2010 Review #86: Paranormal Activity 2

Paranormal Activity 2

Rated R

1 hour 31 minutes

Story:

After experiencing what they think are a series of "break-ins", a family sets up security cameras around their home, only to realize that the events unfolding before them are more sinister than they seem. This is essentially a prequel to the first film.

Directed By: Tod Williams

Starring:

Katie Featherston

(no other cast listed on IMDB)

Critics Grade:

68%

My Grade:

B

This film was hastily made over the course of just a few months since the incredible success of the first Paranormal Activity film. Which was a horror movie I very much enjoyed. I like subtle horror, I'm not a fan of this in your face, special effects crazy, bloody horror flick that we see all the time these days. I like when a scary movie is quiet and messes with your brain and imagination to freak you the hell out. That's how the first movie was for me. It was "real". It was claustrophobic. It relied on our fears of the unknown to spook us. It used the hand held, shaky camera effect to make it more realistic and I for one think it worked pretty darn well. It was one of the freakiest movies I've seen because it was the kind of movie that scared me. Now it won't scare everyone of course, and neither will this sequel.

The first film was huge and made a large amount of money considering it was only made for about $15,000. The sequel could have taken advantage of the success and made some big budget horror movie and could have gone away from the original concept. Much like the sequel to Blair Witch Project (Great first film, HORRIBLE second movie). Paranormal Activity 2 does not do that. It does not cheat us or try to impress us. It sticks to exactly what it's good at. There is still a hand held camera but the main difference is that now we have security cameras to go along with it, so this movie is slightly more high tech but it sticks to it's source very well. It has a cast of virtual unknowns and even has the return of Micah and Katie from the first film.

I should now say that this is basically a prequel to the original story. It takes place roughly 60 days before the death of Micah (they tell us this on screen at one point). The wife in this movie is Katie's sister and we learn the demon was affecting her family first before it tormented the couple from the first film. We also learn it effected their mother and then grandmother before that. This is the one weakness of this film, it tries to hard to develop story and characters. It delves into cliched horror movie story lines such as demons traveling through families and wanting first born sons. There's no need to try to get complicated with story elements, that's not what people are here to see. We are in a movie like this to get scared. Just put a basic story in it to give it a reason for existing and go from there. Also the transition between the stories of both films was a bit silly. But oh well. It wasn't TO overbearing of a storyline, they only threw in that stuff in a few scenes here and there.

The performances were probably on par with the first movie. Some people thought Katie and Micah were really bad in the first film, I personally thought they came off as very believable. This movie we have a much larger cast, about 6 adults and a baby (two the characters are Micah and Katie who pop up every once in a while). There is also a dog involved. I think Katie Featherston overdoes some of her scenes and you can tell she is acting a lot. The rest of them come off as a pretty believable family. There are times when it gets to be to much, especially with the dad towards the end of the movie. But again, this isn't the kind of movie we are supposed to give a crap about performances. They should be decent enough so that they aren't laughable because that can be distracting and take away from the effect of the movie. They are good enough to keep the mood of the film in tact.

The first movie was pretty creepy to me personally. They did some pretty cool things with effects, considering they had such a small budget. The scene where Katie was dragged out of the bed freaked my mind! You have a couple times here in this movie where people (or babies) are dragged or pulled and you do lose the "oh shit" factor this time, but it still remains to be a bit creepy. There are a lot of loud noises that come out of nowhere that honestly made me jump on a few occasions. The jump scenes here weren't random either. There wasn't any cats jumping out of closets or random birds flying out of rubble. They happened for a reason and they happened in scenes were I truly did not expect them at the time. There was this scene that got me good...involving cabinets and drawers opening. I won't say more than that. It startled the hell out of me. This movie, like the first, remains very subtle the whole time. There isn't really any in your face moments. No major visual effects. Just a lot of things moving on their own, some creepy loud noises and a whole lot of quietness. Quietness scares me in movies, I won't lie. There are numerous scenes here where there is dead silence and you have no idea what's about to happen. Sometimes something happens, sometimes something does it. That's why the scares are so good because they tease you. They build up tension so well. I love that. You have to build it slowly not just open with a big scary scene and go straight from there. It has to be slow to be effective, at least for me. This movie, as did the first one, does this so very well. I thought this movie was consistently scary and it unnerved me several times. I felt uncomfortable during many scenes and there was definitely an element of surprise.

I've read some reviews and heard people say they hated this movie because it was just like the first and there was nothing new. So what? If it ain't broke, don't fix it right?? Why would you want them to go on a bigger scale this time and potentially ruin it all? Stick with what worked to begin with. The "Saw" franchise also fell victim to this. The first movie wasn't all that gory, and was much more of a mind messing kind of movie. Then all the tons of sequels became increasingly gory and violent. No need to change what wasn't in need of any change. I for one hope they make a third one. So far they have been reliable. These movies are only meant to scare us not to wow us with great stories and certainly not to stray off course from what they were originally designed to do. I thought this movie was just as scary as the first movie. I liked the first one a bit better just because it was simple and didn't try to thrown some stupid story at us involving first born sons, blah blah blah. That's the only thing I really didn't like about this movie. Otherwise, I feel Paranormal Activity 2 is a very worthy sequel. I guess it's not for everyone though. It was for me.

**BTW Sorry, there weren't many pictures for this movie online that I could add to the blog**

2010 Reviews #84 & #85: "Red" and "Jackass 3D".

#84: Red. Starring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Mary Louis Parker and Morgan Freeman. Rated PG-13 and is 1 hour 51 minutes. You can almost call this movie "The Expendables 2". Meaning it has a cast full of older, legendary entertainers that people still love and they are here doing some fun stuff. This probably has to be one of the best casts of a film this year. Not really award worthy casts per say, but just a damn fun and highly entertaining group of people. If you made this movie with maybe a slightly younger cast of unknowns and maybe one big star...this movie would be a dud. It had to these people or no one. Now onto the actual movie. I actually was anticipating a high octane, deeply unrealistic storyline full of over the top ridiculous stunts. In actuality the movie was a bit more subdued in comparison. I mean...it was still a bit crazy on the action but nothing like you would see in something like..."Live Free or Die Hard". The storyline was decent, but we aren't here for a storyline. It was good enough to give us a reason to have these actors together having fun and that's all we can really ask for and all we really need here. All the action scenes were fantastic and clever and it was fun to watch. There was a lot of good humor here, mainly from the eccentric and brilliant John Malkovich. It was freakin' sweet to see Dame Helen Mirren wield a high powered gun and shoot some bitches! Because all the while she still acted like a Queen. It was great! Just go to this movie to have fun, that's all it's really here for. I hate when people go to movies like this and over analyze them and critique them. Those people are stupid. Some movies are only here to be entertaining, not win your snide and cruel affection. I had a blast watching this movie. Critics Grade: 70%. My Grade: B+.

#85: Jackass 3D. Starring Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn and more. Rated R (there is numerous shots of full frontal male nudity, a few 3D dildos, a whole lot of cussing, and quite a bit of poop, blood and vomit to go around...do not take the kids) and is 1 hour 40 minutes. I used to kind of like the TV version of this movie. I got some good laughs out of this group of grown men injuring themselves and getting up, brushing the dirt off and having a laugh out of it. I even kind of thought the first movie was pretty funny, minus any poop stuff. I never saw the second movie. I guess I kind of grew out of my phase of enjoying this kind of humor. I have nothing against people who still find this funny, because it is still funny from time to time. And by no means do I think it's childish of an adult to laugh hysterically at this kind of film. To each is own of course! I never really intended to add this film to my repertoire of 2010 movies, but it was my best friends birthday and he wanted to see this. Hell I even paid for mine AND his ticket. The things I do for my friends. Sacrifices. I will say that Alex, my friend, thoroughly enjoyed the movie. He laughed a whole ton and I was glad for that. I however, only really laughed heartily about 5 or 6 times. I chuckled a few more times than that and maybe cracked a few smiles. No I don't think I'm better than anyone. This is not me being smug for not laughing at this movie while the rest of the audience did. I get why they are laughing, I really do. Just for me...I didn't laugh as often or as hard. I don't know what else to say. This kind of humor just doesn't appeal to me anymore, but that's just me personally. I mean there were some damn funny parts in this movie, I'm not a total prude! I got really nauseous a few times as well. I mean seeing liquid poop fly at us in 3D is revolting. Seeing a grown man drink the sweat of another man almost did it in for me. I had to turn my eyes away during that scene because I may have had to run to the bathroom to throw up if I watched. Watching these guys vomit countless times just made me queasy. I don't do well with that kind of stuff...ESPECIALLY since this is real, not a fictionalized film. Look, these guys are nuts. They have balls (some of which we actually get to see a few times...even as a gay man I was a bit grossed out at the numerous shots of penis). But they have still managed to stay relevant to a degree and people still like these guys. I don't hate them nor did I hate this movie. It's just the style of humor just goes over my head now...I don't really know why. But I am glad other people enjoy it still. I also want to say that surprisingly this had the best 3D effects I've seen in a movie so far. While the items coming at us were disgusting, at least they actually came up literally right to our faces on some occasions. THAT'S what 3D is supposed to be. So I applaud them for that. Also...nice Beavis and Butthead skit at the beginning...classic! Critics Grade: 67%. My Grade: C-.

2010 Reviews #77-#83: Secretariat, Case 39 and More!!

You know the drill...got lost in time, fell behind on reviews. I think this is how I will continue to do it. When I see a BIG movie or a movie I really really love I'll do my normal layout for one review at a time...but these things can be time consuming! At any rate, since my last posting I've watched 7 more 2010 films (6 movies that were released in theaters at one point this year or are still out now, and one straight to DVD/Made for TV movie). Oh and I'm not some serious film critic...I don't care if a movie was released in theaters or on TV/DVD...if it came out in 2010 and is an actual movie...it counts towards my "amount" of new films I see in a year. Boo ya! So here ya go:

#77: It's Kind of a Funny Story. Well this is actually a movie I was really looking forward to see. I saw the preview, and I thought it was going to a movie right up my alley and that I was going to love it. After watching it, to play with the title a little bit, I thought it was kind of a good movie. This is one of those movies you see that you think is a solid well made movie, but doesn't really do much for you. That's how I felt about it at least. It's weird...because everything about the movie from the fantastic performances and all the technical aspects were all very good. To me this was a good movie. However, as well written as the screenplay was, I felt it was all kind of flat and one note. I feel like it didn't go from point A to point B very well, it just kind of stayed at point A the whole time. I didn't get any sense of lesson learned by the characters or any hint of solid development. I guess that was kind of the point of the movie but I wish there would have been some kind of oomph to it in the end. Again, well told story...just for me, a bit dull. The main actor, Keir Gilchrist was excellent and believable as the troubled teen. The standout for me was funny man Zach Galifanakis who actually wasn't all that funny. I mean he had some humorous lines, but he was here to be serious. The man showed he has acting chops and also displayed a subdued performance and never once stole the movie from the main character. I felt he is worthy of award attention...he won't of course, but you know. I don't know, I liked the movie...just wished it had more power to it is all. Critics Grade: 60%. My Grade: B-.

#78: Secretariat. Well we have seen this type of movie a billion time before, especially in the hands of Disney. Secretariat does almost nothing different to step up the game from all the other ones. You know exactly how this movie is going to end, especially if you were around during the actual time of the real race horse this film is based. You know there will be setbacks with not only the horse, but also with it's owner, played by Oscar nominee Diane Lane. You expect this, it happens, boom. Funny thing though...the last half of this movie managed to be kind of tense. There were points where I was like...no way, he's never going to win, even though I knew he does. That is thanks in part to the director of this film. The first half is a bit slow, good...but a little dull getting out of the gate. Then the second half kicks into high gear and honestly, it turns out to be one of 2010's finest films...in my opinion. It's incredible how generic of a storyline can be turned into a wonderful and tense film in the end. The direction is brilliant, the writing is fantastic and Diane Lane gives one of her most remarkable performances that I've seen. Give this woman an Oscar already!! I also liked the horse race scenes shown from the perspective of either the horse of the jockey. Those were cool. I loved the final few races scenes, they were all shot so intensely. While Secretariat has nothing new to offer to the genre, it still manages to be one hell of a good movie. Critics Grade: 67%. My Grade: A-.

#79: My Soul to Take 3D. There are a rare few movies that were born to be in 3D. My Soul to Take is not one of those movies. The 3D here, as it is for MOST movies that are in 3D now (which is about 65% or so of all our new films) is only here for a gimmick and for the movie to studio to make more money. People pay to see 3D...they pay the extra $2-$4, depending where you live. That $2-$4 adds up. Studio rakes in the cash and we are left with empty pockets and sometimes a sense of disappointment from these movies. The 3D is this movie sucked big time. Which gave no help to the movie itself which is one of the biggest pieces of crap movies I've seen this year. For me, it was just so intensely stupid. I enjoy campy horror movies, and there are still some enjoyable slasher films left...but this one...ugh...it was just awful. You don't expect good stories from these movies OF COURSE...but at least TRY to come up with something entertaining. It was laughable. Everything from the story to the killings to the acting, all just so bad in my eyes. Teens will probably like it, I'm sure. I grew up on movies like this, but the ones of the past are stuck in the past. You just don't see slasher movies like that anymore. Well at least the star of the movie, Max Theiriot was nice to look at...whhhhaaaat? (He's legal OK...back off!). Oh and least this wasn't really a remake of anything, so that's good huh? Wes Craven used to be good at this stuff, now I'm not so sure. Well the new Scream trilogy should hopefully boost his confidence...but we shall see. Critics Grade: 8%. My Grade: F.

#80: Babies. This is a documentary about...babies. Duh. Thing is, if you aren't a parent, like me...you may not get much from this movie. Sure there were plenty of scenes of cute babies and it was cool to see how different the cultures were in terms of how they raise these infants. But I didn't really get any wealth of knowledge from this documentary or any kind of emotional connection. First of all, there is virtually no speaking in this whole film. No narrator, not even little word facts that pop up every once in a while. Just clips of 4 different families from 4 different parts of the world, raising their babies in the first year of their lives. I didn't get much of anything from the movie. So I just kind of feel indifferent from the whole thing. It was cute at times. But there was a lot of full on naked babies that after a while became a bit disturbing. There was also a lot of breast in the film. Rated PG for parental and educational nudity...but I don't know what parent would still feel comfortable letting their kids watch all of this unfold. I just kind of felt awkward the whole time. Eh, I don't know. It was OK-ish. Critics Grade: 69%. My Grade: C.

#81: Case 39. I wanted to confirm something before writing this review, so I just watched the trailer for this movie on YouTube to make sure I wasn't crazy. The version in theaters now...must have had some serious changes to it because it does not resemble the story you think this film has from the trailers. You assume that there are some kind of demons or ghosts following this little girl based off the trailer, but that is not the case from the actual movie. I know this film was made a few years ago and had some trouble being released. In some parts of the world, this movie was just a straight to DVD release and I think they all got the original version of this movie. There are numerous scenes in the trailer that never happen in the movie...in fact that are numerous scenes in the trailer where the exact opposite happens in the final film. I just don't get it. THIS version however, the one where the little girl IS the demon and is trying to kill Rene Zeleweger is just terrible. Not as bad as say, My Soul To Take, but I really did not like this movie. It was so poorly made. First off, Zelwegers character was so damn quick to believe this little girl is some kind of evil creature without having any real evidence to back it up. I know it's just a movie and I'm not one to call a film unbelievable...and I'm not doing that here. It's not the believability factor...it's just the story flipped so freaking quickly we had no time to process what was going on for sure. Later on a character hastily jumps on Zelwegers beliefs about the girl after calling her crazy for half of the movie based off one tiny little thing that happened. I guess what I'm saying is the movie was rushed. It wasn't even a good story in my eyes. This version of the film is something we have seen over and over and over and OVER again. Creepy kids trying to kill everyone...real fresh. Zelweger was not a good choice here, she seemed so out of place and her voice was more high pitched and squeakier then ever. Here eyes were clearly squirted with lemon juice before almost every scene. She wasn't all that good, nor was the movie for me. It was mainly just super silly and super predictable. Also it had jump scenes that happened so randomly and for no reason to a point where it just annoying. Ugh! Critics Grade: 21%. My Grade: D-.

#82: Assault of the Sasquatch. Okay so this a horror movie that went straight to the Chiller Network and will be on DVD next week. ONLY reason I watched it, because it has two supporting actors in it (Shawn C. Phillips and MJ Kelly from the coolduder channel) whose channel I subscribe to and watch from time to time. They are just two silly dudes who make sometimes funny videos (mainly Shawn is funny, MJ is kind of a turd). They have become a huge YouTube hit and have somewheres over a million subscribers. Now they film a bunch of random low budget horror movies (Shawn's favorite genre of film - he owns a few thousand DVD's). Anyway, this is a cheesy ass horror movie about a vengeful Big Foot character who is going around a small town mutilating people. Of course it has some pretty bad acting and some lame effects. But it's JUST cheesy enough to be kind of funny and entertaining. By no means is this anywhere near a good movie in my eyes, but I was...entertained, and that's all there is to it. Best part was Shawn C. Phillips...he was pretty funny and obnoxious but still not all that great. No Critics Grade. My Grade: D.

#83: Calvin Marshall. I think this movie was released independently in theaters this year for a few weeks and now has found it's way on DVD. It's a dramatic comedy about a college aged kid who wants so bad to be on the baseball team and thinks he is really good, but actually he is not. He keeps getting cut after all his countless try outs. No one has the heart to tell him he sucks at baseball. Yet for some reason he is GREAT at softball. He knows everything about the game, he can teach people about the fundamentals and his heart for the game is huge. He meets a star player on the girl volleyball team and falls for her. This movie is OK for me, but nothing all to recommendable. I thought Alex Frost was great as the lead and had a funny supporting performance from Steve Zahn. I thought it had an ALMOST sweet story to tell but ultimately kind of fell a bit flat in the end. This was more about one character and didn't really have any message to tell. Not that I was able to get anyway. It looked good, had good performances just didn't really go anywhere...kind of similar to It's Kind of a Funny Story I guess. Not enough Critics Grade. My Grade: C.

2010 Reviews #72-#76: "Let Me In", "Frozen" and More!

Once again...I got myself way behind in reviewing movies! I have 5 more I have to do...so again...this will be a list of short reviews!

#72: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This is the foreign language film that is the first in a trilogy. Based off novels of the same name, this film is in the Swedish language but yes, is subtitled. It is currently available on DVD and instantly on Netflix. Hollywood has already gotten it's greedy little hands on this gem of a film and is remaking it and will be released in 2011. Why can't we just think up our own original films instead of taking other countries ideas and making them our "own". I am not a fan of remakes (until you read my next review). Anyway...this is a fantastic crime thriller. I got so incredibly invested in the story unfolding that the 2 hour and 20 minute run time flew on by and the fact that I was reading the movie completely went right past me. I didn't know where it was going, and for that I love how the whole thing concluded. Sometimes it's hard to tell if a performance is good in a movie like this...because I don't speak their language. But Noomi Rapace came off as what I believe a very strong performance and she stole the movie! I don't know if she really was that good...but from what I could read from her performance...she was excellent! I cannot wait for the next chapter of the film, The Girl Who Played with Fire. Critics Grade: 87%. My Grade: A-.

#73: Let Me In. Well here we have a Hollywood remake of a Sweedish film called Let the Right One In. This is the exception to my disgust of remakes...because this is one hell of a good movie! Not a perfect remake, I still like the original better but they stay fairly true to it's source material and doesn't try to dumb this down for American audiences. It's a deep film, it has a slightly disturbing tale. It has very vague similarities with Twilight...but those films are nowhere near the brilliance of this movie. Let Me In is dark and slow in pace. It doesn't try to dazzle us with vampire related visual effects. It tells a story between two lonely children (well one of them is a child...the other is sorta a child) who befriend each other. There aren't any big moments that will really entertain the younger audiences. This is a vampire type film that's more for adults or at least mature teenagers, and young twenty somethings. It's almost an artsy like film. It has a wonderful story, and some AMAZING direction and cinematography. The main stars of the film, the two children...are just phenomenal leading this film. Both are worthy of award attention. They play kids like kids are supposed to played. Not all fancied up and smart talkin' like they make so many kids in movies these days. You feel bad for this little boy. I don't know...this is a GREAT movie. Not 100% as good as the original film...but still a very very worthy remake. Critics Grade: 87%. My Grade: A-.

#74: Frozen. Won't spend much time on this one. Frozen is a film about 3 college aged friends who go skiing...long story short...they end up stuck on a ski lift way up high with no one else around and the ski lodge has closed for the week. So now they must find a way to get down, while avoiding the harsh cold and the wolves below. This movie COULD have been kind of cool but in actuality...I really didn't like it. The main girl was just painful to listen to most of the movie. One of the characters makes a really stupid decision and ends up getting ripped to pieces. Then we have to sit there and listen to the other two bitch and moan the rest of the movie and it's just so hard to listen to. The movie is really disgusting at times and not at all tense...at least it was not for me. Maybe for others, just...I was kind of bored. A movie like this, if done right, could have been suspenseful...but no. It actually has a pretty cool premise, it just never lives up to the promise it had. Needed a better cast, slightly bigger scale, and just more thrills. Not a truly terrible movie in my eyes...but I really didn't care for it just because it swung and missed at a great chance to be quite cool. Critics Grade: 61%. My Grade: D+.

#75: The Winning Season. This is a small film that I barely even heard about...thank you Cox on Demand. It was released early in September in a select few theaters but is also playing on Demand under the "In Theaters" section. I thought this is a nice little gem of a film. It has independent written all over it. It's by no means perfect and the whole movie isn't as engaging as maybe as it could have been for me...but overall I thought it was a charmer of a movie. It's about a washed up dad who is coaching a high school girls basketball team (not his daughters) and has to whip them into shape to be good. Yeah...cliched of course but the writer and cast at least try to be fresh with this idea. Led by the amazingly underrated Sam Rockwell...how he hasn't at least been nominated for an Oscar is beyond me. He won't get one for this film, but he shows his talents well in this role. I liked the chemistry between him and these girls. It was real and believable. It had moments of being kind of funny but overall it's dark comedy. I thought it was pretty good. Not great, but definitely worth the 2 hours I spent watching it. Critics Grade: 53%. My Grade: B.

#76: She's Out of My League. This comedy came out way back in the beginning of 2010 and I'm just now watching it on 2010. I rented it through Netflix...kind of expecting to not like it very much. Well I can't say that I loved it, but I was just slightly pleasantly surprised by the movie. It's riddled with cliches....nerdy guy get's the hot girl. A story that I'm sure so OFTEN happens in real life. But that's why it's a movie storyline. Movies aren't reality. I thought the film had a pretty good cast and there were more than enough moments that I chuckled. I never really laughed out loud at anything but it had some very amusing parts. But in the end...it's just another campy cliched romantic comedy that we see at least....5 or 6 of these a year. For me...it was just OK. I had a good time watching it...wouldn't really sit through it again...but as a one time viewing it was entertaining enough. Critics Grade: 57%. My Grade: C+.

2010 Review #71: The Social Network

The Social Network

Directed By: David Fincher
Written By: Aaron Sorkin

Starring:
Jesse Eisenberg
Andrew Garfield
Justin Timberlake

Rated PG-13
2 hours

Critics Grade:
98%

My Grade:
A+

Storyline:
A story about the founders of the social-networking website, Facebook. About the legal battles and the broken friendships.

My Review

If you asked me a few years ago what Facebook even was, I wouldn't have been able to give you a correct answer. Much like a lot of the country. Skip ahead a few years and now everyone and their grandma (literally) have a Facebook account. Millions of people each day post random pointless facts about their daily routines "At the store" or "I'm bored" for all their friends to see. Some people are tagging their friends in pictures or bombarding their friends walls with their stupid Farmville updates. At this point if you don't know what Facebook is...you probably lead a very sheltered life...even if you don't actually have a Facebook account. This is not how Facebook started. This kind of thing was meant for the now basically dead social networking site, Myspace (please don't make a Myspace movie...no one will see it because they are all watching the Facebook movie). Facebook (originally THE Facebook) was meant only for Harvard students. You were required to have a Harvard e-mail to even sign up. It was a hit, then spread out to 29 other large colleges across the country. Then before you knew it...it was a worldwide sensation and now you don't even need to go to any school to have an account. It all started one night when young nerd Mark Zuckerberg got drunk and created a site called Face Smash. A site where you compared hot women with other hot women. Now I'm only basing this off the movie story, it is said that the screenplay has been puffed up and fictionalized from real life events. But it doesn't matter. His face smash site was a hit within hours. A couple of students at Harvard had an idea for a social site for Harvard students and they wanted to enlist Zuckerberg to help do the coding and what not...one thing led to another...and Zuckerberg ran with the idea on his own. Legal battles would soon follow. And now we have our film: The Social Network.

Like I mentioned before, the storyline for this film has been tweaked from actual events to make the movie more appealing and thrilling. This has been publicly announced by the creators of the film. But the screenplay is so freaking well written that you would never know the film story has been changed (how much - I don't know if anyone really knows). How they could write a film that on paper would seem to be really slow - come out to be as thrilling as this film was...is beyond me. It should be a slow paced boring movie. Thing is...it IS slow paced but you never actually realize that. I got so immersed in this story and so invested in these characters it was as if I was watching the true events unfold before my eyes. Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the film, doesn't try to trick the audience by inflating anything about the people involved. These are real people, these are true events. He may have slightly fictionalized the actual story, but he doesn't throw Hollywood in our faces. The actions are all completely believable.

Some people may think this is a movie ABOUT Facebook. Well...it is but only to a certain extent. For instance it doesn't really go into the effects it has on culture and society. We don't see the viewpoints of many Facebook users and how it effects their every day lives. You don't really see much of the actual Facebook interface either. We never even see the transition of Facebook for college use only to Facebook worldwide sensation. That's not what the story is about. This is a story about a young man who has no friends and is so incredibly socially awkward he creates a social networking website and by chance becomes increasingly popular. Even with everyone knowing who he is...he still has almost no real friends. Sure he has people who admire him or use him but friends? Actual true friends? Well he had one...and he inadvertently destroyed that friendship because he let the power of his creation take him over. There's a lot that goes on here, so no...it's not just about the actual Facebook site. So far...the best written film of 2010.

This is also one of, if not THE best looking movie of the year. Inception is brilliantly crafted to mess with our minds and looks stunning at every turn. But here with the Social Network, we have a real life story. They could have easily given us bland camera work and only focused on the story. But in a lot of films, the camera work, the cinematography IS part of the story. It captures the characters at their highest point as well as their lowest point. I don't think a film has pulled this off as well as The Social Network in the past few years. The film has a fairly "dark" storyline, there isn't a whole lot of happiness going on and David Fincher does a BRILLIANT job showcasing that overall mood to us as an audience and it really gets us invested in the story and characters.

One of the best aspects of this movie is the incredible characters who are all of course, based off real people. We have three main players: Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin (the two co-founders of Facebook) and Sean Parker (the founder of Napster - and the man who drove Zuckerberg and Saverin to the eventual destruction of their friendship). I don't know who exact the characters are to their counterparts in real life but these are some pretty interesting people. So you have to have them played by some very good actors to make them convincing. I'll say this right now: as of this point of 2010...hands down the best acted film of the year. I've never been a big fan of Jesse Eisenberg but man he is incredible in this film. Zuckerberg is a troubled young guy and Eisenberg was the PERFECT choice to play him. The performance of his young career...the one that may define him as an actor. Right now he would be on my list for Best Actor of the year. Andrew Garfield (the new Spiderman!) plays his best friend and co-founder of Facebook. I saw him a couple years ago in a movie called Boy A...and he was fantastic in the film. Here is no different. I thought for most of the film this guy was amazing and worthy of some Oscar consideration. So what about Justin Timberlake? Well I don't follow his music...but I think he has found himself a nice little niche in film. When he was on screen (and not a TON of screen time) he stole the show. In my opinion, and not just because he's nice to look at (what?!?!). He gives such a charismatic performance and I think he has found his calling (as if his music career wasn't already his calling).

The Social Network is more than a movie about a worldwide phenomenon. This is a movie about human nature. This is a movie about how we as humans crave friendship. How we desperately need to be heard and listened to and cared about. A lot of us, like Zuckerberg, never truly get that complete feeling and so we are left feeling empty. Some of us make poor life decisions (like unknowingly screwing over a friendship) to putting ourselves out there to get attention. It's funny because a site like Facebook makes us all feel so popular. "Look I have 200 friends". But how many of those 200 are people you actually would spill your heart and soul to? How many of those people know anything about you? Who do you think really cares about half the crap you post on Facebook every day? No one...but we all do it. It's in us as humans to crave that need for attention. Some of us have plenty of friends, some of us don't. One of us created a website to feel connected to all of our so called "friends". Funny thing is...he is a man, who at the time, had no real friends even after he created the site. That's why this movie is so brilliant to me...I can relate a lot to this guy (at least the movie version). We all can. This isn't a movie about Facebook. This is a movie about you and me.

Hey...Facebook me.

2010 Review Extravaganza! "You Again", "The Tilman Story" and more!

OK so I have 6 movie reviews do to because I have been buy these past 2 weeks....mainly watching movies! And today I'm going to probably go see "The Social Network" and "Let Me In" so I wanted to bust out these 6 reviews so as I don't get to far behind. Now I don't have the time now to write long reviews for these movies so I'm just gonna do the bare minimum this time, my apologies!

#65: You Again. A new family comedy starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver. Yes...also has Betty freaking White! I love Betty White don't get me wrong...but I don't get this crazy hooplah over her right now. But whatever. She can't save this train wreck of a movie. No one could. It was awful, almost painful to sit through. One of the worst movies I've seen this year so far. It wasn't funny to me at all. A story that could have been potentially decent was ruined by bad screenwriting, to much physical comedy, and ridiculous musical score and no heart whatsoever. Some bad performances thrown in and this, to me, was a piece of crap movie. Some people may like it...but not me. Not me at all. Critics Grade: 15%. My Grade: F.

#66: Fred: The Movie! I have a confession to make: I've seen most of Fred's YouTube video's. He is the YouTube sensation that has a lot of followers and a lot of video views. No one knows why this kid is so popular but kids seem to love him. All he does is quick 3 minutes videos of him in (sometimes) funny situations and he changes his voice to make him sound like a chipmunk who just sucked some helium. I'll admit...I laugh sometimes at his videos, but for the most part they are pretty stupid. But my niece wanted me to record this movie (which debuted on Nickelodeon) and so...I decided to watch it on my own one day when I was bored. This will not qualify for my top or bottom 10 lists or any of my main category awards, as this is a straight to TV movie. It pains me to say...that I laughed about 7 or 8 times while watching this movie. The kid sometimes has good comedic timing. He's "good" at what he does. The movie is silly, but kids will love it. They also tone his squeaky voice down a tad which is nice and easy on the ears. I don't know...I didn't really like this movie much, but I laughed and at times the story was kinda "sweet"...so I didn't hate it like I thought I would. No Critics Grade. My Grade: C.

#67: The Virginity Hit. A fake documentary told through the lens of a crappy digital video camera. That's supposed to add to the realism...and I suppose it's effective. This whole movie is like a faux documentary ripoff of "Superbad". That movie was much more funny and had a much better story to tell. Obviously. It was me and like 5 other people in the theater, which just made me feel weird to begin with. The whole movie was pretty awkward and pretty sexual. The idea behind the whole movie (following an 18 year old boy trying to lose his virginity) is a bit disturbing to begin with so everything that happens in the movie just adds to that. I mean it wasn't a terrible movie. It had some believable performances, you actually believe these to be real just out of high school kids. It had some funny moments. But overall it just wasn't all that good to me. It just left me feeling strange for having watched it. To me, it wasn't a bad movie but it's definitely completely forgettable and one that I think can be skipped over. Critics Grade: 29%. My Grade: C-.

#68: Temple Grandin. This is a true story of an autistic woman who became popular in the 60's and 70's. She doesn't interact well with people and doesn't understand a lot of things. She can see everything in pictures and can memorize a page of a book after just looking at it for a few seconds. She designed a method to create a calm environment for cattle as they are being led to slaughter. This movie follows her journey and what an interesting tale it was to watch. This is an incredible woman and I'm happy they made a film to show us her life. Such a well made movie (by the way it's another made for TV movie on HBO - now on DVD) in every which way. Great performances from the whole cast. Claire Danes gets lost in this character of Temple. You don't see Danes at all. It was a brilliant performance and one to be remembered. This was just such a great film! It won a handful of Emmy Awards not to long ago including Best Actress and Best Made for TV Movie. No Critics Grade. My Grade: A.

#69: The Special Relationship. I was on a roll with made for TV movies. This one also was on HBO. It tells the story of the bond between President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair. A lot of the movie focuses on the Monica Lewinsky time line. There is also some political aspects thrown into the story of course (which unfortunately I always have a hard time following - I'm never been into politics). I think overall this was a solid movie, not one I really liked but overall it was enjoyable. I think Dennis Quaid does a great job portraying Clinton. The rest of the cast is also very good and all deserved their Emmy nominations a month ago. Not much more to really say. It was a good movie, but I personally didn't love it. Good though. No Critics Grade. My Grade: B.

#70: The Tillman Story. This is a documentary that chronicles the story of the Pat Tilman tragedy. The Arizona Cardinals football player who turned down a big NFL contract to enlist in the military. A few years later he would be killed by friendly fire that was initially covered up by the military and Government. His family, led by his fantastic mother, would never back down until the truth finally comes out. The fought and fought to get the military to admit what actually happened. To this day, they don't have the whole story. I won't go into detail about everything, that's why you need to see the documentary. But this was a FANTASTIC documentary that was very informative. I knew what was going on as it was going on, but I never kept following the story so now I'm all caught up. What I liked was that this documentary didn't not try to pull at the heart strings of the people watching. It chronicled the family's anger, disappointment, confusion and feeling of emptiness. We all know how tragic and sad this was, but we are supposed to feel pissed off over the cover up. That's what I got from this movie. I mean this movie was just amazing. It really captured this family's journey to the truth quite brilliantly I thought. Just see the documentary...it's really good! Critics Grade: 91%. My Grade: A-.