a) Now You See Me
This was fun, felt like a decent way to spend a night out at the time, but it was one of those movies that really felt undid by the ending; totally pointless 'twist' that not only made no sense, but required a lot of half-assed vague plotting and characterization in order to render it possible. Had a lot of the hallmarks of a well made heist movie without ever getting under the surface to actually give all the good and great actors in the cast something to work with or even any kind of brain teaser or clever angle.

b) Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
We rented this kind of on a lark, seemed like a good decision because the wife likes looking at Jeremy Renner and I like looking at Gemma Arterton. I won't pretend this was anything other than stupid fun, but it actually was fun, which movies like this often aren't (looking at you, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), so it deserves some credit there. Half the time they were just talking like it was an '80s buddy cop movie, which was just so stupid it was funny. It really earned its R rating too, there were some pretty gorey scenes. I like how much of the movie was two Bond girls pitted against each other.

c) Pitch Perfect
I kinda hoped this would be a little more silly and comedic, like Fired Up or something, but it was mostly a boilerplate teen/college movie with a lot of singing. Charming at times, but also kinda boring.

d) Looper
Given how I felt about Rian Johnson's first two movies (Brick was kinda promising but also kind of infuriating, The Brothers Bloom was just plain sad), I was a little predisposed to dislike his smart sci-fi flick, especially with one of my least favorite leading men in it. But fuck, I really kind of loved this movie, even Joseph Gordon-Levitt didn't annoy me, although it helped that they messed up his face and made him look more like Bruce Willis. It presented just enough of an intriguing idea of the future and time travel without over-explaining it (and handwaved those questions amusingly with Bruce Willis's "diagrams with straws" line), while also just setting a great sustained tone and mood, that really worked well when half the movie slowed down and took place in a farm setting you never saw in the trailers -- which I loved, trailers really give away too much of the story these days. Pierce Gagnon gave probably the greatest acting performance I've ever seen by a child under the age of 8, the second half of the movie just wouldn't have worked without him, and really gave the whole thing a lot of emotional resonance for me, as a parent.

e) Trouble With The Curve
It's kinda funny that this was the first Clint Eastwood movie he acted in but did not direct in 20 years. I'm not the biggest fan of him as a director but man his own movies are usually better than this. His gravitas almost felt out of place, like if you'd put any older actor of less prestige in the role, then you'd be like yeah, this rom com trifle with Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake totally makes sense. Weirdly it was Amy Adams that really held it together, though, she really just has some kind of screen presence that is arresting, beyond just her being a pretty lady or whatever, coming around to really thinking she is a unique talent. There was a really funny scene where old guys were arguing about how "Ice Cube isn't an actor just because he's in movies," and Timberlake is right there in the corner of the bar just off-camera.

f) Lawless
I have this on in the background right now I just kinda hate Shia LeBeouf and Tom Hardy and want to see them suffer through this terrible ill-advised flop of a movie. I might turn it off soon, though, it's kinda boring. Spoiler alert, but there was just a pretty awesomely gorey scene involving one of the dudes I hate.

g) Ted
Seth MacFarlane is one of these guys where I can grudgingly respect his talent, at least half of what he does is genuinely clever or at least stupid-funny in a visceral way, often in this kind of offhanded way that captures how people really think or talk. But then he drowns that stuff in some cornball 'politically incorrect' garbage and talking babies and animals and shit. So I enjoyed this at times, but also kinda hated myself for it, as I do with any given episode of "Family Guy."

h) The Watch
For whatever reason, Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn run in the same crew and occasionally co-star in movies but don't really have any comic chemistry; in this or Dodgeball, they just do their usual schticks and managed not to bounce off each other much at all. This had its moments but mostly felt like one of those cheesy sci-fi comedies where the effects and action scenes aren't impressive but end up dragging on the comedic momentum anyway.

i) Public Sex
Weird lurid movie about how 'dogging' is apparently some huge national pasttime in England and tons of people are constantly having sex in cars in the park, but the story is about a journalist trying to write a story about it, so the whole thing has this distanced, desensitized feel that makes it all more dirty and gross. The whole lighting and look of the movie is kind of cool and unique, made it look like it cost more than it probably did, the director or DP should definitely get more work, hopefully on something with a stronger story.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 20, 2013 at 8:51 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.