Very short reviews from three months worth of movie watching. What have you seen lately?
1. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
3. Divergent (2014)
4. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
5. The Bling Ring (2013)
6. A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)
7. Prom Night (2008)
8. How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
9. Captain America: The Winder Soldier (2014)
10. The Pact (2012)
11. The Purge: Anarchy (2014)
12. Horns (2014)
REVIEWS:
1. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Like most comic book actions movies, this is a cotton candy film. Not much substance, but a ton of fun. I’m also partial to group buddy movies in which a bunch of characters who would normally have nothing to do with each other come together and form a kind of family, which means there’s as much bickering and fighting (of the humorous variety) as there is working together. A fun cast, great music, and lots of action. Plus, I really love Groot.
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Five seconds into the trailer and I knew who the directed this. As far as quirky Wes Anderson movies go, this was a quirky Wes Anderson movie. Lots of great actors (many that we’ve seen before in other quirky Wes Anderson movies), dry humor, and gorgeous settings and filming. The story involved a bellboy and his mentor another bellboy, as well as love affairs, murder, stolen paintings, and other oddities. If you like quirky Wes Anderson movies — as I do — then you’ll probably like this one, too (though I wouldn’t call it my favorite).
3. Divergent (2014)
Clearly drawing on the Hunger Games phenomenon, this movies told the story of a girl who did not fit into the system in which she was raise. The political and economics system, involving five clearly separated castes, didn’t really seem functional and it bothered me. Letting alone the question of how five groups could meet all of the needs of a complex society, I couldn’t figure out why only one group would be in charge when it would make more sense to have all five groups represented in a kind of council, since despite what the story asserts the groups would have to regularly interact to make things work. But the point is that the story was slow and boring and didn’t quite make sense. I’m curious to see if the books explained things better, though.
4. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
Ug. You know, despite being a pointless remake, the new series of movies have done a great job with making Spider-man cooler. His fighting style is slicker, more playful, and the storylines have been solid. I started out really enjoyed this movie, but I HATED the ending.
5. The Bling Ring (2013)
Terrible. No, really. Not a single character is likeable or shows any growth. The whole movie is these stupid teenagers standing around oogling over the clothing and accessories they discover in famous people’s homes. No plot. No point. Slow and boring and stupid.
6. A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)
After being dumped by his girlfriend, a bumbling sheep rancher vows to leave the wild west, where everything is trying to kill you, for the safer city life. Along the way, he meets a woman, who is new to town and is more than what she seems. With her help, he aims to win his girlfriend back. There’s a lot of great, Family Guy style humor in this making it quite fun. But it’s about 30-40 minutes too long and could have done with some serious trimming down to make things more snappy.
7. Prom Night (2008)
A stalker kills a girls parents, gets arrested, then breaks out on prom night to terrorize her again. It was one of those days where I was bored and just watched whatever was on TV and even though I was also reading and only half paying attention, I still feel like I wasted my time.
8. How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
In this sequel, which follows many years after the first, Hiccup has moved into young adulthood (and is looking quite dashing). His father is pushing to prepare him to become leader of the village, and Hiccup doesn’t feel prepared, choosing to explore the world with the aid of his friend dragon, Toothless. It’s this exploration and discover of hostile dragon hunters that brings trouble. While there’s no way for it to live up to the wonderful original, this sequel managed to turn out be pretty darn good, too. Stunning graphics and a story with heart make it well worth a watch.
9. Captain America: The Winder Soldier (2014)
My scale for the Avengers series of movies has ranged from like to LOVE and I’d say this one inched toward the high end of the scale for me. Here we get to see Steve feeling disconnected and lost in the modern world, but trying to make the best of it, Black Widow continued to be multi-layered and kick ass, and the introduction of the Falcon (and another POC). The story was solid with lots of action, humor, and much cooler Captain America suit. So much fun!
The movie was so good that even Honest Trailers had a hard time mocking it.
10. The Pact (2012)
An indie horror film, in which a woman returns to her family home in order to find her sister, who disappeared after her mother’s death. In her search she discovers that the house might be haunted. This movie had some really great, tense moments at the beginning and some more the end, but the middle was really, really slow. Since it started out as a short film, I’m not surprised that the middle was such a lag. I did like the indie special effects though.
11. The Purge: Anarchy (2014)
This had a lot of flaws. The first Purge movie played it safe, settled as it was in a wealthy community able to barricade themselves safely in their homes, which meant that it didn’t show the full implications of a Purge event. Anarchy is better from the start, focusing on people who are from the mid- to lower classes who end up stranded on the streets during the Purge night. In this movie (which still kind of plays it safe) we see more of the economics of the Purge and how it is used to control society and keep the homeless population down. It was cool to see an anti-hero character here, too. It was imperfect, but fun.
12. Horns (2014)
The more I think about it, the more I didn’t like the movie. The acting was great (though Radcliffe with an American accent took some getting used to) and the movie had moments of being strangely unsettling. I was able to get past the annoying and over used trope of “man called to action because the woman he loved was raped and murdered” (gag). But the ridiculous, absurd ending was just too stupid for me to accept the movie as a whole.