Movie Review: Vantage Point

Vantage Point: I wasn’t a real big fan of this movie, I think it could have been done MUCH better with the surrounding plot and especially given the cast.  It seems to be a reoccurring theme that movies are feeling rushed. A few years ago I think I would have said the opposite, every movie that came out was 2.5 or 3 hours long and most had no reason to be. Now we have the opposite problem. We have a ton of 1.5 hour movies that could have been much better if they were at least 2 or 2.25. Anyway…The plot of Vantage Point surrounds an attempted assassination of the President and subsequent kid-napping. The story is told from multiple angles and POVs of involved individuals (thus the name). I suppose if you have nothing else to watch I would suggest you view this film just to see how it was put together (again, given more time this would have worked) but don’t go out and rent/buy this one immediately. 4/10

Avatar: The Last Airbender

So for a long time I have wanted to watch the Nickelodeon show Avatar: The Last Airbender but I wanted to start from the beginning and watch them in serial. For Christmas my one of my brother-in-laws got me all three Books (read: seasons) of the show! My wife and I started watching and we are now halfway into the second Book.

I want to put this on the table right now, this is one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen. The story and characters are great, the writing is very good for any show and especially for a kid’s cartoon, the stories/episodes never get boring or over-done. I honestly can’t say anything bad about this show. I highly recommend you check it out.

The best things this show has going for it is the character progression/growth, the depth and detail of the universe it takes place in and the movement of theoverall story-line. These three things are done as good in this show as any other I’ve seen (if not better).

Also, we can watch it with our daughter which is awesome.

You can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender.

(A+)

First movie review(s) of the year

Anyone who really knows me knows I love movies and T.V. My favorite genre is definitively Sci-Fi/Fantasy with Comedy being a close second. However I watch and enjoy all types of movies from drama to action to cartoons. In some previous posts and previous blogs I’ve done some movie reviews more for my own venting and ranting than anything. Most of my reviews are not on new theatrical releases so don’t expect that.

Over this holiday season I got to watch quiet a few movies (love those late nights!) including one in an actual theater, so I’m going to post a bit about some of them.

The Day the Earth Stood Still - Obviously this was the remake with Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly and was in the theater. I went into this flick with VERY low expectations and I’ll have to admit it wasn’t as bad as I thought. It was entertaining at least and I will go as far as to say enjoyable. The acting was not the best I’ve seen but the plot was pretty good and I really enjoyed some of the dynamics. One thing I will say is that the movie is VERY predictable if you have seen any number of Sci-Fi Channel’s exclusive Saturday night special movies. No big surprises or twists but not horrible. I’d say 4/10.

Wanted – It was both what I expected and not at all what I expected. I knew it was going to be a action-packed blood-fest full of impossibilities and off-the-wall antics and I was not disappointed. What I did not expect was for there to be a created and subsequent destruction of what could have been a pretty IP in one two hour movie. That was the most disappointing part about Wanted. I didn’t expect a deep, full plot line or great dialogue. I didn’t expect Oscar warranted performances. The action and affects were very satisfying but I thought they could have done much more with the story and concept. I’m not sure how they could pull more movies out of this after how they went through this one. Be warned there is much gore and cussing. 5/10

Tropic Thunder – A very disappointing comedy. With that star-studded cast I expected much more. The dialogue was most drab and the parts were not tailored for the actors in the least. I can only remember laughing out loud twice and the rest of the movie I was wishing it would hurry and end. The best performance was my Matthew Mcconaughey and I didn’t even know he was in the cast! I will also give props to Jay Baruchel and Danny McBride who did great with the parts they were handed. I was disappointed with everyone else. It’s not so much that they weren’t good it was just they didn’t really fit their parts which might have been what they were going for. Regardless it just didn’t land with me. 6/10

Hancock - I’ve heard a lot of bad things about Hancock (a good friend of mine even gave it a 1/10)  and I don’t think they are warranted. It was not a great movie but it had it’s moments and was overall pretty good. The action was good, it had funny parts and Will Smith did a great job playing a bad good-guy. It’s biggest problem is that it feels rushed. It’s barely an 1.5 hours long and it feels like they are trying to squeeze an entire IP into it. This seems to be a very disturbing trend in movies lately and I don’t like it. The director does do a good job wrapping up the move however and leaving it open for more to go on in that universe. I for one would like to see that happen. Another big problem with it was the gratuitous language. It had WAY too much cussing and it was definitely not need (many people will say it is never needed, in this case it just didn’t fit) For me the best part about this movie was actually watching it with my wife, it had been a while since we watched a movie together (just the two of us at home) and I really enjoyed it. 6/10

Guess that’s enough for now, expect more later.