One for the Money

One for the Money is one of those movies that I was intrigued by agter seeing the first trailer, especially with it being based on a book series. While I had been intrigued by what the books may be like after seeing the trailer, as the release date got pushed back multiple times the interest in reading the book series or seeing the movie plummeted pretty quickly. One for the Money is the story of Stephanie Plum who after losing her job goes to her cousin's bail bonds business for some available office work only to find out the only available work is in tracking down skippers, and as luck would have it one of the skippers is an old guy she had a romantic encounter with in high school. Unfortunately, for me this fish out of water type story does not work in the end because I found Heigl to play the role too much as an idiot rather then just a simple fish out of water. With all of this I am not sure what made the movie suffer as much as it did, if it was truly the screen play or if it was the casting.

Katherine Heigl in the role of Stephanie Plumwas really lackluster. Everything to me felt off with her performance, while obviously Plum is supposed to be the fish out of water those moments felt so forced from Heigl that it felt overacter. This is the first time I have noticed Heigl doing an accent in a role and her Jersey slang and accent came off like someone trying to be Jersey and not someone that grew up in Jersey. It just did not blend in well that you notice it more then what is taking place on screen. Jason O'Mara as Joe Morelli, the cop accused of murder that Plum is trying to track down is serviceable in the role. O'Mara seems to do all that he ccan with what he is given, his accent actually worked and was not a huge distraction. It is funny all three roles that I have seen him in he has played a cop. For some reason playing a cop just really seems to work for him. The supporting cast including the villians of the movie really left me feeling like something more was lacking. I wanted a little more development from the villians to even Plum's family. I felt that the role of the grandma played by Debbie Reynolds was really left with me wanting more, because I wanted to care more about the characters but I was left longing for more. The character of Ranger is one that I found interesting and I wanted more from his character, simply because the scenes he was in really livened up the movie for those moments. On a side note I think his character and bounty hunts could have made for a much more enteraining and enjoyable movie.

The story for One for the Money just really lacked and did not work for me. the biggest aspect that I think really made the story suffer is from the direction. To me it was clear froom the on set that the director did not have a clear vision to where the movie's story should go. The problem with this is we are not given a clear journey and perpose so the story feels muddled and lost until they go with the typical action inspired story for the last portion of the movie. For me the story in the end bored me simply because it was very predictable, throughout the movie. The key plot of who was setting up Morelli I saw who it would be fairly early on in the movie. The whole conspiracy theory of the story is so played out in my mind and it totally reminded me of the Bounty Hunter, with just a couple tweeks to the story including the gender roles of who was the bounty hunter.

While the story suffered, I was surprised at how much the comedy particularly with Morelli's character made me laugh. His character you liked and yer were unsure if he was being honest about his innocence, it is through the use of the comic moments that his character becomes genuine and believable as to his innocence to the audience. Unfortunately, the comedy did not make up for the ending and even though it was an ending you could see coming I wanted the story to be a little more complex and even be a little less obvious on the villian. I think while the fish out of water did not work, I think it was simply because of the characterization of Plum came off as being an idiot of a bounty hunter. While she did not need to be a bounty hunter like Dog, I wanted to see more of a bounty hunter that has some common sense when going into situations. It was I think her characterization that while everyone knew from the get go that she would end up with Morelli, the chemistry between O'Mara and Heigl was really not there. The chemistry between the two leads is absolutely necessary in a movie, but I just believe that Heigl was flat in her performance and that carried into the chemistry between the leads.

One for the Money was a movie that while it showed a lot of promise at initial trailer realeasings, but I think in the end it fell short because the story lacked a clear vision and was dull, boring and at the same time was so predictable. While I enjoyed O'Mara's portaryal and I liked what he brought to the role I feel that they mscast role or Stephanie Plum. Heigl has given strong performances in some of her past roles, but I just feel like possibly the role did not fit her well. I am giving One for the Money two buckets of popcorn out of five. The big problem is this was written to appeal to a female demographic so it ended up in limbo of being a chick flick or an action movie.

-The Movie Man

Megamind

Dreamworks tends to be very hit and miss with their releases when it comes to me. While they have had the misses for some reason I feel like when they have the hits they seem to really hit hard. In my mind Megamind has been one of the best releases they have done. Megamind is a movie that turns a normal story completely upside down and it miraculously works. The super villian Megamind finally defeats nemesis Metro Man, but without his nemesis Megamind becomes bored and his life loses its purpose. So to fight this purpose Megamind sets out to create a new superherom for him to battle. It was a whole new comedic twist which was perfect on so many levelss. For me there were two great reasons that made Megamind so enjoyable for both adults and kids alike.

First, were the characters that were brought on screen. Will Ferrell in the role of Megamind I though was brilliant. He played the role flawed, but lovable, a guy we can pity for all the crap he took that drove him to villainry. We appreciate his intelligence, but at the same time we still laugh at his screw ups and flamboyant nature. The greatest aspect is Ferrell somehow took this character which could have been a simple comic villian turned protagonist and really turned the character into a complete three dimensional character, and the audience completely cares about him. Brad Pitt in the small role of Metro Man gives a funny performance that even ends up being a snide parody of a certain man of steel. I ended up loving that simply because the man of steel has never really been one of my favorite super heroes. Tina Fey plays the role of the recurring damsel in distress, Roxanne to perfection. Her role plays so similar to Megamind in she has qualities at the same time that are opposites. She seems to be kidnapped a lot and while she plays a scared feeling at times more then anything else though she comes off being brave because no matter how many times she gets kidnapped, Megamind does not threaten her because he always loses out to Metro Man. The rest of the supporting cast are all great in their roles, Jonah Hill particularly did a pretty amazing job at giving a full dimensional character as well.

The story for Megamind is the second aspect that worked so well for this movie. Megamind has a story that was not onl a great twist on the superhero storyline, but at the same time it had a real genuine heart. I felt that the story was brought was really well thought out and worked perfectly with everything else that was going on, for Megamind. A lot of times with the animated comedy movies you get the comedy aspect, but the story mostly is there as a vehicle for all the comedy and jokes to come about. The story for Megamind though comes across as having genuine heart that you are able to feel what the characters are going through. The stor was far from what I was expecting going in simply because of the fact that with the story it was not the simple good versus eviel super hero story, bu instead it gave a twist to it that in the end made for a much better movie than what was expected going in.

The comedy in this movie was actually funny from the opening moments to the very end. While Will Ferrell and Tina Fey gave the comedic performances I was expecting, the way Brad Pitt brought the comedy to Metro Man just struck the perfect cord with me. So many scenes within the movie I found to be fairly funny and really worked to add another dimension to the comedy. I loved the interactions between Megamind and Roxanne when she is kidnapped, the first part of that makes for great situational comedy because of the way she is able to tell Megamind everything he is going to do before he does it. While it has not often happened, but I felt the use of classic rock throughout the film worked to not only add to the scenes, but also worked to bridge moments of comedy back to the story of progression. Plus, I simply love how a lot of the classic rock music has found its way into movies recetly. One of my facorite scenes is when Megamind instructs Titan that he can not be the super villian because he can not make the effect needed. So Megamind shows how this is done with his "Welcome to the Jungle" entrance.

Megamind ended up being one of those movies that was nothing like I expected, but it was because of that, that I think it worked. The creation of such complete characters on so many levels is one aspect that really stood out to me. I still find Pitt's snide parody playing of Metro Man to be a spot on parody of the man of steel. The ability the story had to have those genuine of heart moments to the moments that just make you laugh is why I am giving Megamind three and a quarter buckets of popcorn out of five. I would dare to say that I believe Megamind to be one of the best animated movies that Dreamworks has done. This is one of those movies that will be added to the movie collection at some point.

-The Movie Man

Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages is one of those movies that I had an interest in seeing after the first trailer because even if the story and the acting were not so good, I would still get to see a movie full of songs from the '80's particularly from a lot of the hair bands, that in and of itself could make everything in the movie worth seeing. Rock of Ages while it is the story of two young musicians in Los Angeles who are working in The Bourbon Room, biding their time until they catch their own big break in the music business. While the movie was enjoyable I found it to be very different from what was promoted in the trailers. Based on the trailers you get a definite feeling that the movie centers around Tom Cruise's character of Stacee Jaxx and not the story between Sherie (Julianne Hough) and Drew (Diego Boneta). While what happens in the movie is different than the feeling of the story of the trailer, it did make sense because the marketing people who are in charge of putting butts in the seats, featuring Tom Cruise will get a better turn out to the theaters over two relatively unknowns in Hough and Boneta. In the end I found the performances and the songs to be what really worked for Rock of Ages and I felt the story could have been stronger to support everything else.

Even though his character is that of a supporting character Tom Cruise in the role of Stacee Jaxx was a very strong role for him. While I don't believe it to be to the same iconic role as Depp's Jack Sparrow, but I do think this is one of those roles that we will look back and view this as one of Cruise's stellar roles when looking back on his entire career. Cruise had all of the mannerisms one would expect from a lead man in an '80's hair band and he had them down pat. He played an eccentric rock star so perfectly and he had moments where he was so incoherent at times and made no sense that you truly believe he was an actual musician from the '80's. Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta in the roles of Sherie and Drew have a good amount of chemistry together. While this is the first movie I have seen either of these two act in and while I think both of them showed a lot of promise in their roles. While they did show a lot of potential talent I think that the roles did not ask either of them have to do more other then sing. The rest of the supporting cast for Rock of Ages all do great jobs. Catherine Zeta-Jones as the holier than thou woman out to take back the Sunset Strip bu waging a war against The Bourbon Room and Rock 'n' Roll was a lot better then what I thought she would do. Baldwin and Brand were the greatest comedy duo I have seen in a musical and they worked so well together.

Where the performances I found to be strong, I feel that the story really lacked a lot in the end. I felt that the story was almost non-existent and was almost just there to move from one song to the next. I wanted the story to have not only an actual depth, but give us more on the characters. I wanted to know what had happened with Jaxx in his past that took him down the path that led him to the point of when the movie took place. This lack of depth really hurt the overall story and in the end it could have made the movie even better in the end. With this being based on a Broadway musical and having not seen it I do not know how much the story may be different then the original, but I just really wanted more in the end. With a musical on stage the audience is their live and so you are drawn in a lot easier and so I think the story flows plays a smaller role.

Of course in the musical movie genre the music and singing is vital. In Rock of Ages the music does not disappoint. With technology today they can allow the actors to actually do the singing because they can auto-tune all of the actors to sound fairly decent, which for the Broadway musical they can not do. With a live stage musical the actors have to be actually able to sing as well. It made it really nice to be able to know when Cruise was singing that you could tell it was actually his voice and not some singer that is singing instead of Cruise. The music used from Journey, Poison, Def Leppard among others were perfect. This type of music is fun to listen to and is really catchy and really makes you want to sing along. The best singing aspect that took place in the entire movie was the duet for "I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore" by Brand and Baldwin.This duet had me doubled over laughing throughout because both of them went all out in the selling of the duet.

Rock of Ages ended up being a fairly enjoyable movie that anyone can go in sit back, enjoy and they will recognize most of the songs that are played throughout. Tom Cruise's performance was spot on and he really went all in on this role. The songs are fun and even though the story was a little lackluster, I am still giving Rock of Ages three buckets of popcorn out of five. This movie is worth the price of a movie theater ticker. simply for the songs to be heard within a theater full with such great sound and amazing surround sound.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 is one of those movies that I was glad to let my wife go with a bunch of her friends. I knew that I would eventually end up seeing it when it was out on dvd. The previous installments have built up for this installment and the next one that comes out in November of 2012, and while the past installments have had some decent action sequence moments, I was hoping for more of the same in Breaking Dawn Part 1, yet I was very disappointed that all the focus ended up being on the wedding, honeymoon and the pregnancy. The focus ended up being solely relationship building on Edward and Bella's love, without action or something ended up really missing some key components for it to an alright movie.

The acting ended up being the same as the three previous installments. Kristen Stewart while I think she has had some roles where she has shown the talent she has. I am disappointed in what she brought this time around. I am not sure if it is how Bella is written, but the emotion that is required seems to be nothing more then just to seem kind of sulky and nothing else. Taylor Lautner and Robert pattinson in the end do not bring anything to their roles, I think Lautner serves the only purpose of being eye candy for women watching the movie because it is like they find every reason possible to have him on screen without his shirt. I think the only role which I enjoy is that of Sheriff Swan and in the end he is under used. I feel like there is so mch more to his character and we never get it. The rest of the supporting cast are all forgettable and I can not tell what purpose some of the characters even serve in the end.

The story for Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 ends up being simply focused on Edward and Bella. While part of the pack of werewolves end up beig the antagonist for this installment, nothing really amounts actoin wist to anything so in the end to me it just does not have the bite of having an antagonist especially when compared to what Bella and Edward have gone up against in the first three installments. So with the story for me it ends up being boring because in the end it does not end up building to any true pay off action sequence, so you leave feeling completely unfulfilled. With Bella getting pregnant and the excuses she comes up with to tell her parents for why she can not see them, I do not now why her parents are just fine with sitting back and waiting to hear from her. If I had a child who while on a honeymoon lets me know that she is seeing a specialist in Switzerland because 

of how sick she got on the honeymoon, I would be on the first plane to Switzerland to be there no matter what she said. I know it was wat was needed to keep her parents away I just think they could have come up with something a lot easier to believe a parent would actually do. For me as well the story just really could have used better character development because in the end I did not care what was happening. The important thing is for the story for a movie to take the wiewer on a journey and unfortunately the journey went nowhere at a ridiculously slow speed.

The one good aspect of this movie is the special effects. Adter how cheesy the effects were in the first movie it is good to see that they have put the moenty necessary for the effects to be seamless. I am hoping it is CGI that they used to show how thin Bella got from the baby taking so much nutrition from her. She was truly so thin that it grossed me out a little bit. The other effects of the werewolves I really find to be done decently. I am not sure if they use contacts or if they just alter the eyes in the end, but the red eyes they uses for the vampires is a cool effect. This effect has its biggest pop definitely at the very end of the movie.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 was a movie that while it connected with most women, most men are going to truly dislike because it was a movie that focused on the romantic relationship without much else. So this focus without mcuh else does not give us a journey to go on which while the mvoie is about the relationships it really lacks additional character development and depth. I am giving Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 one and a half buckets of popcorn out of five. With movies based on book series I want the movie to improve as each movie progresses and this movie was far from doing that. This is definitely a movie not worth renting.

-The Movie Man

Battleship





Battleship is one of those movies that I completely wonder what the critics went into this movie expecting? I mean this is a movie that is loosely based on a board game in which the players try to guess where the opponent has placed their ships. So I went into this movie expecting a lot of special effects, CGI and action with a super thin plot of basically aliens invading and it is up to a few ships as they end up playing out the battle for earth at sea. For myself I really enjoy science fiction type movies and so I really go into these types of movies not judging what has been said by critics. While Hasbro may not have hit the success like they may have had with the Transformers franchise, I did not find this movie to be as horrible as many critics and others have felt that this movie to be. Battleship is one of those aliens invading movies and the human race is the definite underdog that the audience just needs to sit back relax and enjoy the ride.

Taylor Kitsch in the role of Lt. Alex Hopper did the best that he could with what the role offered him. We get a little character development and set up of who his character is at the beginning and then from that point we get nothing. Kitsch though seems to hold his own through the action and I felt that had the dialogue been stronger it would have only made his performance that much more powerful. Having seen Kitsch in the TV series of Friday Night Lights and what he is able to do with strongly written dialogue I see that he has great potential on the big screen he just needs a role in which the dialogue he is given will match what he can turn out. Liam Neeson in a small role of Admiral Shane, ends up playing the strict father and Navy commander that demands perfection from the sailors in the Navy exactly how a Navy commander would be. While Neeson has had poor choices from time to time he still seems to be able to deliver strong performances even if it is a role that does not require much from him. Brooklyn Decker in the role of Samantha Shane, Kitsch's love interest in the film really ends up being not much more then eye candy. While with her role I think they tried to instill her more as to being able to not just being a helpless damsel in distress, she never really amounted to  being believable in being a part of the action. Rihanna in the role of Petty Officer Cora, really did not amount like I would have expected her to be. I think she ended up being a secondary character that really got lost in the shuffle with all the other secondary characters. I wanted to see her play the role with a stronger amount of toughness and really be a better character then all the others. The supporting cast all for the most part end up being fairly unmemorable, aside from the Japanese ship Captain played by Tadanobu Asano. The chemistry that is developed between him and Kitsch as this rivalry at the beginning to the respect that they end up having one with another.

The story is where Battleship truly lacked a lot and had it had a strong story and plot to go along with the action this movie could have really been a lot stronger. The first fifteen minutes of Battleship end up feeling fairly slow, simply because this is the part of the movie where we get the character development set up and then after that point there is no character development that takes place. The main aspect of the story is that scientists have created a deep space satellite to attempt to make contact with a planet that has a similar relationship to a sun as Earth. Of course, this leads to an actual alien response of a small fleet of ships coming to earth and the aliens having an apparent desire to takeover the earth. Unfortunately, I feel like they missed a golden opportunity to really help make the story stronger, by simply giving us a little depth to what made the aliens desire to actually come across space to invade earth. I found myself wanting to know more and wishing that I knew the purpose behind the invasion. The story layout was not all bad though, I think the great aspect they worked on was that the aliens technology was not so far above and beyond what we have here on earth that it was truly an even match up, as it truly ended up making the movie one where it came down to the strategic decisions by the commanders of the ships.

The action sequences is precisely what is expected in a big summer blockbuster movie. The explosions are large and are just awesome type moments. While some may have found it to be completely cheesy, I was really interested to see how they might add elements of the game into the movie, so I thought the night sequence with the fact the radar did not work so that both the aliens and the Naval ship have no idea where the other one is. I found the use of the wave displacement buoys to set up a grid for where to aim shots to be pretty clever and really give those in the audience that played the game growing up a moment of paying homage to the game. The CGI used in Battleship is fairly seamless, but like any movie that has moments of CGI it does not always work perfectly. The look for the alien ships as well as the armor of the aliens I thought was well thought out and it really had a cool look to it. I liked the concept that the alien ships rather then just moving through the water like a regular ship but the hop movement that it has to be a unique aspect to really distinguish the technology. The other part of the movie that really helped the action to work for me was that of using the classic rock music at different moments. I am a total sucker for classic rock and so when a movie can use classic rock in a way to make the action seem even that much more in your face, and I think that Battleship was able to integrate the classic rock perfectly to fit the movie style.

Battleship is a movie that is not as bad as it has seemed to get. I really found the action sequences and the performances to work well. I believe one of the strongest aspect was that they did not make the aliens so superior that everything we throw at the aliens will not work until we find a weakness to exploit, instead the aliens technology was not superior so it made the battle between the two forces be one where strategic decisions were what determined the outcome of the conflict. There is an after credits clip and I found it to be disappointing, because while it hints to a possibility for a sequel, I am not sure where they can take the sequel. The plot was almost virtually non-existent and had they given some better depth throughout the movie rather then just the beginning it really would have made a difference in the end. I am giving Battleship three buckets of popcorn out of five. If you are a fan of sci-fi movies this may definitely be one that is worth seeing in the theater.

-The Movie Man

Men In Black 3

It is surprising to me that it has been ten years since the last installment in the Men In Black franchise was on the big screen. After how lukewarm I was with Men In Black 2, when I heard they were doing a third installment I was not sure if it was one I would want to see. After seeing the first trailer for MIB3, it looked like with Sonnenfeld back involved that it was going back to the light hearted, fun feeling that was present in MIB. The original MIB was he first time I can remember them melding the movie styles of a sci-fi movie with that of the buddy comedy film. I think it was a great thought process to have Agent J to go back in time to save Agent K from being killed by a serial killer alien and prevent him from changing the course of history.

Will Smith in the role of Agent J is once again perfect and he interacts on screen with everyone on screen seamlessly. Smith is the comedy side of the buddy duo and he truly excels in this role and he has done a great job at giving the role precisely what it calls for. While he has his over the top moments it is those moments that endears his character to the audience. Josh Brolin in the role of Agent K in the 1960's is a dead ringer or how Tommy Lee Jones would be along with almost perfect mannerisms and quirks. The chemistry between Brolin and Smith works so well together and the way they work together really matches the chemistry that Jones and smith have on screen. It was the fact that the chemistry worked so well together between both of these pairs that you actually almost believe Brolin and Jones to be the same character just at different ages. Tommy Lee Jones in the role of Agent K was precisely what we have come to expect from Jones in his roles. He plays the role with such a straight face that it only makes the comedy moments from Smith that much funnier. Jemaine Clement as Boris the Animal does a perfect villain for MIB3. He plays the role with just the right amount of hatred and evilness. Clement is relatively new for me, but he brought this character to life with just the right touch and finesse while still be very intimidating. The rest of the supporting cast for MIB3 are all admirable and provide good support for the lead roles, but in the end most of the supporting cast is very forgettable.

The story for MIB3 I really enjoyed and in the end we learned some strong character development  particularly with Agent K and Agent J that help us understand what has made them both the way they are in the end. The story was also was definitely fun and unique because I truly cannot remember an alien sci-fi comedy that uses time travel as a plot point and how an alien going back in time could change the course of history drastically to be a fun, fresh approach to a sci-fi comedy movie. The time travel was used so sparsely that it did not overpower the whole story while at the same time Agent J uses the time travel device in his favor a couple of times. The story worked so well for me because the pacing fit everything perfectly as it did not feel like the movie was dragging, but at the same time it did not feel like they were rushing to tell the story. I think to go along with the pacing to make the story work the chemistry between the characters fitting so well together helped to only make the story stronger.

The comedic moments throughout the movie all seemed to flow in well together and that either it had been long enough since I last saw MIB that in MIB3 the jokes did not seem rehashed, but very fresh and they made me laugh quite a bit. I loved the new twist in this go around of while they still had the pop culture icons actually being aliens, back in the '60s they take an icon of that time and you think that he is going to be an alien when really he is actually an undercover men in black agent who is sick of being the undercover character. Will Smith in his comedic delivery is perfect and the ability Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones have to be able to play their roles with such a straight face that in the end only makes Smith's jokes and one-liners even funnier. The music by Danny Elfman is so similar to what has been done in the past MIB movies that you know immediately it is a MIB movie. The official theme song by Pitbull is very catchy and once you hear it, it will get stuck in your head for days.

Where I felt MIB2 lost a lot of the MIB feel to it MIB3 re found that fun and lightheartedness. Brolin gave such a great dead on impression that he outshone everyone else on screen and it is because of that that I think the movie ends up being so enjoyable. The back in time aspect of the movie worked and I thought it made for a fun alien movie. I enjoyed the comedic aspects of MIB3 and I felt like the comedy helped to make the movie. I am giving Men In Black 3 three and a quarter buckets of popcorn out of five. This is a movie that I feel is well worth the price to see in the theaters, but I am not sure the 3D is worth going to because it had moments where you can tell they were doing it just for the 3D effect to poke something at you rather then to use the 3D to immerse you in the fantasy world.

-The Movie Man