Joe’s Review: Role Models

One of my friends told me that this “was the best movie he ever saw”.  I was skeptical, but I decided to go check this out because I thought it did look funny.  That and you can’t really go wrong with a movie with McLovin in it, right?

Well.. almost right.  While this wasn’t one of the best movies that I’ve ever seen, I thought it was pretty funny and enjoyable.  The characters fit their roles well, and it had the same kind of feel as The 40 Year Old Virgin, which I also didn’t think was as good as everyone else did.  Both Role Models and Virgin fit in the “Good, but not Great” category to me.

So what’s it all about?  Well, Danny and Wheeler are employees for an energy drink company, Minotaur.  Danny becomes extremely frustrated with his job, and on an energy drink bender, ends up trashing the company truck.  His former girlfriend, Beth, manages to wrangle them a deal to get out of jail.  All they need to do is volunteer their time mentoring kids at the Sturdy Wings program.  Of course, things aren’t as easy as they expect, as their littles turn out to be more than a handful.

The two end up getting themselves into all different sorts of situations, and like you’d expect in this type of movie, they alienate their littles.  Things do end up getting better, but you’ll have to check out the movie to see how!  I do recommend this movie if you’re looking for some good laughs.  Sean William Scott and Paul Rudd are two pretty funny fellas.

I also have to say that Ken Jeong does a great job in all his roles…surprised to find out he’s also a doctor.. guess you have to have a backup huh?

Rating:

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Joe’s Review: Hancock

So I haven’t posted in a while (again), but I did actually get to go see a movie! Yesterday the girl and I went to go see Hancock. Coming into the theatre, I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew that the movie put up big numbers, but that could’ve been just because it was a Will Smith movie. Luckily for me, I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed this film. It was good entertainment!

Hancock is the anti-hero. He drinks, causes a ton of damage when he is fighting crime, and doesn’t get along with anybody. While a high speed chase and shooting is going on, Hancock is passed out drunk on a bench. He has to be awoken by a little boy and see the chase on TV to even think about going. Whenever he takes off, he leaves behind a path of destruction, not caring about what he does, but still getting the job done.

In comes Ray Embry, PR “expert”, and the guy who is going to turn Hancock’s life around. They meet when Embry’s car becomes trapped on some railroad tracks, and Hancock tosses his car on top of another to prevent him from being hit by an oncoming train. (Isn’t it usually a damsel in distress on the train tracks?) Anyway, the people around aren’t happy, criticizing Hancock’s techniques, calling him names, and booing him. The city of LA even called for him to leave because of the damage that he’s caused to the city.

Embry, however, feels that there is a side of Hancock that people have yet to see, and still need to see. His plan involves Hancock going to jail so that the city will miss him, and at the same time work on his image and other characteristics so people will approve of him when he comes back.

Does it work? Well, you’ll have to see the movie to find out. For me, Hancock was a very enjoyable film, providing action, and a surprisingly good back story. You really felt for Hancock (in the end), and it had some great humor as well. I would’ve liked to hear some more details of the back story behind the movie, mainly more history about who Hancock really was… how he came along, what he was, etc.

Overall, I’d rate Hancock a 7 out of 10… definitely something to consider seeing! Let me know how you feel about it!!

Rating:

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Joe’s Review: Wall-E

Disney/Pixar’s latest release was one of the most anticipated movies of the summer, and now that I’ve seen it, I can say that Wall-E deserves all the hype it gets. After the incredible success of Ratatouille last summer, Pixar hit the nail on the head again. This is definitely one of the cutest, well executed movies that I’ve seen so far this year. In fact, I can’t think of anything offhand that tops it.

Wall-E takes place many many years in the future… about 700 I believe. The earth has been abandoned due to the buildup of waste products and pollutants over the years. The company that has basically taken over the world, Buy N’ Large, has decided to take matters into it’s own hands. Large, luxurious cruise ships have been built to take people into space for a five year cruise, while Buy N’ Large uses robots to clean up the Earth, with the hope that people will be able to return afterwards.

Things don’t seem to have gone as planned. The movie begins following Wall-E around as he(?) performs his daily duties, taking trash in and compacting it. As he moves around, we see that there are many robots that are no longer functioning, as Wall-E’s only companion is a little cockroach who manages to get himself into a lot of squishy situations. Earth is a barren wasteland, but little Wall-E follows the same routine every day, compacting trash, and collecting items as he dreams of finding love (I know, cute huh?).

All of this changes one day when a probe ship comes, and drops off a probe to see what life is like on Earth now. In comes EVE, scooting around and probing everywhere, with Wall-E not far behind, as he has fallen in love. After finding some evidence of plant life growing on Earth, EVE is returned to the ship she came from where people have been waiting 700 years to return to Earth. Is this the sign that they will finally be going home?

Definitely going to recommend that you go out and check out the movie to find out about all the crazy antics Wall-E gets himself into. Something I really enjoyed about Wall-E was how they worked out the dialogue.
There really wasn’t much at all. However, the sounds that the robots emitted and the music set the tone very well. It was actually possible to feel the emotions that they were feeling, and get swept away in the journey. As usual, Pixar’s animation was stunning. Now that I think about it, I didn’t really even think of it as a computer animated movie. It felt just like any other regular movie.

No doubt Wall-E is more for the kids, as illustrated by the about 200 or so mothers, fathers, and screaming babies I saw it with, so definitely take that into consideration when heading out to see it. I recommend a late show if you really want to enjoy it in a quiet theatre, as that did mess it up a little bit for me. However, despite that annoyance, Wall-E is surely worth seeing. You’ll be swept up by the beautiful animation and great story.

The little featurette beforehand was awesome also!

Did you enjoy as much as I did?

Rating:

- A Must See!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Joe’s Review: The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian

The first thing I’d suggest before seeing Prince Caspian is to go out and watch the first one. You can get The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Aff) at Amazon. If you didn’t read the books or watch the previous movie, you’re probably not going to understand what’s going on in Prince Caspian. If you fall into this category… I’d suggest you do that before reading on!

Prince Caspian is the sequel to the 2005 film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. One year has passed since the Pevensies have left Narnia. However, in that time, hundreds of years have passed in Narnia, and the great kingdom they once ruled has fallen into shambles. The Telmarines have waged war against the Narnians in an attempt to render them extinct. Even worse, the self-appointed ruler of Narnia, General Miraz, has attempted to place his own son as the heir to the throne by assassinating Prince Caspian, the rightful heir to the throne. However, with the help of his professor, Caspian manages to escape, and seek help in the Old Kings and Queens of Narnia. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it, so I’ll stop there. Feel free to contact me if you’d like more information.

The story behind Prince Caspian does seem epic. Does the film succeed in bringing this to the big screen? In my opinion, it does, but only to an extent. There are several conflicts throughout the film that give the feel of an epic movie, but in the end, the scope of the movie doesn’t seem big enough to make it an epic. This might have been what ended up hurting it at the box office. Narnia seemed to try to appeal to a Lord of the Rings crowd while at the same time maintaining the story that appealed to a younger crowd. If they had picked one route or the other, the film might have been more of a commercial success.

That being said, the special effects and camera work in for Prince Caspian was very good. The colors they used, and effects to make the movie seem grand worked for me. As my supervisor (the day job) said when we were discussing the movie:

It was really relaxing, with the cinematography being so visually pleasing. You just got caught up in it.

An excellent way to put it. I couldn’t agree more. That, in my opinion, was the highlight of the film for me. Even though there were special effects aplenty, it didn’t feel too “manufactured”. Just right, in my honest opinion. But then again, my opinion is my own…you may disagree.

Overall, Prince Caspian was an enjoyable movie. It did the trick on a long holiday weekend where I didn’t really have too much else to do other than build furniture for my mom. I have to say that came out nice, and I’ll be taking pictures of it to show off my handywork :-). Oh, and I’ve got an exciting annoucement (for me, anyway) that I hope will bring lots of attention and great stuff for you guys, just for reading (and commenting) on this blog! That’s just a “preview” though, so look out for that.

So, did you see Prince Caspian? What did you think?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!