Kick-A$$

For the sake of not outright swearing on this blog, I will type the movie like I did in this blog title. Sorry, parents who are reading this...

Ok, now that I've got that out, on to this delightful movie. Now...when we first saw previews for this movie, I was intrigued and Juji immediately wrote it off as stupid. #1 reason why we didn't see it in theaters? Nicolas Cage. We sort of hate him, except for in this particular movie... As a store clerk said, "This movie almost made me not hate Nicolas Cage."

All thanks to Netflix, we finally got around to seeing it. Not only did we watch it twice while we had it from Netflix, we then proceeded to buy it and have watched it again since then. Yes, it is that [shockingly] good.

Aaron Johnson (who sort of appeared out of nowhere in the movie world...) plays Dave, who "becomes" a superhero and calls himself Kick-A$$. He had never amounted to much in his life as of yet, and starts wondering why regular people can't be superheros, and why there aren't any around... He ultimately decides to take matters into his own hands, and buys a scuba suit. After getting seriously injured and losing a lot of nerve endings, he gets lucky to come across a fight, have it filmed unknowingly, and win--making him famous overnight.

Two semi-legit superheros, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz), take Kick-A$$ under their wing a bit, but their ultimate goal is to take revenge on a mob boss named Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) for seriously wronging them. Frank D'Amico's son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) joins in the superhero fun, becoming Red Mist in order to draw in the other superheros so the mob boss can take them down.

This movie is more than just a typical comic book turned movie. It's inventive, funny, and spectacularly absurd. Definitely in our top ten movies of the year!

The grade:

A

127 Hours

Well, well, well... We have been rather busy lately so there will be a lot of catching up to do. I've written myself a little list and I'll start tackling it right now. Here is one of the best movies of this year: 127 Hours.

I have always liked James Franco, but this movie made me love him. He is absolutely fantastic and 100% believable in this movie, which is great since it's a true story. Not just "based" on a true story... it is a true story. Did you hear about the guy who went out on his own in the Canyonlands, Utah, and got his arm trapped under a rock? He was stuck there for 127 hours, and eventually had to cut his arm off and climb out. Yeah, this is that story.

We had heard stories about this movie like people watching the movie and barfing/passing out in the theater over the scene where he cuts his arm off. Let's just say I was a little nervous... HOWEVER, I think all of those people were whack, because it was done in a way that was as tasteful as it could be. It was portrayed almost like they would in a medical tv show drama. so, if watching ER or House makes you vomit, maybe you should turn away during this particular scene...

This movie was fabulous. I loved seeing all the beautiful scenery of Utah. I loved how real James Franco was, and how I really felt like we were watching the true story play out. This is a story of stupidity, courage, endurance, and victory. Definitely one of the best movies of the year. If James Franco doesn't win an Oscar for this movie, my faith in the Oscars will go right down the toilet. Please watch this crazy, inspiring, and brilliant portrayal of a true story.

The grade:

A

unstoppable

we saw this movie on thanksgiving with my parents. as you can tell, we're more than a little behind on our movie blogging. i apologize! we're working on updating them!

this movie was entertaining, and it kept you interested the whole time. it was suspenseful in that you were kind of anxious as to what was going to happen.

basically, there's a runaway train that is unmanned, and has tons of hazardous material so it's considered very dangerous. Denzel Washington (Frank) and Chris Pine (Will) are having a normal day until they hear that this train is headed right towards them. they need to get off the track so they don't collide with the unmanned train.

the runaway train is heading towards a large populated city where the railroad tracks has a large S curve, and the train is going so fast that it would derail at the S curve and could possibly destroy the whole city. this is a movie full of courage, stamina, and goodwill.

Both Denzel and Chris are excellent actors, and you really start to feel for their characters as you learn more about their personal lives throughout the movie. we thought this movie was good/okay. It's pretty exciting and entertaining, but it didn't blow us away or anything. It isn't a movie that we would purchase when it came out, or watch it again, but it was good for the entertainment value.

the grade?
C+/B-

The Social Network

Isn't it crazy that I'm posting a review about the facebook movie, and it will automatically show up as a post on Jess' facebook page? Or the fact that when we got home from this movie, we both immediately got on our facebook pages? (Not b/c we had just seen the movie, but b/c that's what I usually do when I first get on the computer)

Seriously, this website has consumed our lives....weird.

Anyways, on to the movie. When I first saw a preview for this movie, I turned to Jess and said, "umm, a movie about facebook?....paassss"

Then, the reviews from all the movie critics came out....straight A's. I couldn't believe it. They all said things like, "the first Oscar contender" Well, that got me interested.

This movie very loosely follows Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of facebook, as he creates his now global mega website. There's a whole lot of fiction thrown in there, but let me tell you, that just makes it better. We get to watch Mark as he allegedly steals the idea of facebook from 3 other Harvard students. They end up suing him (and so does his business partner). The acting is great, the music is really cool, and the story is interesting. It was one of those movies that went by really fast to me....I could have watched more. Oh, and in case you didn't know, this guy is now my age and is the youngest Billionaire ever...yeah.....

So what are you waiting for??? Go see this movie, b/c I couldn't agree with the critics more.

A

Paranormal Activity 2

"The most anticipated horror event of the year".....??? Well of course I had to be in attendance! Ooookay, let's get into this one.

First off, I'm just going to assume you've seen the first one. If you haven't and you want to see this one, rent the first. It's not like it's extremely necessary, but this one will make more sense if you have.

The story of this movie takes place a little before the first movie, and a little after. Thanks to titles that pop up on the screen, you'll have an easy time figuring out how things fit together. I don't want to give too much away, but basically, this story involves a family who, just like the couple in the first movie, are haunted by some sort of demon. Lots of craziness happens....and like the first movie, lots of nothingness happens.

Overall, I liked the movie...I'll just say that. It's a movie that's kind of fun to get in to. So if you liked the first movie at all, you'll enjoy this one.

Now, here's my problems with it.

1. It's too similar to the first movie. Everything starts off happy, then slowly gets creepy, then gets insane by the end. Much too similar.

2. There are several times in the movie where it leaves you saying, "that is NOT what a person in this situation would do!!"

3. While I like how creepy the movie is, it still just relies on jumpy moments to scare you. This is NOT true suspense. Here is an example: Remember watching the movie "The Ring"? (My favorite scary movie by the way) Think of the scene where the main character returns to the creepy dad's barn/house and sneaks in at night. The house is dark and the lighthouse light keeps shining in. Then she finds the tape of crazy Samara in the nut house? Remember how scary that scene was? It's scary b/c the whole time you're thinking, "Get out of that house!!" It was scary b/c you can imagine yourself there.

That is true horror. This movie isn't like that. You may be scared, but you're only scared b/c you're waiting for the next [Extremely loud] jump out scene. Make sense?

Anyways, overall, I liked it. There was one scene that made us all want to pee, so I think you'll like this movie.

B-

Devil

Sounds scary right? Well, not really.

Think back to the summertime when you first saw the preview to this movie. You remember where you were. You were sitting in the theater, getting ready for Inception to start.

(Side note: if this doesn't ring a bell, there is something disturbingly wrong with you)

Anyways, you were probably a little intrigued until you saw the phase, "From the mind of M. Night Shyamalan"

Then you probably laughed, or as I said, "Next"

It's true, Shyamalan is pretty awful....but the good thing is, he only wrote this movie, he did not direct it.

Okay, okay, on to the review. Basically, this movie involves 5 people who end up on the same elevator at an office building. We soon learn that all of them have a shady past. As we hear a narrator explain, every now and then, the Devil takes the form of a human to torment those that are not living right. All kinds of craziness happens in that elevator, but for me, it wasn't that scary. It was interesting in parts and creepy in others, but overall, not the scariest movie I've seen.

In the end, there is a good message to this movie, although you wouldn't catch that from the previews. The movie moves quickly, and at only 80 minutes, you won't be in the theater for too long. Overall, I would say that you should see this movie...but maybe just rent it. It's definitely better than Shyamalan's last 3 movies, but it's not quite like his first. Oh, and watch out for the devil.

B-

Easy A

in this movie olive (emma stone) is "anonymous" in her high school. she has one good friend, who is sort of unbelievably...crazy? weird? i'm not really sure how to describe it, but she was a bit of a stretch if you're going for a high school girl. anyways, the fact that olive was anonymous was one of the things josh and i found to be another bit of a stretch. emma stone is super pretty, so honestly...how would she be anonymous? oh well...

so one day olive told her weird friend that she had a hot date with a college boy, to sort of get her off her back about what she did that weekend. olive talked up this little fake date and then her friends' imagination went wild. she accused her of sleeping with him, and olive didn't deny anything. of course her loud-mouthed friend started spreading it around that olive lost her virginity, and instantly she became the most talked about girl in school.

olive kind of liked the attention for a bit, and used it to a friends advantage (as you've seen from the previews, her friend is gay and was getting a lot of crap at school about it. so they hatched the plan to make it seem like they did the dirty). so then olive became even more talked about at school. in english class they were learning about the scarlet letter, and olive felt like she had a special connection with the book. she started wearing lingerie-influenced tops with a bright red A sewed on. in the less-popular-crowds, it got out what olive had done for her gay friend. she became a little entrepreneur, and started accepting gift cards so people could say they hooked up with the school hottie/harlot.

eventually her reputation got a little bit too much to handle, and she was put in some sketchy situations. she was blamed for things she didn't do, and lost her best friend in the process. the rest of the movie is how she deals with that, and this ultimately ties in to how the movie is presented.

i really liked how the movie was laid out, and how it all tied together in the end. olive makes some references to wanting life to be like an 80s movie (say anything, 16 candles, etc) in the movie, and this also ties in to the movie in its entirety. it's almost like they made an 80s movie, set in modern times. i loved it. [sorry that's hard to explain, but if you see it you will get what i mean]

besides the few unbelievable character traits (weird/crazy best friend; hottie being anonymous; religious freak amanda bynes not being as good as religious freak mandy moore in saved, etc), it was a good movie. enjoyable to watch, laugh out loud funny, and endearing. we definitely recommend this movie. the grade?

B

guest review: eat pray love

review by emily

i really, really liked this movie. i had heard different things from different people but all in all i was thoroughly impressed. the beginning was a bit confusing and i found myself asking, "why are you freaking out?" there wasn't too much of an explanation there-- but when she goes to italy it gets good and i found myself completely intrigued. i think i might have to read the book now!

[editors note: my mother-in-law said the same thing about her freaking out at the beginning of the movie. it's explained more in the book but apparently they didn't preface it enough in the movie. she even said that people were laughing in the theater about it!]

yes, i do like almost every movie i see. and yes, i do lovejulia roberts and javier bardem...but let's just pretend that wouldn't affect my review of this movie. go see it! :)

the grade:

B+

babel

where to even start....?! this movie came out in 2006, but we had never seen it. i didn't even remember it coming out but josh said he remembered it vaguely. anyways, we saw this movie the other night at a friends house. this movie got pretty good reviews and won awards, etc- so we were expecting a pretty good movie.

two and a half hours later we were wondering why we didn't turn this off after the first ten minutes. we all agreed we were waiting for it to get good. which it didn't... this movie was weird and all over the place. there were four different stories that were "interconnected" but really their connections were vague and not always very meaningful. a lot of scenes we were just baffled by, and wondered how they were even important to the movie. it was kind of just a big mess.

when i think of interconnected stories in a movie that are trying to make a point, i think of crash. that is a quality movie. babel, in comparison, is an absolute train wreck. honestly by the end i wasn't even really sure what point the movie was trying to make. i wish we would have turned it off.

i don't really know what else to say about this movie. the stories seemed unrelated, there were weird and awkward scenes that were unrealistic, the point of the movie wasn't clear, and it was too long, boring, and lame. if you have seen this movie please let us know what you think. i'm curious as to why it got such good reviews...

our grade:

D / D-

Going the Distance

You've probably already been laughing out loud at the previews for this movie. I'm not gonna lie, this was a funny movie. Romantic comedies are definitely not my thing, but I would call this movie more of just a regular comedy.

Drew Barrymore and Justin Long meet at a bar and start dating. The only thing is, Drew is only in New York for 6 weeks....after that, let the long distance relationship begin.

Let me just say this, Drew Barrymore is looking old. That's really not relevant, but i'm just saying....yikes. She kind of looked like Justin Longs mother.

Moving on.

I'm telling you, this movie is funny. Christina Applegate plays Drew's sister, and I think she's the funniest part. She's really neurotic and she doesn't like Justin Long's character. It causes several funny moments. Okay, so I've noticed that this review isn't going anywhere. The point is....this movie is funny. The end.

B

Children of Invention

hey! jess here with another indie movie. this movie was an official selection at 2009's sundance film festival. i think it was recommended to me on netflix, but i can't remember. i was intrigued though, and watched it one day while i was sewing or something of that nature. anyways, about the movie:

this movie is about a single mom with two young children who immigrated to america from asia (i forget where exactly, sorry). the father is still living out of the country, and doesn't do much to support his kids except answer the phone most sunday's when they call. the family gets evicted from their apartment because they can't pay the rent, and they end up squatting in a model apartment (they are friends with a guy in real estate). the mom is trying to find a good job so she can afford to go back to live in a real place, and to improve their life in america. the majority of the movie is about the family's struggles being immigrants, finding work, being a single parent, and the children's forced independence. it is very interesting, and the kids are absolutely charming. i love the little girl, tina.

the movie title comes about from the entrepreneurial mind of the older child, raymond. he is always inventing new products and enlisting his sister to help him. when the mom doesn't come home one night from work, the kids have to figure out what to do. it's interesting to see how the kids work through this dilemma, and what the outcome is. it's definitely an interesting movie. at times it can be a little slow, but it all works together. the ending is sort of abrupt and you almost feel like the story is unsolved, but i like it because i think it reflects their reality.

overall i was fairly impressed with this movie. like i've mentioned before, sometimes you never know with indie movies. this movie is humorous, complex, touching, and out of the ordinary.

the grade?

B-/B

Defiance

well hello james bond! well, ok, he isn't james bond in this movie, but he's just as tough. this movie came out in 2008 so we're a couple years late at watching it, but i'm glad we did. this is basically a holocaust movie, but not of the typical variety. also, it is based on a true story. [like a legit true story, not some fake "true story" like the strangers or the fourth kind]. Daniel Craig plays Tuvia, the oldest of four brothers. the nazi's kill his parents, and him and his brothers flee to the woods to hide. more and more jews come into their camp, and everyone has to figure out how they are going to survive. this movie is about their struggles as jews, as family members, as leaders, and more.

like the caption on the movie poster reads, "Freedom begins with an act of defiance." watch how they maintain their freedom in this movie, and you will be amazed at the story. even though there were times when josh and i were going, "wait, who is that? whose side are they on? what?!?" it was still good to watch [i guess maybe we need to brush up on our history? haha]. you will grow to love and respect the characters, and become engrossed in their story. i even cried a little, i won't lie. so go watch this movie to be both inspired and entertained.

what do we give this movie?

B/B+

TiMER

hello, jess here! so, random fact about me. i like watching random movies sometimes. like indie films or smaller known movies. before netflix i would just walk around blockbuster and look at almost every new release, especially if i hadn't heard about them before. sometimes this just results in watching duds, and other times you find some quality randoms (gigantic, love and other disasters, pheobe in wonderland, lars and the real girl, factory girl, etc). now that i have netflix i get to do this online and it's so much easier. so the other day i strolled upon the movie TiMER. it had an interesting concept so i watched it:

there is this company that produces a product/service that you get installed in your arm and it will tell you down to the day that you will meet your one true love. there's all this scientific stuff that proves that it always finds your soulmate. when you get your timer, if your "one" doesn't have a timer yet then your timer will be blank and it will be the waiting game. if your "one" does have a timer, it will tell you how long you have until you will meet them. and when you do cross paths, your timers beep. so you know.

so the main character Oona, Emma Caulfield, is turning 30 soon and is stressing that her timer is still blank. every guy she dates and feels like it could be serious: she brings to get them a timer. obviously, it always turns out that he's not the "one." her quirky step-sister (and best friend) has the attitude of dating anyone for fun, regardless of what their timer says. after a rough day oona is at the grocery store and gets hit on by a cute younger guy, and decides to take a walk on the wild side. the rest of the movie is how she deals with the problems of falling in love with someone who isn't the "one," finding the "one," and worrying how much faith she really should put in the timer. it's pretty interesting, and even delves into some ethical dilemmas and interesting social situations.

the ending is kind of abrupt, and doesn't answer every question (which some people hate), but i don't really mind that so much. i would recommend it if you want to watch an interesting and fun comedy/romance/drama. the grade?

B-

It's Complicated

Oh, it most certainly is. Hi.....yikes. Okay, where to begin? First off, this is definitely not a movie I would normally watch. But, since Meryl is in it, I decided it might be worth our time. Oh dear....

Meryl Streep plays Alec Baldwins ex wife. The premise of the movie is this: 10 years after getting a divorce, Alec is re-married and Meryl is still single. After they see each other for their sons college graduation, they end up having an affair with each other. It all becomes a jumbled mess after that. It was previewed as a comedy, but it really wasn't that funny. Don't get me wrong, Meryl was excellent in it (she always is and I would never say anything bad about her), but still, this movie was ALLLLL wrong. And no offense to my older readers, but It just creeps me out to see old people flirting with each other. Nothing is more fun to watch than Alec Baldwins hairy chest/man boobs.

........................................

excuse me while I clean up the vomit off my computer.

Anyways, this is one of the only times I'll tell you to miss a Meryl Streep movie. Pass.

D+

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Let me just say this....if you don't have Netflix....get it. It's cheap, and it has a million movies to choose from. That's all. [You're welcome for the plug Netflix. I'll accept my check please]

This is an older movie from the early 90's (older?) starring Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. I've decided that Leo is my favorite male actor. He plays a mentally handicapped brother in this movie, and it's scary how believable he is. Johnny depp plays the older brother in this semi-disfunctional/loving family. Set in a small town in Iowa, this drama shows that even in bad circumstances, your family can still be there for you in the end. Wait, is that the real message? Okay, so I didn't really get the message, and I didn't love it. But I enjoyed watching it the whole time, and I would recommend it.

All the acting is excellent and the story really pulls you in, so you shouldn't be disappointed. Anyways, go ahead and get Netflix and then you can stream it instantly from your computer or PS3. You're welcome.

B

Salt

...needed a little pepper. (ba dum cheeee) Ha ha ha. Tacky? mehh. Anyways, what to say, what to say?

I've been looking forward to Salt for a long time now. I've grown to like Angelina as an actress, and this movie looked like it had the prospect of being amazing. Word is the role was originally written for a guy. (Tom Cruise actually. Thank goodness Angelina got the part instead. She's a better actor and much more manly) But I digress.

Angelina plays Salt, a CIA agent who is accused of being a russian spy. She's pretty much running the whole movie and easily fighting off every bigger, stronger guy that gets in her way. The movie has great action, and extremely cool stunts. Here's the problem though. I wanted this movie to be a lot darker and more complex. It was just missing something. They try to trick you and confuse you, but there really is no mystery to this movie. It's obvious "who salt is" from the minute she starts running. It was a fun ride anyways. Go check it out. If you like the Bourne movies, you'll like Salt.

B-

Paranormal Activity

So. I really like scary movies. I figured, since jess is gone, this is the perfect time to rent one that I've been interested in seeing for a long time. I had seen all the previews for this movie and I thought It would be scary and fun to watch. The movie is shot with a handheld camera by the couple in the actual movie. It's all from their perspective. ( at least thats how it's made to look) Basically, the girlfriend in the movie has been seeing things since she was a little girl. She thinks a demon of some sort is haunting her, so her boyfriend sets up a camera in their bedroom in order to catch all the happenings. Sounds scary enough.

So heres the disclaimer: I watched this movie at about 4 in the afternoon all by myself. I really think this movie would have been 10 times scarier to me had I watched it with someone else, in the dark, at night.

That being said, this movie was honestly boring to me. I think it could have been scary had I been in the right situation, but it just wasn't all that exciting.

Night #1: you hear footsteps

Night #2: you hear banging on the walls

Night # 8: the door slams shut

......see where I'm going? It's just not that exciting. There were about 3 nights where cool, scary stuff happens. Other than that, it's a bunch of nothing. Tiddy was scared b/c it would go from being really quiet to really loud sometimes, but he's just a cat so his opinion doesn't matter. In my opinion, if you're gonna see this movie, see it with friends and make sure you really get into it so it will scare you like I think it could.

C

Inception

Finally, the first great blockbuster of the summer. Inception has been extremely hyped and deserves every bit of it. Let me just say this, I really like Christopher Nolan. He's a great director. (The Dark Knight, The Prestige, Memento) This movie is up there with all of them, and passes them in most instances as well. Leo, he's solid as always, as he has been in some of my other favorite movies. [ Check out Blood Diamond, The Departed, or Shutter Island ] Every actor in this movie is and all the characters are interesting and entertaining.

The plot is complicated, so I'll just give you the basic premise. Leo is in the business of going into people's dreams and stealing information. Things get a little more crazy when he tries to pull off Inception, or planting an idea in a persons mind while they are sleeping. Let the complexity and mind boggling effects begin.

Really, it's an extremely well made movie, and it's exciting the whole time....even when you don't have a clue whats going on. The best part is, it doesn't feel like a copy of any other movie. It took the director about 10 years to write the thing. Honestly, I don't know how he wrote it, or how he got the actors to understand it and star in it. At any rate, GO see this movie. Oh, and don't worry if you miss the previews. They were all pretty terrible, including a new stinker from M. Night Shyamalan. Close your eyes during that one, otherwise you might try and kill yourself and miss out on this years best movie so far.

A

Alice in Wonderland

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....oh I'm sorry, that was me waking up from the middle of this movie. Not a good sign.

Okay, so this is Tim Burtons new Alice and Wonderland creation. I'm a Johnny Depp fan, as well as a fan of Helena Bonham Carter, so I had decent hopes for this movie. But here's the deal.....I thought this might be dark or disturbing (at least that would have been entertaining), but no, it was really just a snooze fest. Everyone in this movie kept changing heights and body size, it was so confusing. I could never tell what height was regular and what was small/tall. One guy had a normal human head, but an odd computer generated body. It was just strange. Plus, Johnny Depp just wasn't that good in this movie. He was annoying and kind of hard to understand. When Alice first meets the Mad Hatter (Depp), they have a conversation at the dinner table. At the end of the scene I turned to Jess and said "what in the world is going on, what were they saying?" Jess goes, "I have no idea" But worst of all, the movie is just BORING. I'm having a hard time finishing this post b/c I'm getting distracted by re runs of "The Hills".....that's how boring this movie was. I fell asleep near the end and when I woke up I just said, "is it over yet". Anyways, if you must see it, see it, but it's really just a waste of time. Go rent the original Disney version instead....and that's coming from a person who doesn't really like kids movies..

C

Knight and Day

First off, I know...it's been forever since we reviewed anything. Sad, b/c we've watched at least 50 movies since the last review. Oh well, time to get it together.

I had mediocre hopes for this action movie. I don't hide the fact that I DO NOT like Tom Cruise. He's strange and really doesn't make that great of movies. But, I'd heard decent things about this movie so I had an open mind.

Tom Cruise plays a CIA agent who has gone rogue (ala Sarah Palin). He runs into Cameron Diaz and the craziness begins. There is a LOT of action throughout this movie, and while I usually don't like movies like that, I really didn't mind it. You have to understand, most of it is incredibly unbelievable. But, there's enough humor to make up for it. Cameron Diaz is especially funny in her "I'm a ditzy blonde who is scared of weapons, but by the end of the movie I can shoot a gun while riding a motorcycle backwards" role. She plays it well.

This is one of those movies where the main characters are never in any danger....at lease you don't feel like they are. They literally walk around sometimes while being shot at. If you can get past things like that, you'll enjoy the movie. Plus, they go to all kinds of cool locations like Spain and Germany. Overall, I liked it. It's nothing spectacular, but it's a fun movie to watch.

B-