I'm finally done with the biggest chunk of my summer grad school work! It didn't allow me time to write reviews, but I did still manage to see most of the movies so far this summer. So in the next few posts I'll write up some quick reviews of the movies I've seen so far, as well as previews of the movies I haven't yet watched.
Reviews of What I've Seen:
May 2nd
Opening Weekend: $91.6 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 53%
Trailer here.
Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is another reboot that fails to live up to previous works, held back by writing, directing, and acting that makes it feel more like a 90's Batman film. The chemistry between the two leading characters, however, make the film bearable. Full review here.
Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is another reboot that fails to live up to previous works, held back by writing, directing, and acting that makes it feel more like a 90's Batman film. The chemistry between the two leading characters, however, make the film bearable. Full review here.
The Final Word: 2/4 - Wait to rent it.
May 9th
Chef: A chef who loses his restaurant job starts up a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family.
Opening Weekend: $1.9 million
May 23rd
X-Men: Days of Future Past: The X-Men send Wolverine to the past in a desperate effort to change history and prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants.
Opening Weekend: $90.8 million
May 30th
Maleficent: A vengeful fairy is driven to curse an infant princess, only to discover that the child may be the one person who can restore peace to their troubled land.
Opening Weekend: $69.4 million
Previews of What I Haven't Seen
May 2nd
Bad Johnson: A charismatic womanizer receives his comeuppance after his penis leaves his body and takes human form.
May 9th
Opening Weekend: $1.9 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Review: While it is a somewhat predictable tale of reconciliation and reinvention, director Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Elf) crafts a film which radiates earnest enthusiasm for it's themes as clearly as it celebrates the delight of cooking. Be prepared to leave the theater hungry for a Cubano sandwich and for more films like Chef.
The Final Word: 3.5/4 - Go buy a ticket.
Neighbors: A couple with a newborn baby face unexpected difficulties after they are forced to live next to a fraternity house.
Opening Weekend: $49 million
Opening Weekend: $49 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Review: A movie from Seth Rogen (Pineapple Express) is bound to have it's fair share of marijuana and penis jokes and Neighbors is no exception. But rather than being played out, it works in this film because of Rogen's willingness to share the screen with co-stars Zac Efron (That Awkward Moment) and Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids) and the inventiveness of the plot and jokes.
The Final Word: 3.5/4 - Go buy a ticket.
May 16th
Godzilla: The world's most famous monster is pitted against malevolent creatures who, bolstered by humanity's scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence.
Opening Weekend: $93.2 million
May 16th
Opening Weekend: $93.2 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Review: Offering a darker and more true-to-canon version of the monster than the previous 1998 film, this Godzilla from Gareth Edwards (Monsters) more effectively captures the awe-inspiring destructive power of "Gojira." However, a prolonged exposition to establish characters is followed by a second half filled solely with city razing and monster battling. A better film would have balanced character and action throughout.
The Final Word: 3/4 - Go buy a matinee ticket.
May 23rd
Opening Weekend: $90.8 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Review: The X-Men franchise has been largely hit (X1, X2) and miss (X3, Origins: Wolverine), with plenty of in-betweens. Days of Future Past is not only a hit, but it's time travel elements allow it to fix some of the problems with past misses. It's fast-paced, involves characters from the original trilogy and First Class, and is a thoroughly fun-filled romp whose only problem is a climax that could have had a bit more action.
The Final Word: 3.5/4 - Go buy a ticket.
May 30th
Opening Weekend: $69.4 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 50%
Review: While Angelina Jolie (Salt) gives a stellar performance in Maleficent as the titular villain from the Sleeping Beauty tale, she does so in a film guided by absolutely sloppy story writing. In a movie about a villain, the main character is only given one single scene to display true wickedness. It's a disappointing film on par with other recent live-action fairy-tales.
The Final Word: 2/4 - Wait to rent it.
A Million Ways to Die in the West: As a cowardly farmer begins to fall for the mysterious new woman in town, he must put his new-found courage to the test when her husband, a notorious gun-slinger, announces his arrival.
Opening Weekend: $16.8 million
Opening Weekend: $16.8 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 33%
Review: Expectations were high for Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) following his hilarious directorial debut with Ted. Those expectations do not come close to being met as A Million Ways to Die in the West goes for cheap gimmicks time and again in a story that is as desultory as it is overlong. The film has an eclectic cast, but it is perhaps the broader scope of Million Ways which is the undoing of MacFarlane, who now needs to prove Ted isn't his one-hit movie-wonder. That his next film is Ted 2 isn't going to help MacFarlane's cause.
The Final Word: 1/5 - Maybe catch it on tv if you're bored.
Previews of What I Haven't Seen
May 2nd
Opening Weekend: n/a
Rotten Tomatoes: 33%
Trailer here.
Belle: An illegitimate mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral is raised by her aristocratic great-uncle.
Beneath the Harvest Sky: A teen drama set during the fall potato harvest in a small northern Maine town.
Mr. Jones: A young couple moves to the woods and soon finds their nightmares and reality colliding.
Walk of Shame: A reporter's dream of becoming a news anchor is compromised after a one-night stand leaves her stranded in downtown L.A. without a phone, car, ID or money - and only 8 hours to make it to the most important job interview of her life.
Opening Weekend: $39,751
Whitewash: Bruce, a down-on-his-luck snowplow operator, accidentally kills a man during a drunken night joyride. As the authorities begin to close in, Bruce falls apart mentally and morally and mysteries unravel to reveal who he was before the accident, the truth behind his victim, and the circumstances that brought them together.
May 9th
Devil's Knot: The savage murders of three young children sparks a controversial trial of three teenagers accused of killing the kids as part of a satanic ritual.
The Double: A clerk in a government agency finds his unenviable life takes a turn for the horrific with the arrival of a new co-worker who is both his exact physical double and his opposite - confident, charismatic and seductive with women.
God's Pocket: When Mickey's crazy step-son Leon is killed in a construction 'accident', nobody in the working class neighborhood of God's Pocket is sorry he's gone. But when the boy's mother demands the truth, Mickey finds himself stuck in a life-and-death struggle between a body he can't bury, a wife he can't please, and a debt he can't pay.
Opening Weekend: $21,482
Moms' Night Out: All Allyson and her friends want is a peaceful, long-needed moms' night out. But to enjoy high heels, adult conversation, and food not served in a bag, they need their husbands to watch the kids for a few hours... what could go wrong?
Rage: When the daughter of a reformed criminal is kidnapped, he rounds up his old crew and seeks his own brand of justice.
Stage Fright: A snobby musical theater camp is terrorized by a blood-thirsty killer who hates musical theater.
May 16th
Don Peyote: Warren Allman, an unemployed stoner, finally finds a purpose in life after an unpleasant encounter with a homeless man preaching the end is near. Fueled by vivid apocalyptic dreams, Warren becomes obsessed with 2012 doomsday theories and decides to make a documentary.
The Immigrant: In 1921, unfortunate circumstances drive newly arrived immigrant Ewa into a life of prostitution, and a complex, volatile relationship with two men - her conflicted pimp and his romantic cousin.
Million Dollar Arm: A sports agent stages an unconventional recruitment strategy to get talented Indian cricket players to play Major League Baseball.
Opening Weekend: $10.5 million
A Night in Old Mexico: Forced to give up his land and only home, cantankerous Texas rancher Red Bovie isn't about to go quietly into a dismal trailer park and instead goes off with his grandson Gally for one last adventure during a night in Old Mexico.
Wolf Creek 2: The outback once more becomes a place of horror as another unwitting tourist becomes the prey for crazed, serial-killing pig-hunter Mick Taylor.
May 23rd
The Angriest Man in Brooklyn: A curmudgeonly man (Robin Williams) is mistakenly told that he has 90 minutes to live by his doctor and promptly sets out to reconcile with his wife, brother and friends in the short time he believes he has left.
Blended: After a bad blind date, a man and woman find themselves stuck together at a resort for families, where their attraction grows as their respective kids benefit from the burgeoning relationship.
Tracks: A young woman goes on a 1,700 mile trek across the deserts of West Australia with her four camels and faithful dog.
Opening Weekend: n/a
Words and Pictures: An art instructor and an English teacher form a rivalry that ends up with a competition at their school in which students decide whether words or pictures are more important.
May 30th
Filth: A corrupt cop manipulates and hallucinates his way through a bid to secure a promotion and win back his wife and daughter.
Night Moves: Three radical environmentalists look to execute the protest of their lives: the explosion of a hydroelectric dam.
We Are the Best: Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band -- despite not having any instruments and being told by everyone that punk is dead.
Belle: An illegitimate mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral is raised by her aristocratic great-uncle.
Opening Weekend: $106,578
Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
Trailer here.
Beneath the Harvest Sky: A teen drama set during the fall potato harvest in a small northern Maine town.
Opening Weekend: $16,768
Rotten Tomatoes: 67%
Trailer here.
Decoding Annie Parker: Love, science, sex, infidelity, disease and comedy, the wild, mostly true story of the irrepressible Annie Parker and the almost discovery of a cure for cancer.
Opening Weekend: $16,781
Rotten Tomatoes: 55%
Trailer here.
Mr. Jones: A young couple moves to the woods and soon finds their nightmares and reality colliding.
Opening Weekend: n/a
Rotten Tomatoes: 25%
Trailer here.
Walk of Shame: A reporter's dream of becoming a news anchor is compromised after a one-night stand leaves her stranded in downtown L.A. without a phone, car, ID or money - and only 8 hours to make it to the most important job interview of her life.
Opening Weekend: $39,751
Rotten Tomatoes: 13%
Trailer here.
Whitewash: Bruce, a down-on-his-luck snowplow operator, accidentally kills a man during a drunken night joyride. As the authorities begin to close in, Bruce falls apart mentally and morally and mysteries unravel to reveal who he was before the accident, the truth behind his victim, and the circumstances that brought them together.
Opening Weekend: n/a
Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
Trailer here.
May 9th
Opening Weekend: n/a
Rotten Tomatoes: 22%
Trailer here.
The Double: A clerk in a government agency finds his unenviable life takes a turn for the horrific with the arrival of a new co-worker who is both his exact physical double and his opposite - confident, charismatic and seductive with women.
Opening Weekend: $14,646
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Trailer here.
God's Pocket: When Mickey's crazy step-son Leon is killed in a construction 'accident', nobody in the working class neighborhood of God's Pocket is sorry he's gone. But when the boy's mother demands the truth, Mickey finds himself stuck in a life-and-death struggle between a body he can't bury, a wife he can't please, and a debt he can't pay.
Rotten Tomatoes: 30%
Trailer here.
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return: Dorothy wakes up in post-tornado Kansas, only to be whisked back to Oz to try to save her old friends the Scarecrow, the Lion, the Tin Man and Glinda from a devious new villain, the Jester.
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return: Dorothy wakes up in post-tornado Kansas, only to be whisked back to Oz to try to save her old friends the Scarecrow, the Lion, the Tin Man and Glinda from a devious new villain, the Jester.
Opening Weekend: $3.7 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 16%
Trailer here.
Moms' Night Out: All Allyson and her friends want is a peaceful, long-needed moms' night out. But to enjoy high heels, adult conversation, and food not served in a bag, they need their husbands to watch the kids for a few hours... what could go wrong?
Opening Weekend: $4.3 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 17%
Trailer here.
Palo Alto: April is the class virgin, torn between illicit flirtations with her soccer coach Mr. B and sweet stoner Teddy. Emily offers sexual favors to every boy to cross her path, including Teddy and his best friend Fred, a live wire without boundaries. As April and Teddy struggle to admit their mutual affection, Fred's escalating recklessness starts to spiral into chaos.
Opening Weekend: $63,461
Rotten Tomatoes: 72%
Trailer here.
Rage: When the daughter of a reformed criminal is kidnapped, he rounds up his old crew and seeks his own brand of justice.
Opening Weekend: n/a
Rotten Tomatoes: n/a
Trailer here.
Stage Fright: A snobby musical theater camp is terrorized by a blood-thirsty killer who hates musical theater.
Opening Weekend: $3,562
Rotten Tomatoes: 33%
Trailer here.
May 16th
Opening Weekend: n/a
Rotten Tomatoes: 8%
Trailer here.
The Immigrant: In 1921, unfortunate circumstances drive newly arrived immigrant Ewa into a life of prostitution, and a complex, volatile relationship with two men - her conflicted pimp and his romantic cousin.
Opening Weekend: $44,064
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
Trailer here.
Million Dollar Arm: A sports agent stages an unconventional recruitment strategy to get talented Indian cricket players to play Major League Baseball.
Rotten Tomatoes: 61%
Trailer here.
A Night in Old Mexico: Forced to give up his land and only home, cantankerous Texas rancher Red Bovie isn't about to go quietly into a dismal trailer park and instead goes off with his grandson Gally for one last adventure during a night in Old Mexico.
Opening Weekend: n/a
Rotten Tomatoes: 44%
Trailer here.
Wolf Creek 2: The outback once more becomes a place of horror as another unwitting tourist becomes the prey for crazed, serial-killing pig-hunter Mick Taylor.
Opening Weekend: n/a
Rotten Tomatoes: 48%
Trailer here.
May 23rd
Opening Weekend: n/a
Rotten Tomatoes: 12%
Trailer here.
Blended: After a bad blind date, a man and woman find themselves stuck together at a resort for families, where their attraction grows as their respective kids benefit from the burgeoning relationship.
Opening Weekend: $14.3 million
Rotten Tomatoes: 14%
Trailer here.
Tracks: A young woman goes on a 1,700 mile trek across the deserts of West Australia with her four camels and faithful dog.
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Trailer here.
Words and Pictures: An art instructor and an English teacher form a rivalry that ends up with a competition at their school in which students decide whether words or pictures are more important.
Opening Weekend: $87,879
Rotten Tomatoes: 39%
Trailer here.
May 30th
Filth: A corrupt cop manipulates and hallucinates his way through a bid to secure a promotion and win back his wife and daughter.
Opening Weekend: $7,526
Rotten Tomatoes: 63%
Trailer here.
The Grand Seduction: The small harbor of Tickle Cove has no doctor. Village resident Murray French leads the search and, when he finds Dr. Paul Lewis, he and the rest of the town employ tactics to seduce the doctor to stay permanently.
Opening Weekend: $323,743
Rotten Tomatoes: 61%
Trailer here.
Night Moves: Three radical environmentalists look to execute the protest of their lives: the explosion of a hydroelectric dam.
Opening Weekend: $21,488
Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
Trailer here.
We Are the Best: Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band -- despite not having any instruments and being told by everyone that punk is dead.
Opening Weekend: $17,664
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
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