This is my first review of a film that is not a brand new release, so many people's opinions have already been formed about it, but I haven't written in a while and it will have to do.
When I saw this movie's trailers way back when, I wanted to see it immediately. Just casting alone was enough to support the box office response that it got. All of my expectations were met with this one. It was as funny as I thought it was going to be, especially coming from the director of a couple comedy greats (as far as the average college kid is concerned) and other comedy flops. Todd Phillips showed his usual motif that was reminiscent of his film Road Trip from 2000. He hit it huge again with Old School in 2003. The feel of these films is prevalent in The Hangover again. It's kind of like the Stephen King obsession with close friends, but for Phillips the friends get wild and crazy and some weird shit goes down. So, looking at these films, it's hard to see where Starsky and Hutch came from, which Phillips wrote and directed.
So the film begins with a little foreshadowing, with the main character Phil calling his best friend's fiance and telling her that he and his other friends lost him in Vegas during his bachelor party. She flips out and the movie back tracks to the day of the bachelor party. The groom, Doug, and his soon to be brother in law, Alan (played by Zach Galifianakis), are getting fitted into their tuxes. Of course, because of the nature of the character and what Galifianakis does with it, virtually every line out of Alan's mouth is golden. Doug is, of course, the most boring character in the movie. Kind of like Chris Farley's brother in Black Sheep. They get in the car and go to round up the other guys. Paul, a school teacher, who turns out to be a womanizing party animal. Then they pick up Stu, played by Ed Helms, a dentist that is involved with the biggest bitch I've been introduced to, played by Rachel Harris.
Do you like The Office? Do you like the character, Andy played by Ed Helms? You do? Then you'll like Stu. It's literally the same character, through and through. Word for word, motion for motion. Maybe Andy has bigger balls, but not by much. As for Alan, its pretty much every Galifianakis character ever as well. We'll be seeing this for a few years, I'm sure, but it works. Cases in point: Chris Farley, David Spade, Bill Murray, John Candy, Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler and many others. I'm just saying, strap in for the Galifianakis ride because it's just beginning.
So, they drive off to Vegas. God, I love Vegas. They end up staying at Caesar's Palace, and speaking as someone who's been to Caesar's Palace, they make this place look great. In real life, it looks exactly as it did in 1978. Either way, the get to the Villa hotel room, get dressed and head to the roof. On the roof they do shots of Jager and toast the groom. Then...blackout. Wake up the next morning and there's a Tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, Stu is missing a tooth and one of the mattresses was thrown off the roof. No one can remember what happened and Paul is missing. So they begin the search. I'll sum up the night for you:
They accidentally took a chinese dude's winnings from the craps table worth $80,000. They stole Mike Tyson's pet tiger. They met a stripper that Stu married at a Vegas chapel and she is the mother of the baby. Stu pulled his own tooth out to prove that he was a good dentist, Alan put rufies into the shots of Jager thinking it was ecstasy and Doug threw the mattress off the roof when the other guys put him on the roof when he passed out. That's it.
3.5 out of 5 Strippers' Asses. To make it to a full 5, it just had to be funnier, but it could just be me. Don't get me wrong, the movie was funny. I liked it plenty, but it wasn't the end all be all of comedies. Go see it, it'll be worth it, but I can't see myself buying it on DVD. I can say this whole movie can be summed up in one line from Jefferey Tambor when he is told about his antique Mercedes is wrecked: "Vegas."
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Up in the Air (2009) - Jason Reitman
I like George Clooney. I'm not afraid to say it. I also like Brad Pitt. I like the characters they portray and the way they portray them. In fact, when I was younger, I always thought George Clooney was the Michael Buble of actors, as in, only older women wanted to watch him because he was hot and rockin the doctor thing on ER. Then I saw Out of Sight where Clooney plays across from Jennifer Lopez. I love that movie. Don Cheadle is hilarious. Either way, I fell in love with Clooney's characters with that movie. Ocean's Eleven and Twelve only solidified that feeling. With Brad Pitt too. The point is, since I feel like that, Up in the Air is CLASSIC Clooney.
The film starts off with Clooney's character, Ryan Bingham, explaining his lifestyle and his job. He fires people. They then show a series of people's reactions to being laid off, ending with Zach Galifinakis being funny, but serious. A pleasant side of him, by the way. Bingham's job is to fire people as part of a job termination sub-contractor. Companies hire his company to fire people for them, so they can avoid confrontation. He spends about 270 days a year traveling the country. And Bingham LOVES it. He couldn't choose a better life for himself. Then we see him at a hotel bar watching this woman go through her purse. The woman turns out to be Alex, played by Vera Farmiga, who becomes the love interest in the film. She also has a job that has her running around the country. They compare elite statuses and loyalty cards for car rentals and airlines. Funny scene, which eventually leads to wild sex in the hotel room. They set up of the next meeting when their travels will bring them together again.
You'll remember Farmiga from The Departed when she played Madolyn. She's beautiful and has an older look to her. Perfect for a target of Clooney's desires. The chemistry between the characters is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. I was hooked the second they met. As for Bingham, they let Clooney look his age. Who is only 2 years older than Pitt, by the way. Anyways, the years of travel are shown heavily in his eyes. Dark sagging eyes. These characters just captured my attention and didn't let go. Then, enter Natalie Keener, played by Anna Kendrick.
Bingham gets a call from his boss, played by Jason Bateman, who I also love to watch, and he tells Bingham to come back to the home office in Omaha. Now, whenever the film switched cities, it gave you a shot of the city from about 30,000 feet. A hokie concept, but really cool transition when applied. Bateman has hired young Natalie who has an idea of how to reduce costs to the company. She proposes to fire people over a webcam, rather than face to face, effectively decreasing travel costs for the company by 80%. This scares Clooney, of course, who loves the fact that he doesn't have a home, except the hotel rooms he has on the road. He brings up to Bateman that the company can't do this because it doesn't work as well as firing someone face to face. Bateman feels he has a point and makes Natalie follow Clooney on his next series of assignments.
Now, Natalie was a necessary character for this film. I whole heartedly support that. However, Kendrick is awful, and here's why. She looks the part, easily. Young, dark hair pulled back into a pony tail and very professional looking. Then she opens her mouth and its like fingernails on a chalkboard. Just awful. Her delivery was poor and I don't think she was ready for comedy...even though the comedy in this film isn't the focus. Let's look at Kendrick's filmography, shall we? Hmm, some kids films...one straight to video...AH HA! Two Twlight films down and two to go huh? Kendrick plays the character Jessica in the Twilight series. Tsk tsk. Not too promising at all. Either way, there had to have been better choices, but the Clooney cool tended to keep my annoyance of her presence in check throughout the film, so my experience continued unhindered.
So Bingham and Natalie hit the road, with Bingham showing her the ropes of what it's like to fire someone to their face. She can't take it, especially after one woman says she's going to throw herself off a bridge. Then she meets Alex and Natalie's boyfriend had just broken up with her and she explains how she followed him to Omaha when she really wanted to go to San Francisco. Whatever, Kendrick's fake cry is awful sounding and I'm really at a loss as to how to explain it. Then she asks if Alex is with Bingham romantically and Bingham and Alex blow off the relationship and say it's just a casual thing. Natalie gets pissed that Bingham says its just casual, blah blah blah. The movie steers dangerously close to becoming a romantic comedy here, but recovers. But, that's one of the reasons why I love the way it's written. It makes you believe it's going to become a romantic comedy, but then gets back on course. It's wonderful.
Then Bingham and Natalie are told to try out the video termination. It doesn't quite work on a personal level, but is effective enough that Bateman says they're going to implement it anyway. So, they are called back to Omaha and Clooney makes a last minute decision to fly to Vegas to meet Alex and ask her to come with him to his sister's wedding. She agrees and they head off to Milwaukee for the wedding. They have a nice time at the rehearsal dinner and the audience can start to notice that Bingham is starting to fall for Alex and is willing to give up his lifestyle to settle down with her...steering towards romantic comedy again, as you can tell, but is saved by the groom, played by Danny McBride. My favorite role of his is obviously the special effects pyromanic from Tropic Thunder. Fucking amazing. He plays the hokey midwestern guy as well as he needed to. Anyways, he starts to get cold feet and Clooney talks him into going through with the wedding.
Because of the ending of this film, I'm actually to SPOILER ALERT right now. Don't read on if you care about the ending of this film. You've been warned.
So Bingham goes back to Omaha. He finds that the video terminations are in full swing and now he's going to have to live in Omaha. He is forced to settle down This makes him realize he wants to be with Alex. He flies to Chicago to find her and tell her. He knocks on the door and she answers. Then you hear her kids as they runs up the stairs behind her. Bingham looks crushed, starts stepping back as Alex's husband asks who is at the door. She closes it saying it was someone who was lost. BAM. I never saw it coming. I was expecting to see the great happy ending of a romantic comedy and they took it away AGAIN. IT WAS AWESOME. This was my favorite moment of the film and left me crushed and confused as well. My emotional involvement in these characters being together is just thown out of the window in all of 30 seconds. Awesome moment which truly makes for this being an amazing film. So Bingham goes back to Omaha. Bateman comes in and asks if there was any moment in his firings with Natalie where a woman led him to believe that she was going to kill herself. Bingham doesn't remember. Not, doesn't remember to save his ass, literally doesn't remember. Another great moment. Also, Natalie quit because she couldn't take seeing what she did to that woman any more.
HOLY SHIT. This film takes you up into the air with happiness and drops you like you were tied to an anvil from 30,000 feet. Beautiful. However, it doesn't let you hit the ground. Natalie ends up in San Fransisco applying for a job at another company. The man interviewing her says that he has a letter of recommendation that states that she is one they want to hire. The letter was written by Bingham. Awwwwwwww. But what about Bingham? How does his story end? Well, Bateman cancels the video termination idea and sends Bingham back out on the road. He got what he wanted, but only after he didn't want it anymore. Amazing. I know this has been done a hundred times before, but at the end of this film, the audience is actually left feeling sorry for him, because unlike romantic comedies, Bingham doesn't get the girl.
On a side note, this film is a GREAT view into the job market and the economic climate we live in. The people they fire are actually REAL LIFE people who were laid off. This is absolutely perfect. Near the end of the film, they ask these people how they got through it. How they survived the worst moment in their life and their answers really hit home. This could happen to anyone at anytime and how these people handled it is inspiring. Really wonderful touch to the film.
4.5 out of 5 Frequent Flier Miles. It could have been 5 if only Kendrick had been replaced. Oh well, it's an after thought in the scheme of this movie. Absolutely wonderful film with great emotional moments that take hold of every part of you. I recommend this movie to anyone. Absolutely anyone. Go see it as soon as possible. And I mean that.
The film starts off with Clooney's character, Ryan Bingham, explaining his lifestyle and his job. He fires people. They then show a series of people's reactions to being laid off, ending with Zach Galifinakis being funny, but serious. A pleasant side of him, by the way. Bingham's job is to fire people as part of a job termination sub-contractor. Companies hire his company to fire people for them, so they can avoid confrontation. He spends about 270 days a year traveling the country. And Bingham LOVES it. He couldn't choose a better life for himself. Then we see him at a hotel bar watching this woman go through her purse. The woman turns out to be Alex, played by Vera Farmiga, who becomes the love interest in the film. She also has a job that has her running around the country. They compare elite statuses and loyalty cards for car rentals and airlines. Funny scene, which eventually leads to wild sex in the hotel room. They set up of the next meeting when their travels will bring them together again.
You'll remember Farmiga from The Departed when she played Madolyn. She's beautiful and has an older look to her. Perfect for a target of Clooney's desires. The chemistry between the characters is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. I was hooked the second they met. As for Bingham, they let Clooney look his age. Who is only 2 years older than Pitt, by the way. Anyways, the years of travel are shown heavily in his eyes. Dark sagging eyes. These characters just captured my attention and didn't let go. Then, enter Natalie Keener, played by Anna Kendrick.
Bingham gets a call from his boss, played by Jason Bateman, who I also love to watch, and he tells Bingham to come back to the home office in Omaha. Now, whenever the film switched cities, it gave you a shot of the city from about 30,000 feet. A hokie concept, but really cool transition when applied. Bateman has hired young Natalie who has an idea of how to reduce costs to the company. She proposes to fire people over a webcam, rather than face to face, effectively decreasing travel costs for the company by 80%. This scares Clooney, of course, who loves the fact that he doesn't have a home, except the hotel rooms he has on the road. He brings up to Bateman that the company can't do this because it doesn't work as well as firing someone face to face. Bateman feels he has a point and makes Natalie follow Clooney on his next series of assignments.
Now, Natalie was a necessary character for this film. I whole heartedly support that. However, Kendrick is awful, and here's why. She looks the part, easily. Young, dark hair pulled back into a pony tail and very professional looking. Then she opens her mouth and its like fingernails on a chalkboard. Just awful. Her delivery was poor and I don't think she was ready for comedy...even though the comedy in this film isn't the focus. Let's look at Kendrick's filmography, shall we? Hmm, some kids films...one straight to video...AH HA! Two Twlight films down and two to go huh? Kendrick plays the character Jessica in the Twilight series. Tsk tsk. Not too promising at all. Either way, there had to have been better choices, but the Clooney cool tended to keep my annoyance of her presence in check throughout the film, so my experience continued unhindered.
So Bingham and Natalie hit the road, with Bingham showing her the ropes of what it's like to fire someone to their face. She can't take it, especially after one woman says she's going to throw herself off a bridge. Then she meets Alex and Natalie's boyfriend had just broken up with her and she explains how she followed him to Omaha when she really wanted to go to San Francisco. Whatever, Kendrick's fake cry is awful sounding and I'm really at a loss as to how to explain it. Then she asks if Alex is with Bingham romantically and Bingham and Alex blow off the relationship and say it's just a casual thing. Natalie gets pissed that Bingham says its just casual, blah blah blah. The movie steers dangerously close to becoming a romantic comedy here, but recovers. But, that's one of the reasons why I love the way it's written. It makes you believe it's going to become a romantic comedy, but then gets back on course. It's wonderful.
Then Bingham and Natalie are told to try out the video termination. It doesn't quite work on a personal level, but is effective enough that Bateman says they're going to implement it anyway. So, they are called back to Omaha and Clooney makes a last minute decision to fly to Vegas to meet Alex and ask her to come with him to his sister's wedding. She agrees and they head off to Milwaukee for the wedding. They have a nice time at the rehearsal dinner and the audience can start to notice that Bingham is starting to fall for Alex and is willing to give up his lifestyle to settle down with her...steering towards romantic comedy again, as you can tell, but is saved by the groom, played by Danny McBride. My favorite role of his is obviously the special effects pyromanic from Tropic Thunder. Fucking amazing. He plays the hokey midwestern guy as well as he needed to. Anyways, he starts to get cold feet and Clooney talks him into going through with the wedding.
Because of the ending of this film, I'm actually to SPOILER ALERT right now. Don't read on if you care about the ending of this film. You've been warned.
So Bingham goes back to Omaha. He finds that the video terminations are in full swing and now he's going to have to live in Omaha. He is forced to settle down This makes him realize he wants to be with Alex. He flies to Chicago to find her and tell her. He knocks on the door and she answers. Then you hear her kids as they runs up the stairs behind her. Bingham looks crushed, starts stepping back as Alex's husband asks who is at the door. She closes it saying it was someone who was lost. BAM. I never saw it coming. I was expecting to see the great happy ending of a romantic comedy and they took it away AGAIN. IT WAS AWESOME. This was my favorite moment of the film and left me crushed and confused as well. My emotional involvement in these characters being together is just thown out of the window in all of 30 seconds. Awesome moment which truly makes for this being an amazing film. So Bingham goes back to Omaha. Bateman comes in and asks if there was any moment in his firings with Natalie where a woman led him to believe that she was going to kill herself. Bingham doesn't remember. Not, doesn't remember to save his ass, literally doesn't remember. Another great moment. Also, Natalie quit because she couldn't take seeing what she did to that woman any more.
HOLY SHIT. This film takes you up into the air with happiness and drops you like you were tied to an anvil from 30,000 feet. Beautiful. However, it doesn't let you hit the ground. Natalie ends up in San Fransisco applying for a job at another company. The man interviewing her says that he has a letter of recommendation that states that she is one they want to hire. The letter was written by Bingham. Awwwwwwww. But what about Bingham? How does his story end? Well, Bateman cancels the video termination idea and sends Bingham back out on the road. He got what he wanted, but only after he didn't want it anymore. Amazing. I know this has been done a hundred times before, but at the end of this film, the audience is actually left feeling sorry for him, because unlike romantic comedies, Bingham doesn't get the girl.
On a side note, this film is a GREAT view into the job market and the economic climate we live in. The people they fire are actually REAL LIFE people who were laid off. This is absolutely perfect. Near the end of the film, they ask these people how they got through it. How they survived the worst moment in their life and their answers really hit home. This could happen to anyone at anytime and how these people handled it is inspiring. Really wonderful touch to the film.
4.5 out of 5 Frequent Flier Miles. It could have been 5 if only Kendrick had been replaced. Oh well, it's an after thought in the scheme of this movie. Absolutely wonderful film with great emotional moments that take hold of every part of you. I recommend this movie to anyone. Absolutely anyone. Go see it as soon as possible. And I mean that.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sherlock Holmes (2009) - Guy Ritchie
Guy Ritchie? Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr? Yes, please.
When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I was STOKED for it. Everything about it just looked great. The sets, lighting, casting, explosions, etc. I love Guy Ritchie. I think the characters he brings to life give me a wrong impression of what London is REALLY like, but I think it's a sweeter version. Hot girls and hard ass dudes blowing each other away for money or diamonds, or in the case of Sherlock Holmes, world domination.
I have to say, Sherlock Holmes, as a character, was captured very well by Ritchie and Downey. The smugness and all-knowingness he exudes was prevalent throughout the film. As well as the monologuing by Holmes and the villain. I went into this film wanting a modern interpretation of the action in the books, but the characters I wanted untouched, and I think I got that except for Rachel McAdams character, who was completely useless. Yeah, she was hot. Yeah, she looks good with various weapons in her hands. However, the character wasn't needed. Ok, maybe she might have been needed, but not for the whole film.
The film starts off with Holmes and Watson entering this tomb with the help of detectives from Scotland Yard. Holmes and Watson get there first, of course, and kick the shit out of some dudes in robes and stop this girl from killing herself in sacrifice for some magic believing cult made up of English nobility. Decent start, but it all ties into the rest of the story, of course. The bad guy makes some cryptic conversation, then get taken off to jail. Then, we see 3 months later, Watson is moving out of Baker Street to go marry some chick who isn't important. Holmes doesn't want him to go, and this plays along for the rest of the film and is cause for some good jokes. Then the bad guy is about to be hanged and calls in Holmes as his last request and says more cryptic stuff. He gets hanged (OR DID HE OMGOMGOMG) and the next day rises from the grave. London starts to freak so Holmes and, reluctantly, Watson begin the investigation. In the end, Holmes reveals how the bad guy did everything, front to back, which is eluded to throughout the film, but never enough for the audience to figure out. Typical ending to a Holmes novel, but good none the less. It's this satisfaction that made the stories so great to begin with.
Downey's delivery of pretty much every line is classic. At least it feels that way. I don't know, I didn't think the dude had it in him, then I saw Iron Man and was pleasantly surprised. Now, I can't get enough of him and this movie further reinforced that feeling. Jude Law was fantastic as usual, but Watson was never a truly interesting character, especially under the shadow of Holmes.
The soundtrack really stuck out to me in this one. Typical Hans Zimmer, but it really fits the setting well. I think it will be nominated for an Oscar this year. In fact, it will probably be the only one that this film will be nominated for.
3.5 out of 5 Smoking Pipes. The story was good. The special effects were as good as they could be, but you see the superimposition of the London skyline in a lot of action scenes, which was disappointing. The acting out of Downey and Law was everything I wanted it to be. Overall the movie was FUN, and should be seen for that reason alone, but not for much else. Had a great time, but I don't see myself going on a second date...at least not until the DVD comes out. And even then, I'll probably be waiting for the price to drop a bit.
When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I was STOKED for it. Everything about it just looked great. The sets, lighting, casting, explosions, etc. I love Guy Ritchie. I think the characters he brings to life give me a wrong impression of what London is REALLY like, but I think it's a sweeter version. Hot girls and hard ass dudes blowing each other away for money or diamonds, or in the case of Sherlock Holmes, world domination.
I have to say, Sherlock Holmes, as a character, was captured very well by Ritchie and Downey. The smugness and all-knowingness he exudes was prevalent throughout the film. As well as the monologuing by Holmes and the villain. I went into this film wanting a modern interpretation of the action in the books, but the characters I wanted untouched, and I think I got that except for Rachel McAdams character, who was completely useless. Yeah, she was hot. Yeah, she looks good with various weapons in her hands. However, the character wasn't needed. Ok, maybe she might have been needed, but not for the whole film.
The film starts off with Holmes and Watson entering this tomb with the help of detectives from Scotland Yard. Holmes and Watson get there first, of course, and kick the shit out of some dudes in robes and stop this girl from killing herself in sacrifice for some magic believing cult made up of English nobility. Decent start, but it all ties into the rest of the story, of course. The bad guy makes some cryptic conversation, then get taken off to jail. Then, we see 3 months later, Watson is moving out of Baker Street to go marry some chick who isn't important. Holmes doesn't want him to go, and this plays along for the rest of the film and is cause for some good jokes. Then the bad guy is about to be hanged and calls in Holmes as his last request and says more cryptic stuff. He gets hanged (OR DID HE OMGOMGOMG) and the next day rises from the grave. London starts to freak so Holmes and, reluctantly, Watson begin the investigation. In the end, Holmes reveals how the bad guy did everything, front to back, which is eluded to throughout the film, but never enough for the audience to figure out. Typical ending to a Holmes novel, but good none the less. It's this satisfaction that made the stories so great to begin with.
Downey's delivery of pretty much every line is classic. At least it feels that way. I don't know, I didn't think the dude had it in him, then I saw Iron Man and was pleasantly surprised. Now, I can't get enough of him and this movie further reinforced that feeling. Jude Law was fantastic as usual, but Watson was never a truly interesting character, especially under the shadow of Holmes.
The soundtrack really stuck out to me in this one. Typical Hans Zimmer, but it really fits the setting well. I think it will be nominated for an Oscar this year. In fact, it will probably be the only one that this film will be nominated for.
3.5 out of 5 Smoking Pipes. The story was good. The special effects were as good as they could be, but you see the superimposition of the London skyline in a lot of action scenes, which was disappointing. The acting out of Downey and Law was everything I wanted it to be. Overall the movie was FUN, and should be seen for that reason alone, but not for much else. Had a great time, but I don't see myself going on a second date...at least not until the DVD comes out. And even then, I'll probably be waiting for the price to drop a bit.
Avatar (2009) - James Cameron
Ok. So. Avatar.
I remember seeing the trailers for this one in theaters first. Before any of the CG even came on the screen, I was thinking that I was going to enjoy this one. Seemed like a cool storyline and I really enjoy Sci-Fi and new and interesting planets and creatures and so on. Then the CG came on the trailer, or should I say, the entire alien race was 3D animated. Now, at this point, I was still reeling from being slapped int eh face by GI Joe. The CG in that movie was AWFUL and made it seem like they didn't even WANT to hide it. I left with half an hour left in the movie. But I digress. I just saw another movie that was going to replace EVERYTHING it could with CG and not even try to entertain. So I wrote off Avatar as being another steaming pile of film, and I wasn't going to touch it. Then, the reviews from my friends started coming in. They raved about it, telling me how fun and exciting it was. That the CG was awesome and seamless. I was blown away. I thought this movie was supposed to be clear and unadulterated trash. Touche, Cameron. Ok. I'll give it a shot.
So I sit down in the theater and watch the previews, (The Wolfman remake looks fuckin' sweet, by the way.) then the movie starts off with some of the cheesiest dialogue I have heard in a while. I started to the dread the next 2 hours and 40 minutes of my immediate life, but I told myself I would give it a chance, I continued to watch. The film starts with a crippled man getting out of a cryo chamber after a long trip to this planet named, Pandora. His twin brother was mugged and killed and was working on some genetic project to help some company deal with an indigenous people on Pandora. You learn more about it later. Oh, and just so you know what I'm talking about, the second sentence in the ENTIRE FILM is something as such: (ahem) "My brother was the scientist, I was just the grunt. Then, a man with a gun took all that away from him...for the paper in his wallet." OH GOOD, I really hope this isn't the motivation this character's every move, or I'm leaving right now. However, they pretty much just leave it at that. Later when he meets his brother's colleagues on Pandora, they reference it, but don't really delve into it. Thank God.
So our main character, Jake, arrives on Pandora and is immediately surrounded by the typical U.S. Marine stereotypes, as well as the typical American scientist stereotypes. That's fine, I've seen enough sci-fi, war movies and sci-fi war movies where I've just learned to tune them out. They go through the normal dialogue: Why the main character is special, the hard ass lead scientist doesn't believe he can do it, he believes he can...blah blah blah. Then FINALLY we get the point. He gets into this electronic bed which puts him in the mind, and control of, an alien body, bred with the DNA of his brother. OH! They're twins! Well, that works out. Anyways, he learns to control it faster than anyone else, of course, and we move on.
Now, the aliens. The CG on them was...not that bad. Pretty believable actually. I was pleasantly surprised. Especially in the face. They actually managed to map the face of the person playing that alien onto the face of the creature. It was pretty good, and I appreciated the effort. The motion capture was spot on and it was an overall seamless transition of live-action movie to animated. Not bad at all.
So, his mission is to meet with the alien race and try to convince them that humans mining for...wait for it because the name of the mineral is AWESOME... UNOBTAINIUM. Yeah. unobtainium. Yikes, that's bad. The guy who came up with the Terminators can't think of a better name for a precious metal than unobtainium? Whatever...moving on. The natives don't want their world destroyed for mining purposes, so they fight back with bows and arrows and they're seriously outgunned. Typical stuff. Also, they love nature and so on. You get the idea...and the premise of the film. Not that hard to grasp. So these alien bodies that the main character controls is known as an Avatar. They're a Na'vi/Human hybrid bred to be controlled through a neural uplink. Cool stuff actually. New twist on an old idea, but reimagined very well. The science is believable and that's what's important. So, looking like one of them is going help bring a diplomatic solution to the insurgency against the Humans. That's the idea, anyway.
So they run into the wilderness and meet up with some cool plant life. Now let me say that besides UNOBTAINIUM, this movie is fairly imaginative. The world of Pandora is beautifully rendered and thought out. As well as the creatures that we come across as the movie goes on. Again, the animated and rendering impressed me, and was some of the best I've seen in a long time. They get attacked by a huge lion thing with no eyes and they get separated. The next 30 minutes or so is pretty predictable stuff so let me sum it up for you:
He escapes the creature, and is lost in the wilderness. He fashions a spear and walks through the jungle. A female Na'vi finds him and is going to kill him, but some floating seed thing lands on her arrow and she doesn't do it. My thought there was that he must be chosen...or something. Night time comes, which is always dangerous and he is attacked by a wild pack of nocturnal dog things. He is losing the fight and she saves him. She doesn't like him because she knows he's human. Then something weird happens and he is covered by the seed things and it turns out to be a sign from the alien deity. So he IS chosen. She takes him back to an unaccepting tribe of aliens that don't like him, but soon accept him because of the "sign". They tell him that they will teach him their ways and so on and he will become one of the them.
Enter the training montage. He's getting everything very fast and so on. He learns of a legendary warrior that appeared the last time the aliens were in peril. Same old stuff. Again, the story is very cliched and leaves much to be desired. You know, to save time, I'll skip ahead to what you've probably already figured out. He turns out to be the legendary warrior again, goes against the humans and helps the alien, with the help of Sigourney Weaver and the nerdy guy from Grandma's Boy.
Enter the epic final battle between human and alien. This was the best part of the movie. Shame it took 2 hours to get there. This battle has everything I wanted it to have. Big sky fortresses, large amounts of explosives and BOTH sides taking heavy casualties. Most importantly, Michelle Rodriguez dies, and not in a blaze of glory. She messes up and dies for it. That alone is satisfying enough for a whole star in my review rating. The ending is mega happy and predictable, but that is expected as the rest of the story lets you believe.
Avatar. A movie with fantastic visual effects, great and almost seamless CG animation, decent acting, poor and predictable story.
3 out of 5 Fern Gullys. Could have been 5 out of 5 EASILY if it weren't for the writing, but then again, we've seen this pattern with James Cameron. As someone said earlier today to me, Titanic showed the same promise. Although seeing that one guy hit the propellor after he falls off the back end of the ship is great every time I see it.
Next up, Sherlock Holmes is on the block. See you then.
I remember seeing the trailers for this one in theaters first. Before any of the CG even came on the screen, I was thinking that I was going to enjoy this one. Seemed like a cool storyline and I really enjoy Sci-Fi and new and interesting planets and creatures and so on. Then the CG came on the trailer, or should I say, the entire alien race was 3D animated. Now, at this point, I was still reeling from being slapped int eh face by GI Joe. The CG in that movie was AWFUL and made it seem like they didn't even WANT to hide it. I left with half an hour left in the movie. But I digress. I just saw another movie that was going to replace EVERYTHING it could with CG and not even try to entertain. So I wrote off Avatar as being another steaming pile of film, and I wasn't going to touch it. Then, the reviews from my friends started coming in. They raved about it, telling me how fun and exciting it was. That the CG was awesome and seamless. I was blown away. I thought this movie was supposed to be clear and unadulterated trash. Touche, Cameron. Ok. I'll give it a shot.
So I sit down in the theater and watch the previews, (The Wolfman remake looks fuckin' sweet, by the way.) then the movie starts off with some of the cheesiest dialogue I have heard in a while. I started to the dread the next 2 hours and 40 minutes of my immediate life, but I told myself I would give it a chance, I continued to watch. The film starts with a crippled man getting out of a cryo chamber after a long trip to this planet named, Pandora. His twin brother was mugged and killed and was working on some genetic project to help some company deal with an indigenous people on Pandora. You learn more about it later. Oh, and just so you know what I'm talking about, the second sentence in the ENTIRE FILM is something as such: (ahem) "My brother was the scientist, I was just the grunt. Then, a man with a gun took all that away from him...for the paper in his wallet." OH GOOD, I really hope this isn't the motivation this character's every move, or I'm leaving right now. However, they pretty much just leave it at that. Later when he meets his brother's colleagues on Pandora, they reference it, but don't really delve into it. Thank God.
So our main character, Jake, arrives on Pandora and is immediately surrounded by the typical U.S. Marine stereotypes, as well as the typical American scientist stereotypes. That's fine, I've seen enough sci-fi, war movies and sci-fi war movies where I've just learned to tune them out. They go through the normal dialogue: Why the main character is special, the hard ass lead scientist doesn't believe he can do it, he believes he can...blah blah blah. Then FINALLY we get the point. He gets into this electronic bed which puts him in the mind, and control of, an alien body, bred with the DNA of his brother. OH! They're twins! Well, that works out. Anyways, he learns to control it faster than anyone else, of course, and we move on.
Now, the aliens. The CG on them was...not that bad. Pretty believable actually. I was pleasantly surprised. Especially in the face. They actually managed to map the face of the person playing that alien onto the face of the creature. It was pretty good, and I appreciated the effort. The motion capture was spot on and it was an overall seamless transition of live-action movie to animated. Not bad at all.
So, his mission is to meet with the alien race and try to convince them that humans mining for...wait for it because the name of the mineral is AWESOME... UNOBTAINIUM. Yeah. unobtainium. Yikes, that's bad. The guy who came up with the Terminators can't think of a better name for a precious metal than unobtainium? Whatever...moving on. The natives don't want their world destroyed for mining purposes, so they fight back with bows and arrows and they're seriously outgunned. Typical stuff. Also, they love nature and so on. You get the idea...and the premise of the film. Not that hard to grasp. So these alien bodies that the main character controls is known as an Avatar. They're a Na'vi/Human hybrid bred to be controlled through a neural uplink. Cool stuff actually. New twist on an old idea, but reimagined very well. The science is believable and that's what's important. So, looking like one of them is going help bring a diplomatic solution to the insurgency against the Humans. That's the idea, anyway.
So they run into the wilderness and meet up with some cool plant life. Now let me say that besides UNOBTAINIUM, this movie is fairly imaginative. The world of Pandora is beautifully rendered and thought out. As well as the creatures that we come across as the movie goes on. Again, the animated and rendering impressed me, and was some of the best I've seen in a long time. They get attacked by a huge lion thing with no eyes and they get separated. The next 30 minutes or so is pretty predictable stuff so let me sum it up for you:
He escapes the creature, and is lost in the wilderness. He fashions a spear and walks through the jungle. A female Na'vi finds him and is going to kill him, but some floating seed thing lands on her arrow and she doesn't do it. My thought there was that he must be chosen...or something. Night time comes, which is always dangerous and he is attacked by a wild pack of nocturnal dog things. He is losing the fight and she saves him. She doesn't like him because she knows he's human. Then something weird happens and he is covered by the seed things and it turns out to be a sign from the alien deity. So he IS chosen. She takes him back to an unaccepting tribe of aliens that don't like him, but soon accept him because of the "sign". They tell him that they will teach him their ways and so on and he will become one of the them.
Enter the training montage. He's getting everything very fast and so on. He learns of a legendary warrior that appeared the last time the aliens were in peril. Same old stuff. Again, the story is very cliched and leaves much to be desired. You know, to save time, I'll skip ahead to what you've probably already figured out. He turns out to be the legendary warrior again, goes against the humans and helps the alien, with the help of Sigourney Weaver and the nerdy guy from Grandma's Boy.
Enter the epic final battle between human and alien. This was the best part of the movie. Shame it took 2 hours to get there. This battle has everything I wanted it to have. Big sky fortresses, large amounts of explosives and BOTH sides taking heavy casualties. Most importantly, Michelle Rodriguez dies, and not in a blaze of glory. She messes up and dies for it. That alone is satisfying enough for a whole star in my review rating. The ending is mega happy and predictable, but that is expected as the rest of the story lets you believe.
Avatar. A movie with fantastic visual effects, great and almost seamless CG animation, decent acting, poor and predictable story.
3 out of 5 Fern Gullys. Could have been 5 out of 5 EASILY if it weren't for the writing, but then again, we've seen this pattern with James Cameron. As someone said earlier today to me, Titanic showed the same promise. Although seeing that one guy hit the propellor after he falls off the back end of the ship is great every time I see it.
Next up, Sherlock Holmes is on the block. See you then.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Welcome
This is first time I've thought of blogging or anything remotely close to blogging. I just never really felt like I had anything to say. Well, yesterday, Christmas Eve, I went to see Avatar, and as I sat there watching it, my mind drifted as I started to critique the film as I watched it. I thought to myself, "Why don't I just write this shit down somewhere? Might make you feel good to get those ideas down on paper." I also remembered that the best place to make your opinions on anything known to anyone is the INTERNET.
So here it is, Spoiler Alert. I plan on writing my opinions on any movie I watch, as well as other things I see as well. I just liked the name Spoiler Alert, so I ran with it. So, since I just spoiled it, I'll tell you. The article will be about the huge Christmas blockbuster, Avatar.
So here it is, Spoiler Alert. I plan on writing my opinions on any movie I watch, as well as other things I see as well. I just liked the name Spoiler Alert, so I ran with it. So, since I just spoiled it, I'll tell you. The article will be about the huge Christmas blockbuster, Avatar.
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