Weekend Viewings
It seems like Ashley and I have been on a streak of just so-so or just plain bad movies lately. And it hasn’t been on purpose. This weekend we continued this trend much to our disappointment.
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
Not that we thought this would be good, but it turned out worse than I could imagine. Just a terrible movie. The point is made ad nauseum that gay people are just like anyone else and should be treated such. And yet every gay character in the movie was a flaming freakazoid and the punchline of every gay joke you can think of. It was just pathetic and caused us to fast forward the last 10 minutes, never a good sign.
The Heartbreak Kid
Your typical Ben Stiller film: a little funny, a little awkward, a little gross and a little more funny. It’s definitely not his best but I’ve seen worse. It was so-so.
Horton Hears a Who!
I didn’t expect a whole lot out of this one. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good. There seemed to be just too much clumsiness and goofiness in the characters. While that may be to appeal to a much younger audience, it got downright annoying to me. By far the best part/character was Vlad the vulture voiced by the great Will Arnett. You should have been seeing him. Classic Vlad.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
I loved the first Narnia film. But I think it took a few viewing to get there. Although Ashley generally liked Prince Caspian, but I don’t think I’m there yet. Mostly it is just that the story is a bit weak. Even the 100 page book was a struggle to get through. As for the film, it was simply too stretched out to keep the suspense.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Well, here we go. This is such a huge disappointment. I won’t go as far as saying that it’s a horrible movie. But it’s just not good. Not even as good as The Temple of Doom which I always thought was so out of place as an Indiana Jones film. I expected it to be different with the different era and different villains. I also expected a different Indy, 19 years older. (Actually this was one of the surprises: Harrison Ford is still a great action hero!) But I wasn’t prepared for the utterly stupid story and non-existent plot. It was just so convoluted and ultimately uninteresting. Also, the use of CGI was rampant. It may work for Star Wars (notice I said “may”) but not for real life action set in real life settings. I could go on and on but I found two great reviews that echo my thoughts exactly.
They do give away the story but honestly you’re not missing much:
Rolling Stone
The Kansas City Star
Surf’s Up
So After a week of let downs we watched what we thought would be just a cute little film. Finally a great movie! This is one of the best animated films I’ve ever seen. It was so original and so well done. The voice acting and dialogue was so natural and nothing like you’ve ever heard in other animated films. They recorded dialogue with numerous actors in a studio (instead of individually in a sound booth) and it really brought the characters and their interactions to life. Great story, great acting, great music. Just a really great film! Finally!
amen about Indian Jones…Daniel and I watched it Thursday night and we were both disappointed too!
1. horrible.
2. won’t see.
3. i actually really liked this movie. it took me until about half-way through to really get into it, but the ending was well worth it. the anime part was amazing. and katie was hilarious.
4.i liked it. a little slow at times, and bad acting, but entertaining enough.
5. even before your review, decided to just wait for the dollar theater… which is so disappointing.
6. agreed. one of the best animated movies ever.
in the Heartbreak Kid, their case for making Stiller’s first wife into an annoying monster, etc. was totally un-convincing… it made him look all the more like a lame-o