Friends With Kids: Not Bridesmaids 2...But Still Good.

Oh dear...Has it really been almost two weeks? Jeez...I feel kinda bad. Bet you're all waiting for the latest reviews with bated breath. My bad, kids. My bad.

It's ok, guys, I know you need your fix.

Anyway, so on the rather blustery day (Winnie the Pooh? Anyone?) of Saturday, Allison and I went and saw Friends With Kids, starring half the cast of Bridesmaids. But do not be fooled, this movie is filled with all kinds of emotional issues that are more serious than you might be expecting.

Hint: Apparently these things aren't adorable all the time.

The plot revolves around Julie (Jennifer Westfeldt) and Jason (Adam Scott, whom you might recognize from Stepbrothers). Both have been best friends for forever and have been looking at the lives that their best friends now lead as parents. Seeing all of the emotional strain that it puts on their friends' marriages and deciding to opt out of that, they decide to have a child together but see other people. However, even as they start dating the people of their dreams, they start to question the decisions that they've made.

How could having sex with your best friend possibly get complicated!?

In the same vein as Will Farrell going from hilarious and outrageous comedies like Stepbrothers to incredibly serious fodder like Everything Must Go, FriendsWith Kids is not going to be the sequel to Bridesmaids that we've all been dreaming of. That being said, though, the movie gains in emotion what it loses in cheap laughs. In a realistic sort of backdrop, you can feel the characters' confusion as each couple starts to question, defend, and even make rash decisions about their marriages and friendships. And as for the main friendship/romance(?) between Julie and Jason as they try to raise their little baby boy, nothing seems less caricatured.

And I mean, check out the sick cast. need I say more?

Jennifer Westfeldt really wrote and directed the whole thing, which I find incredible. I had no idea when I was watching the film, but she really did a good job bringing all of life's elements into the plot: friendship, romance, love, despair, success, failure, things not making sense in life even though they're supposed to on paper...gah. Good movie. Stuck with me all day on Sunday.

Just a really sweet and really realistic love story, guys. Go see it.

8 outa 10 (I'm a sucker for romantic movies)

Also don't be deceived by how light the trailer seems, there's actually a lot of drama in this as well. Enjoy!

Modern Movies Just Don't Know When to Shut Up

This isn't really a review of any particular film, but I was just watching Dirty Rotten Scoundrels for the first time and its ending really made me think about how much modern movies contrast those of the 80s and 90s.

It's also quite possible that I am merely blinded by this dynamic duo in action.

Maybe it's now considered dated or perhaps stupid to not leave a movie open-ended for a sequel, but I miss the good old fashioned closure of a dumb, feel-good movie. I feel like mainstream movies today have sort of fallen to adjusting their endings to make way for sequels, hoping that their audience will follow them into a second, third, and (totally not uncommon anymore) fourth installment of characters that they apparently liked the first go-around.

But what happens with these supposed lucky movies that get to cash in on the franchise of any actor's dreams?

They totally lose their original flavor.

Look at movies-turned-franchises like The Pirates of the Caribbean, X Men, or Indiana Jones. Pirates of the Caribbean started out as a kickass tale of adventure and mystical realism that was simple but effective. Now all that they're relying on are the more and more unpredictable and stupid antics of the character Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp, as if you all didn't know). And between the three franchises, the plots get so increasingly convoluted with every new film, that the audience is left with nothing to cling to except for the familiarity of the original characters amidst a muddled and usually overambitious plot.

Bet it feels good to be followed blindly by a cult audience, doesn't it?

Similarly, we have been seeing a trend lately with remakes. Like, ok, I understand when you see a movie from the 50s and you think "Man! I love this movie, but we could totally revamp it with modern technology and make it more accessible to modern audiences!" but when I start seeing movies like The Hulk or, even more recently, Spiderman being redone within a decade, you gotta wonder "Um..why?"

Not that superhero movies aren't also a huge deal right now, but why bother remaking a franchise that already had loads and loads of success? That not only ups the ante to make the characters more likable than the last round of actors, but you also have to give it its own distinction completely separate from its predecessor. Not that these aren't good things in general. I mean, jeez, look at the Batman saga before it got revamped last decade.

I think puns got temporarily outlawed after the injustice they suffered at the hands of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze.

But at the same time, it cheapens both movies by allowing them to sort of blur together.

Where's the originality, Hollywood?

Guess we're gonna have to rely on the gems of the past for a while until they can bring back their A-game, or at least catch up to the indie scene and make films that are actually halfway original. Jeez...

Getting back to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, though, it really was a sweet film. Michael Caine's favorite movie that he ever performed in, and hilarious scene from Steve Martin as Caine's sidekick posing as his idiot brother, Ruprecht. You can totally tell Caine's trying desperately not to laugh. Skip ahead to 2:00 to watch Steve Martin in action as Ruprecht:

Winter's Bone: Icy by Every Definition

So I started watching Winter's Bone because I had heard rave reviews about Jennifer Lawrence in it last year, not realizing of course that she was also the actress that just starred in the hit The Hunger Games.

No, Katniss doesn't dye her hair blonde. This is a different movie.

Starting the movie on Netflix not really knowing anything besides that the movie was just the story of a girl looking for her dad, I didn't really have any expectations. But...wow. I was completely blown away by Jennifer Lawrence's performance as Ree Dolly and the raw footage and feel of the cold Ozark Mountains life in the backwoods.

The plot, as I said before, revolves around Ree looking for her father, but let me elaborate a little. Ree is a seventeen-year-old girl living in her family's house in the woods of rural Ozark territory, and caring after her mentally ill mother, and two little siblings, Sonny (who is 12) and Ashlee (who is 8, I think. And also adorable). One day the local sheriff turns up at her house asking if she has seen her daddy, a known meth-cooker in the area.

Also, you might recognize him as the dad from Raising Hope

She says she hasn't seen him in weeks and the sheriff then enlightens her to the fact that if they cannot find him, there will be hell to pay. Apparently her father put their house up for bail bond and if he doesn't show up for his court date, they lose their house, leaving Ree and her three dependents to wander the woods in their own property.

With steely resolve, Ree takes it upon herself to find her father. Through dealings with some seriously nasty people, most being her actual relatives, Ree discovers the hard way how the "law" works out in the sticks.

Hint hint.

In a weird way, (seriously weird way, but deal with me here), this movie is very Coal Miner's Daughter meets Boyz N the Hood. There's no sugar coating in this movie. These people are ruled over by themselves, with the law only occasionally stepping in to take charge, and the peoples' law is kept in order with terrifying consequences. In the same niche as territory and unspoken rules go in gang movies, these backwoods people have serious rules about the secrets that they keep, and what the penalties are for going against their ways.

The cinematography in this is absolutely wonderful. I feel like it is extremely hard to find a movie this horrifyingly realistic and yet this raw. You get chapped hands just watching Ree wonder through the woods looking for the next person to give her what could be anything from a threat to actual help. And forget overacting, these people seem like they were plucked out of the mountains by their mannerisms and accents.

Totally non-ironic wearing of a wolf-decorated sweatshirt.

All around awesome. I highly recommend. And just for the record, I liked Jennifer Lawrence a lot better in this than I did in The Hunger Games.

7.5 outa 10

Tintin: A 10-Year-Old's Indiana Jones

So on Friday, being immobilized after the activities of Thursday night, I took it upon myself to not leave my bed all day.

Good thing I have a TV in my room!

Allison and I (see! I told you I had girl friends!) piled all of our pillows onto my bed and turned on the movie The Adventures of Tintin, which we got a few days ago from a Redbox (New favorite thing. Seriously. Movies for a dollar. Awesome.).

Now, I had wanted to see Tintin in theaters, partially because movies in general are always just better in theaters and partially because it looked like they had fit so much artistry into this film that seeing it on a small screen would really detract from the whole effect. Even after seeing it, I still feel like I would rather have watched it on a big screen, cuz, man, this movie is a real dazzler.

Sparkle and shine.

The plot revolves around Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell), a journalist (though we never really see him writing anything) in his early 20's who is always solving mysteries, the adorable red-headed scamp. He also gets some help from his dog, Snowy. On the day that that film begins, he is at a small flea market and finds a model ship that he's extremely interested in buying.

Ooh. Ahh.

After haggling for about five seconds, he ends up getting the ship. Literally two seconds after the old man sells him the thing, an American comes up to Tintin and pantingly warns him that he will be in grave danger if he doesn't get rid of the ship immediately. Tintin, like all adorable youngsters from the 40s, assures the man that he doesn't wanna get rid of the ship cuz, well, it's pretty awesome and probably worth any level of danger it might bring (you know a kid from today would dump that ship in the nearest trash can and run like hell). The American runs away and is then replaced by a man who claims to be a noble, and offers Tintin any price he wants for the model ship. Tintin again insists that it's not for sale and goes on his merry way.

Later that day Tintin comes home to find his home ransacked and the ship stolen and decides to investigate the case of this mysterious ship.

What investigating looked like before the internet, kids.

Along this adventure he gets kidnapped, ends up abroad, crosses a desert, and even flies a plane, among a mass of cool chases and comical fighting scenes. He also encounters a sea captain with a rather intense drinking problem (who could be the answer to all of the model ships' mysteries), a pickpocket's side story and a story as old as a legend.

Well first of all, this movie is beautifully crafted. Being set in Europe, Tin Tin captures all of the charm of the mid-20th century while simultaneously incorporating the essence of the cartoon and the wonder of faraway lands and legends. It's extremely nostalgic for Hollywood glamour and old timey pizazz without going over modern kids' heads.

Beauteous.

Second of all the characters are great. I was expecting Tintin to start getting on my nerves (seriously, boyish charm can morph very quickly into stupidity), but he's so balanced out by the hilarious Captain Haddock (voiced by Andy Serkis), that really both characters end up being pretty likeable. And Tintin's personality ends up having a bit of an edge to it at times that makes him more human than I really expected him to be.

He gets a gun? Upgrade!

Bottom line for this adventure is that I really loved it. It's simple storyline has that sort of Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys feel to it that a lot of movies today don't take more advantage of. It ended up being sort of a mixture of Indiana Jones and Sherlock type mystery.

But a huuuuge part of why I loved it is also just the visual quality of the film itself. They really did not cut any corners in making sure the lighting, character movements, sets, and (a common problem in 3D movies) HAIR all looked incredibly realistic. Additionally, they did not compromise the fact that this film is based on the comic series, making the proportions of the characters faces comical and caricatured as they should be.

See?

Somehow it all ended up working and the end result is a beautiful nostalgic children's film. Check it out!

7.5 outa 10.

The Hmmmger Games

Hmmmm...

Couldn't have said it better myself

Well, kids. I finally saw it. I bit the bullet. I took a chance. And all I have to say is...

"Well...That happened."

For my fellow book-readers, I hope you will understand when I say that I didn't NOT like the movie, but it left so much to be desired as compared to the book that the experience was kind of lackluster. Alas, even two and a half hours was not quite long enough to get the incredible amount of information onto the screen.

For those of you who don't know the plot (is that possible at this point in the media frenzy?), The Hunger Games is a competition held by the futuristic dystopian nation of Panem (used to be the US, fyi) to keep all 12 of their assorted districts in line after a horrible uprising almost a century beforehand. Each district has to send a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to fight to the death in a competition that will result in the victor's district getting special treatment for a year.

So at the center of our plot, we have Katniss Everdeen, a girl from District 12 (the coal-mining district. not that that is incredibly relevent.) who has fought for the past few years to keep her family from starving after her father died in a mine explosion. On the day of The Reaping, her beloved little sister gets called up to be placed in the Hunger Games and, in order to spare her, Katniss volunteers to take her place. Also called is Peeta Mellark(y), who ends up trying to save her throughout the games, either because he has his own agenda or because he is in love with Katniss (you don't figure it out til the end).

So! Let's get to what is good about this movie first:

Excellent costumes. They really take the bizarre Lady Gaga fashions of Panem and bring them to life. Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) especially has some truly astounding fashion choices and the scenes at The Capital are brilliant.

Who knew Lady Gaga could see this far into the fashion future? Cray.

Also they really seemed to realize the commentary on spectating that the book suggests. That humans can become extremely base when anything is done for pure sport or spectacle, and that when things become entertainment, reality gets extremely blurry. Especially for the people living in The Capital; you can tell that their lowest priority is the welfare of these children and that to them it is all a game.

All in all, it was more or less an accurate visual of what I had already imagined in my head, which was a huge plus.

I mean there's really no better person they could have chosen for Caesar

Alright...gettin down to brass tacks...

I was not all that impressed with the over-dramatization of the characters. Just because you make something shorter does not mean that you have to up the emotional integrity of each character. I felt like the actors took their characters from the book and turned the volume up to 11 (Spinal Tap? Anyone?). Peeta was turned from a sensitive guy into a needy over-the-top baby, Cinna went from Yoda-figure to hip gay buddy (and Lenny Kravitz? What? Really? Why? Awful.), and Hamitch went from a complex gruff and standoffish character with a heart to over-invested sober person (NOT sober for very long at all in the book, just for the record).

Putting on gold eyeliner doesn't make you Cinna. It just makes you Lenny Kravitz wearing gold eyeliner.

Another issue that I had was the lack of violence. Let me justify that statement: the book makes all of the deaths somewhat vivid to bring attention to how incredibly backwards it is to have children fight to their own imminent deaths. The spear that hits Rue, in the film, doesn't even go completely through her. Doesn't that go against science? Likewise, all of the deaths at the Cornucopia were made blurry by fast camera-shaking and such so that you barely even saw any of the kids actually getting killed. That kind of PG-13 violence doesn't really drive home the effed up factor that the books do.

I don't know, maybe part of my problem is just that it's NOT the book. And the book was so much better. Books can take their time explaining things to you because things take a while to happen in real time. Even in most chapters you don't have the magnitude of cuts and scenes that you have in a movie. And even when the cuts and such match the structure of the book, things like music, camera shots, and all kinds of other factors end up taking the story from real to overdramatic almost every time. Another issue is that movies can't really pull off inner monologue without being cheesy, which is a shame because inner monologue makes up about half of Katniss's character.

So. In conclusion. The Hunger Games movie: not bad. But I wouldn't go to it expecting to be impressed if you got reeeaally into the books.

6 outa 10.

Also the Hollywood monkeys disabled embedding for all of the Hunger Games trailers so I'm gonna go ahead and let you seek it out for yourself (as if you haven't seen it already).

21 Jump Street: A Lovely Surprise

Sooo this weekend, instead of joining the masses and flocking to the nearest theater to see The Hunger Games, Bill came up to visit and we decided to opt, instead, for 21 Jump Street.

Now, I had been told by my mom that this movie had been pretty hilarious, but I had my doubts. I mean honestly, if moms are seeing it how good could it really be? But I must have seriously underestimated how cool Cath is because me and Bill were doubled over in the theater cracking up.

But high school movies never come to a crux at the prom!?

The movie is, of course, based off of the old 80's TV series of the same name, formerly starring Johnny Depp and that other guy that was in A Night At the Roxbury (I wanna say Greico?). But it isn't the same characters, reinvented as so many other shows have tried to do (Starsky and Hutch, The Dukes of Hazard, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Addams Family, aaand I'm gonna stop there cuz this could go on for a while). This movie features Schmidt and Jenko (Joanh Hill and Channing Tatum) as a couple of awful cops that get downgraded to being sent back to high school undercover to take down a synthetic drug ring.

I mean, that's really the entire plot. It also involves the two characters getting into a fight and then reconciling but I feel like that's kind of a given.

The real humor in this movie comes from their portrayal of how different high schools are now as opposed to around 2005. It was kind of funny to see how they portray 2005 too, haha. Velour jumpsuits, bleached hair, and letterman jackets.

Ah, memories

And when the two cops go back to school all of the stereotypes that they had while they themselves had been in high school have now been completely morphed. They are now dealing with a hipster kind of crowd being the center of the popular ring, which means that bullying, fossil fuels, and littering are way not cool man.

He rules a drug ring and still has time to work on the school yearbook

As a result, instead of Jenko (obviously a cool kid back in the day) taking over as the new king of the school, they flip the stereotypes on their heads and make Schmidt the new popular kid. Even though Schmidt was a total nerd in high school, these qualities of his have now become cool. So I guess a huge portion of the plot is also having both boys reconcile their past high school experiences with the ones that they have to go through as undercover cops. Schmidt lets popularity go to his head while Jenko gets humbled after becoming BFFs with the chemistry nerds.

SO. MANY. FUNNY. SCENES.

I don't know whether it's just the fact that they are so full-heartedly making fun of hipsters, that I'm old and I understand where Schmidt and Jenko are coming from, or that the writing is just really on mark, but this movie was hilarious. It was like a cross between Never Been Kissed and The Other Guys. Sweet teen comedy but also raunchy and outrageous. Just real enough to make a point but goofy enough that it's something new.

"Doves"

Seriously, I would see it again. Don't get peer pressured into seeing just The Hunger Games, cuz this one was pretty sweet too.

7 and a half outa 10.

Also keep an eye out for cameos from some of your favorite TV actors!

Little Voice: If Ya Like 50s Music and Getting Caught in the Rain

Alas, my friends. I have not seen The Hunger Games yet. Mostly because I've been working my butt off covering my coworker's shift for the past nine days and couldn't convince myself that I could get through nine hours of work on the five hours of sleep I would've gotten after seeing the midnight showing of the movie (which totally sucked, cuz midnight releases are the best). But the review will be written the minute that I get home, so just hold your horses.

Nope, had to resort back to my good ole buddy, Netflix, who saw me through this difficult time and offered me the same movies it's been recommending me for about a year (I'll watch them when I'm ready, damnit!). Fortunately for Netlfix, my friend Josh (I do have friends that are girls, by the way, they just never recommend me movies. I'll bring them up someday.) told me to watch one that they've been recommending to me literally for a year, if not longer. The name of the movie was Little Voice and, to tell you the truth, I never watched it because I didn't know anything at all about it. It ended up being a really cool movie, though, both in terms of plot and in terms of its entertainment value.

I already said what the name of the movie was, you don't have to point at it...

The plot follows a girl named LV (short for Little Voice. Just clarifying.) and her tyrannical mother, Mari (Brenda Blethyn). LV (Jane Horrocks) and her mother live in a quaint little British town where nothing ever really seems to happen, until Mari starts seeing a washed up talent agent named Ray Say (Michael Caine). After a night of laughs ends with the two of them trying to kick LV out of the living room, they accidentally end up discovering that LV maybe has a bigger voice than they had ever imagined. Ray then takes matters into his own hands trying to make LV into the star he's always dreamed of, with Mari only too happy to comply, but when each of them underestimates the fragility of her character, all hell breaks loose.

She's probably not singing but screaming. Probably.

The movie is interesting in that it is a lot of fun but also a really intense commentary on human relationships. LV is obsessed with the records of her dead father, who she was extremely close to. It is because of the amount of times that she has listened to his records that she can mimic the tones and mannerisms of all of his favorite stars. LV seems to also stand out in the plot as a comment on nostalgia and the dangers of letting it consume you.

LV, Ray, aaaand LV's dead dad at center.

Completely opposite of LV is her loud and obnoxious mother, a character that at first you hate, but then almost grow to feel sorry for. While she is totally oversexed and loudmouthed, there seems to be a deep rooted loneliness about her that almost makes you empathetic to her when she watches as her daughter takes over the attentions of Ray Say.

Love me!?

The movie's plot is also really simple but in a different way. Typical good versus evil story but with an unusual character that keeps the plot realistic and show tunes which give it an edge of surreality.

Ewan MeGregor also has a small part as LV's boyish love interest, which keeps the two of them almost childlike in the intensely corrupt atmosphere that surrounds them.

Interesting contrasts and a great soundtrack (seriously, if you only watch one scene, watch the scene of LV totally killin' all of her dad's favorite records. Or else the one where she flips out at her mom. Both great scenes).

7 outa 10 stars.

Couldn't find a trailer, so here's a clip for y'all.