Daily Archives: August 13, 2013
Happy Birthday to Alfred Hitchcock
Happy Birthday to Alfred Hitchcock! The master of suspense would have turned 114 years old today.
He is easily considered one of the best film directors to ever live. Arguably Hitchcock impacted the movie industry more than any other director. His methods forever changed movies.
His 4 most famous films are Psycho (1960), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958) and North By Northwest (1959).
The Last Stand (2013)
The Last Stand (2013)
Arnold Schwarzenegger is back, again. He must have gone a little heavy on the spray tan and make-up because his face looks like a tanned piece of aged leather, but he’s back. I held off seeing this movie in the theatre because I was not sure if Ahnuld could pull this one off.
The Last Stand is about a drug lord that escapes from protective custody and heads for the Mexican border. The only thing standing in his way of freedom is small town Sheriff Ray Owen (Schwarzenegger) and his band of misfit deputies.
The film is directed by Kim Jee-Woon and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Forest Whitaker, Johnny Knoxville, Luis Guzman, Peter Stormare, Eduardo Noriega, Jaimie Alexander, Zach Gilford, and Harry Dean Stanton, and Genesis Rodriguez.
The film does not have a lot of character development, but there is a bit of stupid comedy and tons of action. The special effects are actually quite good and they help to make the film enjoyable. There are endless car chases, bullets are flying, people and things are exploding, blood is spattering, and fans of 90s action movies are applauding.
Schwarzenegger, Knoxville, Guzman, and Stormare all make this action movie more of a comedy not to take too seriously.
Whitaker seems to be the only person in the film taking his part seriously and it fits his character like a glove.
Overall, the film was better than I expected it to be. It’s a bit predictable at times, but for the type of movie that it is, that is to be expected. It certainly seemed like they had fun making it. Even though Schwarzenegger looked a little goofy, he pulled his character off quite well and it was fun to see him acting again.
I rate this movie a 7 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
If you liked The Last Stand, then you will probably enjoy:
Trailer for Her (2013)
Her (2013)
Her is a love story about a lonely antisocial writer (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls for an artificial intelligence operating system.
The film is written and directed by Spike Jonze and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Olivia Wilde, Rooney Mara, and Chris Pratt.
Phoenix is sporting a creeper mustache and seems like he will be as weird as ever. Even though he looks like a weirdo in this movie, I’m sure he will do an awesome job. Part of me jokingly could see Phoenix be his character in real life about 20 years from now. I’m not making fun of him though, he is a great actor. It just looks like he might play his part too well.
They somehow managed to get 4 of the most famous young actresses currently working today in the same film. You don’t see that very often these days.
This film looks like it could be pretty funny in a disturbingly quirky kind of way.
The movie is set to release on 11/20/13.
Trailer for The Monuments Men (2013)
The Monuments Men (2013)
The Monuments Men is based on a true story about a team of art historians and museum curators that are brought together during World War II to save priceless works of art before Hitler has them destroyed.
The film is directed by George Clooney and the noteworthy cast includes George Clooney, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Bob Balaban, and Jean Dujardin.
The all-star cast would be enough to make me want to see the film, but this is an intriguing story that I know nothing about.
I would bet money that it gets nominated for an Academy Award for something, and it will likely deserve it.
The film is set to release on 12/18/13.
We’re the Millers (2013)
We’re the Millers (2013)
Longtime drug dealer David Clark (Jason Sudeikis) gets into trouble with his supplier (Ed Helms) and in order to make things right, he is forced to smuggle drugs into the U.S. from Mexico. In order to be less conspicuous and hopefully not get arrested crossing the border, David hires a stripper (Jennifer Aniston), a nerdy neighbor boy (Will Poulter), and a homeless girl (Emma Roberts) to all act as his family. Together, they are the Millers.
The movie was directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Nick Offerman, Kathryn Hahn, Matthew Willig, Luis Guzman, Thomas Lennon, and Mark Young.
Because Sudeikis is in the film, you know that you will be in for a comedy that is maxed out with gross, stupid, and raunchy humor. There is some pot humor, but it’s mostly all potty humor.
We’re the Millers is a sick, perverted version of Vacation (1983). Instead of a family going on vacation and everything going wrong, it’s a fake family going on a major drug-run and everything going way wrong.
The story is very formulaic and predictable with nasty surprises along the way. If you enjoy crass, this movie is crass. It is crude, but you can’t help but laugh at it.
It seems like Aniston has really brought herself down as an actress for making films like this one. She is way less classy than she used to be.
This is the type of movie that basically guarantees that you will never be taken seriously as an actor in the future. I understand that it is a comedy, however I think that it will be hard for anybody in the cast to not be typecast in the same kind of role and in the same kind of movie from here on out.
There is not much else to say about this film. If you like this type of comedy, then you will probably enjoy this movie. Because of how predictable We’re the Millers was, it was not quite as funny as it otherwise could have been.
It was worth the matinee price that I paid for the ticket because I knew what to expect. I most likely would not have paid full price at a night show.
I rate this movie a 6.5 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
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