So over Thanksgiving break I watched a grand total of seven different movies. Two in theatres, five at home. My cousins visited and we are OBSESSED with having movie marathons and we just went to town. So I have quite a bit to report on. In the order I watched them:
1) Coraline. I kind of didn’t want to watch this one because I thought it was going to be some Tim Burton-y thing (not that that’s bad, just wasn’t in the mood for dark and gloomy) and I thought it might be creepy. BUT. This movie is good. It’s not that creepy. I mean it’s PG, so they really can’t take it that far. It’s got a really creative plot that was this huge mystery and the animation is beyond impressive. I think it’s almost completely stop motion. It’s not your average animated kids movie.
2) Fame (the 2009 version). I haven’t seen the original version of Fame so I didn’t have something to compare it to. It was okay. Kay Panabaker is in it and she’s just really awkward the whole time, and there’s this one guy who’s a rapper and is angry the whole time. Not a lot of variation. But most of the dance numbers and songs are fun to watch, so it’s somewhat entertaining.
3) Tower Heist. Saw this on Thanksgiving day (a tradition to go see a movie in theatres with my cousins on that day) and wasn’t expecting much. However, it was actually quite funny. Like, I laughed a lot. It’s no Hangover or Anchorman, but I think it’s definitely worth seeing. Two favorites are Eddie Murphy as a foul mouthed gangsta and Gabourey Sidbie as a Jamaican maid.
4) Sucker Punch. I had wanted to see this back in March when it came out but it’s nasty Rotten Tomatoes rating turned me off, as well as other negative comments about it, but my cousins had it so I figured I should at least give it a try. Eh. It was okay. The visuals are pretty cool and the action sequences were entertaining but the acting is kind of lame and the story is a bit hard to follow–my cousin had to explain a lot of it to me. One cool part though is that it’s got a cool soundtrack and the music they play during the fight scenes is really awesome. It’s like watching a two hour long music video.
5) Tron Legacy. Tron was not bad. I was expecting less, but Jeff Bridges is cool and Olivia Wilde was on House so I figured it couldn’t be that bad. Again, another somewhat confusing story, but this one was easier to get into as the movie went on. I’d say give this one a watch–the soundtrack by Daft Punk is the best part. So techo dude. And the fact that the whole movie has this funky blue glow is kind of interesting I guess.
6) The Descendants. This was great. I had to go to two different movie theatres and wait two extra hours to see this (everything was sold out, parking was horrendous) but it was totally worth it. Besides the fact that this movie is kind of a downer (George Clooney’s wife is in a coma, she’s about to die, he has to figure out who to sell his land to, one of his daughters is somewhat messed up, and he finds out his wife had been cheating on him) it’s a good story and I was intrigued the whole time. The one fault I saw was that Shailene Woodley (playing Clooney’s eldest daughter) was getting all this praise for playing this role, but after seeing the movie I don’t know why. She didn’t change much since being on ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager and most of the time she was just angsty and awkward. Though some may cite the fact that she cried underwater for this movie, I think they played that part underwater because it’s easier to fake crying if you’re surrounded by water. Just my take. Also, Clooney plays himself yet again but that’s okay because he’s awesome.
7) Brokeback Mountain. I can’t give a complete review on this one because I watched it very late at night and fell asleep for the last thirty minutes. But, I will say, that from what I did see of it, this is a great movie. Why the heck did Crash win the Oscar that year and not this?? Heath Ledger was AMAZING in it, and it’s just so well done. It may be long, but it’s worth watching. Just not really late at night–apparently I missed some crucial information, but I won’t ruin the end for you!
Happy Tuesday folks! (And Happy almost-December! Woohoo!)
(Pic from http://impawards.com/2011/descendants.html)
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