Saturday, April 16, 2011

Recent DVD Reviews for April 16th.

Little Fockers - What a piece of crap! Was there really a need to make another one of these? Didn't they exhaust all ways they could use the word "Focker" in the last two? This movie comes off to me as a pure cash grab. There's nothing new or original, or even funny here.

This again is just another string of lame "Focker" jokes. Plus, if you're not a Ben Stiller fan, this won't help. Yet again there are sections of the movie where you just get mad at Stiller's character for not standing up for himself when DeNiro is beating him up. I watch these movies and go, 'Why don't these people just communicate like normal people?' I don't know anyone that would take shit like this from someone consistently without snapping back at some point. At least Stiller's character fires back a few time here, but the lack of communication in this movie was still frustrating to watch.

Overall it's just very lame and tired and you can go your whole life never seeing this movie and know that you didn't miss anything.


I Love You Phillip Morris - Okay, if watching straight men play gay and make out bothers you, then don't even bother watching this. You won't be able to get past the 'gay' parts of this movie. However, if you aren't bothered by that, then this is a very interesting movie.

The easiest way to describe this is that it's like Catch Me if You Can, if Leonardo DiCaprio's character was gay. It's crazy to think this guy was real and actually did some of these things. He just was an unusual, criminally brilliant, guy.

The movie is very funny. I found myself laughing out loud consistently through this movie. There are some great performances here. This is easily one of Jim Carrey's best roles.

I enjoyed the hell out of this and I'd recommend it to anyone that wants to see a different comedy.


Cemetery Junction - I was initially looking forward to seeing this movie, as it was co-written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Unfortunately, it's just not that good. It wasn't that funny and really dragged in parts.

The scenes with Gervais really are the highlights here, but otherwise it's just 'blah'. I found the main character, played by Christian Cooke, really unlikeable. Part of it was that his character just isn't all that relatable or intersting and the other part was his performance is what I could only describe as 'leering'. It seemed like every time they'd cut to him, he's be giving off this creepy, downward stare. In many cases, you couldn't even tell what he was looking at as his gaze wouldn't be directed at the person he was talking too. Maybe he was checking out everyone's ass or something. Anyway, it was a little off putting and distracting and I felt the movie might have been a little better had they cast someone else.

Anyway, I'd say skip this one. If you rent it anyway, just skip to the scenes with Ricky Gervais and call it a day.


Me and Orson Welles - I was pleasantly surprised by this. I was hesitant to watch a 'serious' movie startting Zac Efron, but he was pretty good here. He was good to the point where about 30 minutes into the movie, I forgot about all that High School Musical shit and just saw him as an actor.

Overall, I found this to be an interesting and entertaining story. The real stand out here is Christian McKay, who plays Orson Welles. He just commands your attention every time he's on screen. Granted he is playing Orson Welles, so if he didn't command your attention, that would be a pretty big fail, but it's still a great performance.

I highly recommend this one. This is a strong rental.


The Last Station - I know this movie got good reviews, but this just didn't do anything for me. Granted, if you're a big Tolystoy fan then you'll like it more. However, I will say that Hellen Mirren's performance is really great here. I just hated the way everyone treated her in the movie. Maybe that was the point. I don't know.

It's also a little over two hours long. Unless the subject matter really appeals to you, skip it.


Shakespeare in Love - It's kind of ironic I watched this right after The Last Station as Tolstoy was an outspoken critic of Shakespeare and here's a movie basically about Shakespeare's rise to greatness. I had never actually watched this movie from beginning to end all in one sitting, so it was good to finally do this. I'm a sucker for period pieces in the first place, and this didn't disappoint me. I really do love this movie.

I probably don't need to give a recommendation here at this point, as I'm sure most of you have already seen it. If you haven't yet, rent this when you get a chance.


The Princess and the Frog - This movie surprised me. I actually felt like this was more of a straight up musical, than an animated fairy tale. Maybe because I felt the music was a little more on the mature side, than on a kiddie side. This is a movie you could sit down and watch with your kids and enjoy it just as much as the kids do.

Strong rental here and it will occupy your kids for 90 minutes.


Tangled - Again, this movie surprised me. I'm on a good streak of kids movies that have entertainment value for adults. I wasn't expecting much, but found it surprisingly clever and entertaining. The animation is really good as well. This is another one you could totally sit down and watch with the kids and enjoy it for completely different reasons than your kids.

Again another strong rental recommendation for you and the kids.


Yogi Bear - Ugh, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, you have Yogi Bear. This is everything I hate about movies like this. It's a silly story with silly situations and acting. There's nothing about this that made me nostalgic for the original cartoon. While I think Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlakes did admirable jobs doing the voices of Yogi and Boo-Boo respectively, it just seems like they casted these guys, Timberlake in particular, as a marketing ploy to get more people interesting in seeing the film. I don't see any reason why they couldn't have gotten competent voice actors, as a fraction of the cost, to do the voices here.

I say pass on this one. I was just waiting for it to end ten minutes into it.


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