Burton showed a lot of restraint in not overdoing the darkness, and instead allowed the vibrant colors to help tell the story. While it was not as dark as expected it still had its moments that may scare any kids under 10. One such moment is that of the moat around the Red Queens castle that contains a lot of the "left over" from the Red Queens favorite phrase "Off with their heads!"

After seeing the movie while the story was not overly strong I give this movie three buckets of popcorn for the strong cinematography, vibrant colors and the splendid performance by Depp. It was well worth the cost of the ticket for the IMAX 3D experience.

-The Movie Man-

The World of blogging!

Well friends, family and anyone else who may stumble upon my blog, I have joined the world of bloggers! Starting my own blog has been something that I have been thinking about doing for the part year, but never felt that the opinions and things I would write about would not generate interest in others. I have alwyas been a big fan of movies and those that know me know that I have quite the extensive DVD collection. As my collection has grown, I have learned more about what makes a movie more enjoyable depending on my mood.

The outlook that I have for my blog is to provide others with entries about anything and everything movie related. I hope to share the information that I hear about upcoming movies to upcoming dvd releases. As I see movies in the theaters I will provide reviews of what I thought and if it is a movie that will be worth your time to go see. You can expect to see also reviews on movies that are out on DVD whether it be an old time classic that you will want to go rent or if the newest DVD release is worth your money to go out and buy. I will be open to any requests on ANY requests if there is a specific movie you would like to hear my opinion on or feel free to post your own comments and opinions on the movies that I write up reviews for. I look forward to sharing my love for movies with all of you! Stay tuned for my first review will be Alice In Wonderland (IMAX 3D).

-The Movie Man-