VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Ted (2012)
4.4/5 stars, 8/10 from both of us.
Native Rating: 4.2/5 stars Netflix, 7.4/10 IMDB.
It’s pretty hard for Seth MacFarlane to do wrong. It’s about time he got a full movie out of his efforts.
This was funny, as well as unique and touching and relevant for the holidays.
I would have perhaps liked it a bit more if it was more risque, but I think I’m just desensitized from all the fucked up shit I watched. Apparently people had issues with things like 911 jokes and cocaine use.
Anyway…. I had a teddy bear when I was little… Though I never wished for him to be real, using such an childhood archtype was a really good device for driving the movie.
This had a lot of fun aspects. Good times.
LINK URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637725/
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[IMDB link] [Netflix link]
PLOT SUMMARY: Factory worker Doug Quaid suspects that he may actually be a spy whose memory has been wiped clean.
BACKWARD PLOT SUMMARY: Mass transit terrorist rewarded with uneventful factory job, hot wife.
QUIRKS: Based on a Philip K. Dick novel, like so many Hollywood movies.
VISUALS: The movie *looked* a lot better than the original, and as movies are a visual medium, that means a LOT to me. If you only care about plot and not looks, you should read a book. I care about both. Even actress-wise Kate Beckinsdale and Jessica Biel are both way better looking than Sharon Stone (and I’m saying this as one who prefers blondes).
REMAKE RANT: It’s wrong to call this a remake of the 1990 movie, as it’s actually another adaptation of the book. As such, it was completely different, with different aspects used, different aspects dicarded, different levels of ambiguity, and differnet plot emphasis. The only thing that is shared is some of the original theme and plot feel. There is no Mars. There is instead “The Colony”, which is basically Australia. There are no mutants. But this movie has “The Fall”, which the 1990 movie didn’t. They are just two very different movies that share less than people want. Basically, anything that was missing from the 1990 movie people complained about, but I know from The Hangover 2 that if you make a movie exactly like the “original”, people will complain about that just as much as if you change a movie from the original. So you can’t win.
BAD STUFF: There was a lot of “chease scene-ism” that got in the way of developing characters a bit more, but hey, this is an action sci-fi movie, if you want a bunch of cerebrial internalism, read the Philip K. Dick book.
CONCLUSION: I thought it was an awesome. I honestly don’t really remember the 1990 movie that much. I liked this one better. So…. Yet another remake I enjoyed while everyone else complained.
RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 4.6/5 stars. IMDB: 8.2/10.
Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10.
Native rating: 4.6/5 stars on Netflix (same as the 1990 original), 6.3/10 on imdb (compared to 7.5/10 imdb rating for the 1990 version).
RECOMMENDATION: See it, most especially if you aren’t a hater who’s going to whine that it isn’t the same movie as it was in 1990.
MOVIE QUOTE: “I give good wife.” I read a lot of hate on the line “I give good wife”, which I actually thought was a brilliant line. People were thinking it was a reference to oral sex? Huh? It was more about her ability to go through the motions, and fake it in a way would be gratifying. It was not about sex. It was about faking an entire relationship. I thought it really captured her character’s one-dimensional bitchiness. (more…)
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VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
4.6/5 stars from Clint, 4/5 stars from Carolyn.
8/10 from both of us.
Native rating of 4/5 stars (Netflix) and 7.3/10 (IMDB).
So ridiculously soon for a reboot, yet…. This had aspects no other Spider-Man interpretation has ever had, like a backstory Peter Parker’s parents. And Gwen Stacy instead of Mary-Jane. The Lizard instead of Doc Ock and the Green Goblin.
This movie broke the typical cliches of every Spider-Man first being the exact same story. And that’s something comic books do, y’know? Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, etc. – Things get rebooted, re-done, re-interpreted, so that good franchises can live forever without getting stale.
But if you do it in a movie people will get mad. Apparently there should be exactly one movie for all things, and whatever is first will be best and should never be redone.
Anyway, this was more emo and awkward than most Spider-Mans, but then, Spider-Man is supposed to be an awkward nerd. Â While we could argue Toby MacGuire was satisfactorily nerdy — there’s definitely room to go derper, and the new guy came off as even more awkward and more nerdy.
So that aspect felt truer to the comic. Enough hate already.
LINK URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0948470/
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Claire's blog 