What have you seen recently?

[JRScherer]

May Round-Up

BRIDESMAIDS
Surprisingly well-made. I found the movie to be involving and extremely funny. Kristen Wiig is going to be a big star. B+

PRIEST
Fun little mash-up of The Searchers, vampire action anime, and '80s style sci-fi flicks. It's a B-movie through and through, which is just fine by me. B

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES
Unfortunately, while Captain Jack Sparrow works fabulously as a supporting character in an ensemble, he fares poorly as the lead of his own feature. That's certainly not Depp's fault, though - he's still great - the story is just murky and rather boring in comparison to the other Pirates flicks. C-

KUNG FU PANDA 2
Excellent followup to the superb original. Extremely entertaining characters (even though, as in the original, the stunt casting of many parts is still completely wasted) and phenomenally staged action. A-

THE HANGOVER PART II
I think the best joke of The Hangover Part II is that it is note for note the exact same movie as The Hangover. I laughed a lot and that's what's important with a movie like this. B-

GOEMON
Gorgeous live action period piece anime. Absolutely sumptuous in its visuals, though a little overlong. B+

DRIVE ANGRY
Elizabeth Weitzman from the New York Daily News sums up this movie perfectly with "Drive Angry is pure grindhouse, so committed to its own junkiness that it is, in its way, a pleasure to behold." B

THOR
This is a movie I've been looking forward to and also dreading for the majority of my life. Thor has been one of my favorite superheroes since I first started reading comic books in the '70s. My all-time favorite run in comics was Walt Simonson's Thor comics in the '80s. Having Thor translated into live-action in any way that even remotely resembled the comics seemed like an impossibility, either because of the massive budget necessary to realize the fantastic elements but mainly because of Hollywood's reluctance to embrace those same fantastic elements in other superhero projects (i.e., Galactus appearing only as a really big storm cloud in Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer). Then Marvel started its own movie production company and starting making their superhero movies the way they wanted to, rather than letting filmmakers that didn't understand the characters mangle their properties.

This leads us to Marvel's new Thor movie. I was extremely pleased to see everything that I loved about the Thor comic books up on the big screen - Asgard and its nine realms in all their glory, Kirby inspired costumes and majestic headgear, Thor whirling Mjolnir exactly the way he does in the comics, and even the appearance of the Destroyer. The movie pays loving homage to the source material without being a slavish recreation. Hemsworth was a pleasure as Thor, both charismatic and physically imposing, Hopkins was suitably imperious while being fatherly at the same time, and Hiddleston's portrayal of Loki was note-perfect. Sure, the scenes on earth were rather sitcom-ish, what with Thor being tased and hit by vehicles multiple times, but I was in rapturous glee for the majority of the film, simply reveling in seeing the world of my favorite comics brought to life. So far, Thor is my favorite movie of the summer. I can't wait to see it again. A

 

[JRScherer]

June Round-Up

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
Best of the X-Men movies, due to both the direction of Matthew Vaughn and excellent casting, particularly McAvoy and Fassbender. It's not perfect, but it does hit all the right notes when it needs to and does it very well. A-

GREEN LANTERN
Not as bad as its rating on Rotten Tomatoes would have you believe, but it's also not nearly as good as it could have been. The cast does their best but the story doesn't give them as much to work with as it should. Some stuff works extremely well, but other things get very short shrift or are completely misused or misplaced, namely the main villain Parallax. C+

BAD TEACHER
Passable. Some funny moments but overall not very satisfying considering the talent involved. C-

SEASON OF THE WITCH
Another enjoyable B-movie from Nicholas Cage, this time set in the Dark Ages with fun supernatural goings-on. Some of you won't care for it since Ron Perlman plays Cage's sidekick, but I found it to be a schlocky and fun film. B

TROLL HUNTER
Probably the best 'found footage' movie I've seen yet, but still suffers from the same problems all of its predecessors do: shallow script and mostly non-existent acting. The trolls are all really neat, though. B-

PONYO
Another gorgeously animated spectacle from Hiyao Miyazaki. I love how he creates stories for children that don't actually have an antagonist. Wonderful stuff and an absolute feast for the eyes. A

SUPER 8
My favorite movie of June. Superb on every front. It's what I personally wanted E. T. to be when I saw it in the theater way back in '82. A

 

[JRScherer]

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON
Not a good movie, but definitely a spectacular one. It has the best use of 3D in a live-action film that I've seen to date. Storywise, it's not the unmitigated ****-fest that the second movie was, but it's no great shakes, that's for certain. It's a bit unnerving to see the Transformers, good and bad, be so brutal and callous as well. Lots of deaths and executions in this movie. C

HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2
I have to say that I was done with both the Harry Potter books and movies with the 4th installment, Goblet of Fire. I've found everything after Goblet of Fire to be a wholly pedestrian and unimaginative slog and if this series wasn't the global phenomenon that it is I don't think that I would've bothered to keep up with it. I was constantly checking my watch throughout this one. D

HORRIBLE BOSSES
Funny ****ing movie. It's what Bad Teacher wanted to be. Solid performances all around and some great laughs throughout. B

COWBOYS AND ALIENS
Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford are really great in this. Olivia Wilde is insanely beautiful. These three factors are what keep the movie afloat. The movie's great when they're onscreen. Lots of shaky cam action whenever the eponymous aliens appear and you never get a good idea of what they actually look like--they're always moving so quickly that they're a blur. Some personality given to the bad guys would've made a big difference. B-

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
So far, this is my favorite movie of the summer. It does everything right. The casting is perfect, the performances spot-on, it looks gorgeous, and the action is practically a throwback to pre-Saving Private Ryan filmmaking as there's nary a shaky-cam shot to be seen. I loved the shared world mythos that Marvel has been creating with these movies. There are so many little things that either tie the movie in to the other Marvel movies (especially Iron Man and Thor) or are simply nice little nods to readers of the comic books, like the appearance of the original Golden Age Human Torch as well as the Howling Commandos (who, unfortunately, are never named). Even Arnim Zola appears in the movie. I can't wait to see what Marvel does next with their own stable of movies. As far as I'm concerned they've been hitting them out of the park so far. A

 

[JRScherer]

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Surprisingly good prequel to the classic sci-fi film series (Burton's turd from 2001 not included). Andy Serkis has proven time and again that he is able to deliver astounding performances via motion capture. I don't see any sort of acting nods coming his way from the Academy for this but perhaps a special achievement Oscar wouldn't be out of line. There are a couple of times where the film goes out of its way to remind you that it's a PotA movie that were definitely groaners for me, but overall it's very satisfying. B+

30 MINUTES OR LESS
If only. Very disappointing. D

CONAN THE BARBARIAN
Very flawed, but still entertaining. Momoa is excellent as Conan and I liked Steven Lang and Rose McGowan as the bad guys as well. The action is mostly well-done and I think it had the right hard-edged bloody vibe. The story is nothing special, though; it's the sort of formula we've seen a million times already -- EXCEPT in Robert E. Howard's original Conan stories. I'm a little baffled as to why the filmmakers simply did not adapt one of Howard's classic stories instead of writing yet another "Conan seeks revenge against the man who destroyed his village" story. Surely they had the actual rights to adapt from those stories if they wanted to. Tyler Bates' score is also very blah and bland. The 1982 movie will always stand head and shoulders above this movie if only because of Basil Poledouris' phenomenal score. The movie tries hard but it simply isn't as good as it should've been. I would love see Momoa appear in future Conan stories, but that doesn't seem likely given this films dismal box office performance. B-/C+

FRIGHT NIGHT
Now this movie did the remake/reboot right. The cast, script, and production are excellent all around. It takes its basic concept from the 1985 film and builds on it while respecting the original. Anton Yelchin and David Tennant were both fun to watch but Colin Farrell is definitely the stand-out -- it's clear he had a lot of fun playing Jerry the vampire. Highly recommended. A

 

[JRScherer]

CEDAR RAPIDS
Great little comedy featuring very likable, normal people doing weird ****ed up things at an insurance convention. I laughed a lot. John C. Reilly never fails me. Loved the fake commercials for the insurance companies as well. B+

TRUE LEGEND
Kick-ass kung fu film in the classic tradition from the grand master of Hong Kong martial arts films, Yuen Woo Ping. I loved the gimmicky kung fu in this, especially the bad guy with his deadly Five Venoms Fist that requires him to regularly punch his fist into barrels full of scorpions, spiders, snakes, and centipedes. The movie makes an abrupt tonal misstep into Bloodsport-ville during its third act but the action always more than makes up for it. B+

DRIVE
What an incredible surprise. Drive is actually a samurai film set in the universe of the Miami Vice TV show. It's all about music, style, and the slow burn before the quiet protagonist anti-hero explodes into gruesome, bloody violence. It's gorgeous to look at and all performances are pitch perfect, including Albert Brooks playing totally against type as an extremely ruthless gangster. Very satisfying and highly recommended. A

 

[JRScherer]

KILLER ELITE
Okay action picture with Jason Statham, Robert DeNiro, and Clive Owen, who are all excellent. Says it's based on a true story, but that's about as likely as Chuck Barris actually having been a government assassin. C

REAL STEEL
Utterly ridiculous and predictable, but strangely highly entertaining nonetheless. If I were a preteen and saw this I would probably love it. B

50/50
Very good movie about a 20-something guy that finds out he has cancer. Well-made, with an excellent script and perfect performances, but it's still basically a Lifetime movie of the week made for men, which just kinda creeps me out. B

THE THING
Disappointing prequel to the sublime 1983 John Carpenter movie. Skip it and watch Carpenter's. D+

 

[ultraviolet]

'Stake Land'

one of the best vampire films i've seen in years. everyone needs to be watching this

 

[actionavenue]

Watched Paranormal Activity 2 with my wife off of our Netflix list. It was ok. My wife liked it much more than I did as she is more into the ghost movies than I am. That is the most recent movie we've rented. I love movies, but we don't take the time to go to the theater near enough. Too bad that the prequel. The Thing didn't rate very well, I was looking forward to seeing it. I enjoyed Carpenter's version so much, one of my favs. Has anyone seen Green Latern? Is it as bad as the critics said?

 

[actionavenue]

Sorry, just saw the quick review for Green Latern posted here. My apologies to be offered to the council.

 

[ProClerk]

It was The Perfect Storm, awesome movie! Cant stop myself for watching it again & again!

 

[JRScherer]

13 ASSASSINS
Solid and highly entertaining samurai film. Damned good stuff. A

ATTACK THE BLOCK
Excellent tribute to '80s John Carpenter flicks. Made with a low budget and a great sense of style and fun. I really liked the monsters quite a bit--very reminiscent of the "rats" in Jeff Smith's Bone comic. B+

IMMORTALS
Stylish and gorgeous to look at, but ultimately a bit bland despite the action-packed and crazily gory final act. While I don't expect complete fidelity to the original myths I'm a bit baffled as to why the filmmakers named human characters after titans and so on when just using actual names from mythology would've fit the story just fine.C+

PUSS IN BOOTS
Fun little romp. I enjoyed this much more than any of the actual Shrek films that it spun off from. B

THE MUPPETS
Wonderful love letter from writer and star Jason Segal to the original Muppet Show television program. Not as good as The Muppet Movie but loads better than everything since. B+

 

[actionavenue]

My wife and I go to the movie theater once in a while, but not since summer. We do see a fair number of movies off of Netflix. The most recent movie we saw off of Netflix was a major turd. It was called Undead and it's basically a zombie movie and alien abduction movie spliced into one big mess. Do yourself a favor and avoid it at all costs!

 

[actionavenue]

 

[actionavenue]

Sorry! I was trying to figure out how to bring an image from the internet to my post and I guess I don't know how to do that. I know how to bring an image from my stored image file from the computer, but not from another source. Guess I still have some things to learn!

 

[JRScherer]

Sorry! I was trying to figure out how to bring an image from the internet to my post and I guess I don't know how to do that. I know how to bring an image from my stored image file from the computer, but not from another source. Guess I still have some things to learn!

No worries -- Everyone has to learn everything for the first time sometime, right?

In your post above, you have a web address for the IMDb's page for Undead in tags, but you can only put the address for the actual image itself (usually it will end in ".jpg", ".gif", ".png", etc.) inside [IMG] tags.

IMDb probably doesn't allow hotlinking their images, but I do know that wikipedia [I]does[/I].

For example:

[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/41/Undead_poster.jpg/220px-Undead_poster.jpg

 

[actionavenue]

The remake of Nightmare on Elm Street came up on our rent list. Can't say it was all that good.

 

[actionavenue]

Thanks JrScherer for your help. It's always good to see another Iowa native here on the message boards.

 

[wise467]

Recently saw Transformers 3: Dark side of the moon - utter monotonous tripe.

 

[actionavenue]

Yes, I jumped off the Transformers train after the second one, which also was not very good in my opinion. I refuse to see the third movie or any more sequels in that franchise.

 

[actionavenue]

Just watched Priest and it was much better than I expected. Enjoyed it.