...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. Th
is 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.
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