Review: Fright Night (2011)

Fright Night | Craig Gillespie, 2011

Fright Night is one of the biggest surprises of the year. I never saw the original, but based on the treatment that studios gave to remake of classic horror films like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween, and the recent bastardization of vampires that resulted from Stephanie Meyer’s”Twilight” I did not expect much. I’ve had various opportunities to watch the original, but to be honest, the whole “vampire next door” plot line didn’t really appeal to me. In fact, I would have never even given the remake  a chance were I not in a state of obsession over “Doctor Who” and its players (or if it hadn’t been given to me as a present). But thankfully all my fears were put to rest from the first scene.

The movie starts with a view of a suburban street like any other at night. Then we cut to the interior of a house, and scan the area around the kitchen where a cute dog is seen. Then we hear a scream and see a teenager running out of a room. Some bombastic music plays during this, but its not distracting. He moves into what he imagines is the safest place in the house: his parents’s room. But even then, the first thing he sees is their lifeless bodies lying on the ground above puddles of their own blood. Scared and with the thing responsible for this close behind him, he does what any one would do during this, hide under the bed. And from then, we stay with him, until his time to go arrives.

Review: The Descendants

The Descendants | Alexander Payne, 2011

The Descendants is one of those movies that makes me question the importance of critics. Since its debut at the Telluride Film Festival for the most part it has gotten nothing but praise. Is American cinema in such a sorry state that such a bland film with no directorial identity is being praised as one of the best American films in years? Yes, American films are not the best they could possibly be, but really?

The Descendants is the story of Matt King (George Clooney) a successful lawyer that lives in Hawaii and has plenty of money as his family owns big chunks of land throughout  the state. But as good a lawyer he is, he wasn’t the best husband or the best father, and he now has to deal with that because his wife is in a comma and she’s not going to make it through. And that’s not all: he also has to deal with the possible sale of his family’s land to a company that wants to make a resort and with the fact that his wife was cheating on him and was going to ask for a divorce before she had the accident. And so now, Matt and his daughters, Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and Scottie (Amara Miller), and Alexandra’s friend Sid (Nick Craus) set out to tell his wife’s family about her inevitable death, but also to find her lover.

Oscars 2011: Final Predictions

Herein lie my final Oscar predictions. For the Best Picture, Best Director, and Acting categories I’ve added some alternates. The rest, well, we’ll just see what happens.

Hugo should lead the pack with about 12 nominations as it is, for my money, the best Hollywood production of the year. It might get more if the actor’s branch decides to embrace Ben Kingsley’s performance. It should be f0llowed closely by The Artist with about 11 nominations. The other front runners, The Descendants and The Help, should get five and six respectively, which is nothing to scoff at.

I’ve omitted the Short, Docmentary, and Foreign Film categories because I don’t know enough about the films in contention. And you may notice that in a few categories I’ve listed some that have nearly no shot at getting in, yet I decided to leave them in because I just love those so much.

Anyways, here are my predictions:

Best Picture

The Artist

The Descendants

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Help

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

Moneyball

War Horse

Alternate: The Tree of Life

Short Reviews: Like Crazy, Puss in Boots, Weekend

Like Crazy | Drake Doremus, 2011

Warning: Spoilers

I’ll go straight down to it: I absolutely hated Like Crazy and for my money it is the worst movie of the year. It doesn’t start out that way. Up until the last 30 minutes it is purely a terribly-written movie filled with stupid characters doing stupid things, all in the name of love. Why else would a silly young girl living on the U.S. with a student VISA outstay it? Well, that comes back to bite her in the ass, and she proceeds to do more stupid things, such as believing that she can make a long-distance relationship work. Ok, fine this is a love story and love conquers all. Then at the 60 minute mark there really is nowhere else to go as they get married so she can get her green card, and there really is nowhere else to go despite the fact that since she outstay her visa she was banned from the U.S. So what do you do during the last 30 minutes, something so despicable that I don’t even want to mention it. Those 30 minutes detroy an already-terrible movie and made it the worst I’ve seen this year.

2011 Golden Globe Predictions

The Golden Globe nominations will be announced tomorrow so I thought I’d throw a few predictions out there. Not much to comment about other than The Artist should be the most nominated.

Here are my predictions:

Best Picture- Drama

The Descendants

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The Help

Hugo

War Horse

Best Picture- Musical/Comedy

The Artist

Bridesmaids

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Midnight in Paris

The Muppets

Best Films Seen in November

I haven’t had much motivation to write long-form reviews in a while, so to get my groove back I thought I’d do something that most member of The Corrierino (see sidebar for link) and list the five to ten best and worst films I’ve seen in the past month. There won’t be write-ups or anything, just a list.

This month I didn’t watch many films since it is the end of semester at school, and anyone that has gone to college knows how chaotic those times get.

Best First Time Viewings:

1. In the Bedroom

2. Hugo

3. The Witches

4. The Black Stallion

5. The Muppets

6. Crazy, Stupid, Love

Best Re-watches

1. Sleepy Hollow

2. Another Year

3. Attack the Block

4. Winnie the Pooh

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 2

The Worst

1. Water for Elephants

2. The Dark Crystal

Review: Transformers- Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon | Michael Bay, 2011

I still stand by my original thought that 2007′s Transformers is one of the top 100 movies of the last decade. I know you’ll probably say “watch more movies,” but I honestly believe it to be true. It was everything that I could have hoped for in a movie about giant alien robots hitting each other that’s based on a line of toys. It had great special effects, great action (that highway chase action scene is one of the best), fun human side characters, a coherent but extremely plot, Michael Bay, the perfect director to bring this to the screen, and Steven Spielberg as an executive producer. And, well, it delivered. However, as we all know, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was a huge piece of shit because it went on for two and a half hours with absolutely no plot and was filled with annoying and infantile humor. So my expectations could not have been lowered for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. I even chose to skip it in theaters. It may have been the extremely low expectations, or something, but I actually enjoyed this quite a bit.

In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is out of college and living with his hot girlfried (Rose Huntington-Whiteley). But the thing is, he can’t find a job. He has saved the world twice and even got a medal from Obama, but he can’t find a job. Meanwhile, the autobots are in a mission in Chernobyl where they find a piece of a missing ship from Cybertron that was supposed to help the Autobots win the war. And so, they discover that the space race of the 60s was just a ploy there to get to the moon and investigate a crash that happened there before. In that ship were the remains of the transformers, including those of Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy), as well as the tools necessary to build a bridge between worlds. As expected, the Decepticons want to get their hands on this, and explosions ensue.

Short Reviews: Captain America, Tabloid, Beginners

Captain America: The First Avenger | Joe Johnston, 2011

I know that you really shouldn’t expect much action out of a superhero origin story. Time is needed to develop the character, set his motivations, etc. But there is always that one action scene in the end, and it has to be mind blowing. Batman Begins did it right. Iron Man did it right. But none of the other superhero movies have, and Captain America: The First Avenger is one of those. Just like Thor, although it is slightly better in just about every aspect, it feels like a two-hour preview for The Avengers.

The problem is the script. I’m not familiar with the comics so I don’t know how they handle the origin of the character, but the whole “I want to join the army because I hate bullies” is such a weak motivation. Later, for the big finale they try to give him extra motivation by killing off a character that is dear to him. That would have been fine, but their relationship was so underdeveloped that I honestly did not care.

The villain, here is also not menacing at all. I mean, you have Hugo Weaving playing a guy with a red skull and yet he manages to not be scary at all, then clearly there is something wrong in the foundation. And finally, the action is so disappointing. I mean, the big action scene is a montage, for pete’s sake! And the final scene manages to be as pedestrian as ever, and it is not helped by the fact that you already know how it is going to end.

But like I said, it is better than Thor in just about every aspect. The story and plot details are corny, and Joe Johnston embraces it and has fun with them and doesn’t take things too seriously. Just about every cast member is enjoyable, with Chris Evans being so charming, Hayley Atwell actually does stuff and is not a bumbling, helpless woman, and Stanley Tucci is awesome. Had there been more Tucci, the movie would have been much better.

But still, it was such a disappointment.

Short Reviews: Thor, X-Men: First Class, Out of Sight

Thor | Kenneth Branagh, 2011

From the moment I saw the first still from Thor, I had an uneasy feeling about it. Anthony Hopkins (who is not the greatest sign of quality these days) had long hair, and an eye patch, wearing something that looked like a cheap Halloween costume. Behind him were Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and Tom Hiddleston as Loki, wearing similarly ugly costumes. Even then, I kept an open mind because you can’t judge a motion picture based on a production still. Then the trailers came out, showcasing the weak visual effects, and Hemsworth hammy performance. Still, I kept an open mind. Then the reviews came in and praised it. I still wasn’t convinced, so I skipped it and waited for the home release. And now I can say that I’m glad I only spent 25 cents on getting it from the library, because my initial feelings toward it were actually true.

Kenneth Branagh is a good director, especially when working on Shakespeare material. But his over-the-top Shakespearean tendencies do not mix at all with the shallow, and, well, shitty script. His affinity for dutch angles, the over-the-top performances he gets from his actors, and the artificial look of Aasgard only heighten the unintentionally hilarious script.

As for the performances, like I said, they are over-the-top, but they could have worked, but they were mostly awful.Chris Hemsworth has the looks of a god, and acts accordingly, but it still felt like he was just a child wearing a Halloween costume. Tom Hiddleston as Locki tries his darnedest, but it goes above than what the character needs. Natalie Portman is reduced to playing the fawning damsel in distress. And well, pretty much everyone is awful. The only actor I liked was Idris Elba, as his interpretation was actually kind of perfect, but he only has like five lines.

Thor was a huge disappointment.

Review: Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids | Paul Feig, 2011

If there is one thing that Judd Apatow will be remembered for, it will be for being one of the greatest producers of comedies. During the last decade he has produced some of the most memorable comedies in years, and maybe even of all time. This is because the movies he produces do not get hung up in trying to make you laugh will silly jokes. Sure, they are a very important part of them, but underneath them all is a very human story that just about everyone can relate to. This, of course, would not be possible if he wasn’t great at discovering new talent.

With his cult TV show, “Freaks and Geeks”, he gave a career to two of today’s most notorious actors: James Franco and Jason Segel. With Anchorman he gave us one of the most hilarious and irreverent comedies of all time. With his directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, he turned Steve Carrell into a leading man. These are just some of the good things he’s done for comedy. Sure, he’s had his missteps (Funny People, Drillbit Taylor, Year One, and he killed David Gordon Green’s genius), but there’s no denying his gift for finding comedic talent. With his latest production, Bridesmaids, he has proven that Saturday Night Live’s Kristen Wiig is one of the funniest and smartest comedians out there, and that she is also an amazing writer.