Claire's blog

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: My Cousin Vinny (1992)

Claire: 4.3/5 stars, 8.2/10.
Carolyn: 3.4/5 stars, 7.6/10.
Native ratings: 3.8/5 stars Netflix, 7.5/10 IMDB.

A court procedural… comedy?! This was a zany movie about proving one’s innocence in court in a redneck town when the odds are stacked against you. There’s even a social commentary about how justice is only for the rich — The only reason Vinny is their lawyer is because they can’t afford a real one.

Joe Pescie & Marisa Tomei were great together–and then they never did a movie together again. Where’d their careers go?  Then again, we have Daniel from The Karate Kid, and  Herman Munster as the local redneck judge, so maybe this movie is for people with washed-up careers?  Thing is, Herman Munster was actually really good as a scary redneck judge.  He had some potential as a character actor, and it’s too bad it didn’t really seem to go anywhere beyond The Munsters.

Anyway… Cute story, a bit of 80s-esque gimmickyness and cheesiness. No regrets watching this one.

Carolyn’s thoughts: This was pretty funny, and it had some great moments.

Directed by Jonathan Lynn (Clue, 1 ep of Ferris Bueller).
Written by Dale Launer (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels).

Starring Joe Pesci (Lethal Weapon movies, Home Alone movies, Goodfellas, 8 Heads In A Duffel Bag, JFK) as Vinny Gambini.
Ralph Macchio (Daniel in The Karate Kid movies, The Outsiders, 1 ep of Robot Chicken) as Bill Gambini.
Marisa Tomei (War Inc., What Women Want, Four Rooms, Crazy Stupid Love, an extra in The Toxic Avenger 1, 1 ep of The Simpsons) as Mona Lisa Vito.
Mitchell Whitfield (Donatello in TMNT (2007), 6 eps of Friends, 1 ep of Duckman, 1 ep of Curb Your Enthusiasm) as Stan Rothenstein.
Fred Gwynne (Herman Munster in The Munsters, Car 54 Where Are You?, The Secret of My Succe$s, Fatal Attraction, The Boy Who Could Fly, Pet Sematary) as Judge Chamberlain Haller.
Lane Smith (Perry in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman, the original V series, The Last American Hero, 3 eps of King Of The Hill) as Jim Trotter III.
Austin Pendleton (Oz, Finding Nemo, Short Circuit) as John Gibbons.
Bruce McGill (Legally Blonde 2, Animal House, 10 eps of The Cleveland Show, 3 eps of Family Guy, 2 eps of Justice League, 2 eps of Quantum Leap, 1 ep of I Am Weasel, 1 ep of American Dad) as Sheriff Farley.

LINK URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104952/combined

[IMDB link]

Watched in 3-D with Carolyn, Nathan, Jess, & Emily.

RATINGS:
Claire: Netflix: 3/5 stars. IMDB: 7.4/10.
Carolyn: Netflix: 3/5 stars. IMDB: 7.4/10.
The native public rating for this movie is: Netflix: 4.0/5 stars, IMDB: 7.5/10.

This was the most disappointing movie of both Middle Earth franchises. It started out really good with Smaug… But once the Smaug situation resolved, it just turned into a war movie that wasn’t as exciting. I haven’t felt this bored by ultra-action since watching Sucker Punch — but Sucker Punch is actually a better movie. So much fighting. I think it would have helped if I had remembered the books more, but I purposefully stopped thinking about the books about 16 yrs ago when the first trilogy was announced. I seriously had to get on IMDB and read what the fuck happened, because we were in such a haze by the end of the movie, that we really felt like the award should have gone to us, for making it through it.

It wasn’t bad. It was just… An amusement park ride.

PEOPLE:

Directed by Peter Jackson (Lord Of The Rings movies, The Hobbit movies, Meet The Feebles, Bad Taste, Dead Alive, The Frighteners).
Written by Fran Walsh (Lord Of The Rings movies, The Hobbit movies, Meet The Feebles, Dead Alive, The Frighteners), Philippa Boyens (The Lord Of The Rings movies, The Hobbit movies), Peter Jackson & Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim, Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy movies, Mimic).

Ian McKellen as Gandalf.
Martin Freeman (The World’s End, Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Shaun Of The Dead, What’s Your Number?, Hot Fuzz, 14 eps of The Office (UK)) as Bilbo.
Richard Armitage (Captain America: The First Avenger, uncredited in Star Wars Episode 1) as Thorin.
Ken Stott (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian) as Balin.
Graham McTavish (Erik The Viking, Pandemic, Mikhail Novakovich in 7 eps of 24, Loki in 5 eps of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Sebastian Shaw in 4 eps of Wolverine And The X-Men, 1 ep of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2010s)) as Dwalin.
William Kircher (1 ep of Xena: Warrior Princess) as Bifur.
Orlando Bloom (The Lord Of The Rings movies, Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, The Three Musketeers, Troy) as Legolas.
Cate Blanchett (The Lord Of The Rings movies, Hanna, How To Train Your Dragon 2, Ponyo, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, 2 eps of Family Guy) as Galadriel.
Benedict Cumberbatch (Kahn in Star Trek 12, 1 ep of The Simpsons) as Smaug / Necromancer.
Sylvester McCoy (The 7th Doctor in Doctor Who) as Radagast.
Luke Evans (Immortals 3D, The Three Musketeers, Clash Of The Titans remake, 1 ep of Robot Chicken) as Bard.
Billy Connolly (Fido, The Boondock Saints 1-2, Gulliver’s Travels, Indecent Proposal, Lemony Snicket’s, 1 ep of Third Rock From The Sun) as Dain.
James Nesbitt (The Hobbit movies) as Bofur.
Stephen Hunter (The Hobbit movies) as Bombur.
Dean O’Gorman (Young Hercules, 5 eps of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, 2 eps of ) as Fili.
Aidan Turner (The Hobbit movies) as Kili.
Hugo Weaving (Lord Of The Rings movies, Cloud Atlas, Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger, Megatron in the Transformers movies, V For Vendetta, The Matrix movies) as Elrond
John Callen (The Hobbit movies) as Oin.
Peter Hambleton (The Hobbit movies) as Gloin.
Jed Brophy (Lord Of The Rings movies, District 9, 1 ep of Xena: Warrior Princess) as Nori.
Mark Hadlow (Meet The Feebles, 1 ep of Xena: Warrior Princess) as Dori.
Evangeline Lilly (Ant-Man, The Hobbit movies, The Hurt Locker, Lost, The Long Weekend, 4 eps of Smallville) as Tauriel.
Lee Pace (Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Hobbit movies, Twilight: Breaking Dawn part 2, 1 ep of Robot Chicken) as Thranduil.
Christopher Lee (Saruman in the Lord Of The Rings movies, Death in The Color Of Magic, The Golden Compass, Count Dooku in Star Wars Episode 2 and Star Wars: The Clone Wars pilot movie, Alice In Wonderland, Corpse Bride, Sleepy Hollow, Gremlins 2, Police Academy 7) as Saruman.
Ian Holm (Lord Of The Rings movies, Brazil, The Day After Tomorrow, From Hell, Ratatouille, eXistenZ, The Fifth Element, Naked Lunch, Alien) as Old Bilbo. (more…)

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: The Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

Claire: 5/5 stars, 9/10.
Carolyn: 5/5 stars, 9/10.
Evan: 1.7/5 stars, 3.7/10.
Native ratings: 4.0/5 stars Netflix, 8.1/10 IMDB.

Watched in 3-D with TwoBeans, Amber, & Evan.

This was pretty goddamn kickass, and everything I could have wanted from a movie like this. I’m glad they’re doing these, and I’m glad they are as long as they are. Looking forward to the 3rd, as well as the day I can watch The Hobbit trilogy extended versions for all 3 movies.

Evan’s dissenting opinion: I might be biasedly comparing this to Game of Thrones now that I’ve been watching it, but DoS just seemed lackluster.
I found myself glad they “got rid of” some of the characters later in the flick. Seeing as how there were twins and
triplet dwarves with very similar names, I had trouble keeping track of all of them in the first Hobbit.

The CG stood out to me in the way very few other movies do…in that terrible, shitty awful kind of way. The lighting
on some of the sets was very apparent, thus making the set itself stand out more as fake. This coupled with the
very visible green screen usage knocked a bunch of marks from the quality. It seemed like the Smaug scene was
one of the only things they got right. That and the barrel scene because they seemed to put more effort into it.

Because it only had a couple things going for it, I won’t give it more than 1.7/3.7
My ratings rarely go that low, but the more I think about this flick the more I want to
rip it apart into tiny crappy pieces. :/

Directed by Peter Jackson (Lord Of The Rings movies, The Hobbit movies, Meet The Feebles, Bad Taste, Dead Alive, The Frighteners).
Written by Fran Walsh (Lord Of The Rings movies, The Hobbit movies, Meet The Feebles, Dead Alive, The Frighteners), Philippa Boyens (The Lord Of The Rings movies, The Hobbit movies), Peter Jackson & Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim, Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy movies, Mimic).
Ian McKellen as Gandalf.
Martin Freeman (The World’s End, Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Shaun Of The Dead, What’s Your Number?, Hot Fuzz, 14 eps of The Office (UK)) as Bilbo.
Richard Armitage (Captain America: The First Avenger, uncredited in Star Wars Episode 1) as Thorin.
Ken Stott (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian) as Balin.
Graham McTavish (Erik The Viking, Pandemic, Mikhail Novakovich in 7 eps of 24, Loki in 5 eps of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Sebastian Shaw in 4 eps of Wolverine And The X-Men) as Dwalin.
William Kircher (1 ep of Xena) as Bifur.
Orlando Bloom (The Lord Of The Rings movies, Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, The Three Musketeers, Troy) as Legolas.
Cate Blanchett (The Lord Of The Rings movies, Hanna, How To Train Your Dragon 2, Ponyo, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, 2 eps of Family Guy) as Galadriel.
Benedict Cumberbatch (Kahn in Star Trek 12, 1 ep of The Simpsons) as Smaug / Necromancer.

LINK URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1170358/combined

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: American Hustle (2013)

Claire’s thoughts: It was interesting, but alas, it was just another movie where a bunch of people with competing angles try to deal with crime in the way that suits that individual. In the end, I don’t think this lived up to all the hype. I’m pretty tired of these kinds of movies, and want to watch them less often.

Carolyn’s thoughts: I think it was interesting, but I agree that it didn’t live up to the hype, but I did enjoy how it narrated the different perspectives of the characters…

Directed by David O. Russell (I Heart Huckabees).
Written by Eric Warren Singer (1 ep of Aeon Flux) and David O. Russell (I Heart Huckabees).

Christian Bale (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Terminator Salvation, Howl in the English version of Howl’s Moving Castle, Equilibrium, American Psycho) as Irving Rosenfeld.
Bradley Cooper (The Hangover movies, Limitless, The A-Team, All About Steve, He’s Just Not That Into You, Wet Hot American Summer, Stella Shorts, Wedding Crashers, 6 eps of Nip/Tuck) as Richie DiMaso.
Amy Adams (Lois Lane in Man Of Steel, Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby, Psycho Beach Party, Cruel Intentions 2, 3 eps of The Office, 3 eps of King Of The Hill, 1 ep of Smallville) as Sydney Prosser.
Jeremy Renner (The Bourne Legacy, 28 Weeks Later, The Hurt Locker, National Lampoon’s Senior Trip, uncredited in Thor) as Mayor Carmine Polito.
Jennifer Lawrence (Hunger Games movies, Mystique in X-Men: First Class movies) as Rosalyn Rosenfeld.
Louis C.K. (5 eps of Home Movies, 4 eps of Dr. Katz) as Stoddard Thorsen.
Jack Huston (Twilight 3, 1 ep of Tron: Uprising) as Pete Musane.
Michael Pena (Observe And Report, Turbo, 2 eps of American Dad, 1 ep of Andy Richter Controls The Universe) as Paco Hernandez / Sheik Abdullah.
Shea Whigham (Wristcutters: A Love Story) as Carl Elway.
Colleen Camp (Tackleberry’s wife in Police Academy 2 and 4, Four Christmases, Last Action Hero, Sliver, Wayne’s World, Clue, Apocalypse Now, Speed 2, Plump Fiction, 3 eps of Roseanne) as Brenda. I forget who she is in this movie, but it’s interesting that she was in the Police Academy movies.

LINK URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1800241/combined

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: G.B.F. aka Gay Best Friend (2013)

Claire: 4.4/5 stars, 8/10.
Carolyn: 4.4/5 stars, 8/10.
Native ratings: 3.8/5 stars Netflix, 6.0/10 IMDB.

Watch it for awkward-mom Megan Mullally trying to bond with her gay son!

From the makers of Jawbreakers, which was itself a poor Man’s Heathers (which is a great compliment), comes… Another movie about the crazy games high schoolers play, and all the complex interactions of everyone’s personal angle in the agenda of their social life.

Carolyn: This was pretty entertaining, and it was funny, but it probably could have been more funny.  But it was enjoyable.

Claire: Yes, this almost made it to 5-star comedy territory.

While both Heathers and Jawbreakers were both about some Mean Girls popularizing another girl AND an accidental death, this movie took a similar attitude in writing, and applied it to being gay and coming out… But without any death or violence. (A nobody still gets popularized, though.)

This is about the games of popular teenage girls will play in order to fight over the school’s first-ever “out” gay person, who is immediately treated like an asset to be paraded around to vaunt the so-called “tolerance” that these popular girls never actually had in the first place (or the second) (or the third).
It’s interesting.

And it’s unique — Outside of Gregg Araki movies, we’re not really seeing a lot of movies with gay main characters lately.

And it’s funny. It’s billed as comedy, not comedy romance. That doesn’t mean no romance; it simply means it’s a real comedy here, not a romantic comedy. And it’s not a marketing lie.

And it’s over the top — right at home with Gregg Araki movies (and Heathers), actually, in terms of ridiculous dialogue. People just don’t talk like that! But lots of movies have people who speak completely unrealistically. It’s part of the charm of the medium.
Directed by Darren Stein (Jawbreaker, also the writer of Jawbreaker, but he didn’t write this one.).
Written by George Northy.
Michael J. Willett as Tanner Daniels.
Paul Iacono (2 eps of Human Giant) as Brent Van Camp.
Sasha Pieterse (teenage girl in X-Men: First Class, 5 eps of Heroes, 96 eps of Pretty Little Liars) as Fawcett Brooks, the main popular girl.
Andrea Bowen (3 eps of King Of The Hill, 1 ep of Batman: The Brave And The Bold) as ‘Shley Osgoode, the Mormon.
Xosha Roquemore (19 eps of The Mindy Project) as Caprice Winters, the sassy black chick.
Molly Tarlov (48 eps of Awkward) as Sophie Aster, the former friend.
Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter movies) as McKenzie Pryce. Clairerecognized her. Carolyn thought she was in something else we watched and Claire recognized her then, too, but now I don’t see her in anything else on IMDB. … Uh, no Carolyn–That was someone else.
Megan Mullally (Childrens Hospital, Axe Cop, Out There, Will & Grace, Monkeybone, Date & Switch, Smashed, Once Bitten, 8 eps of Bob’s Burgers) as Mrs. Van Camp.
Natasha Lyonne (Detroit Rock City, American Pie movies, Scary Movie 2, But I’m A Cheerleader, Girl Most Likely, 1 ep of NTSF:SD:SUV::, 1 ep of Weeds) as Mrs. Hogel, the crazy cat lady school teacher.
Jonathan Silverman (The Single Guy, The Hungover Games, Snatched, Weekend At Bernie’s, Caddyshack 2, Stealing Home, The Hungover Games, 1 ep of Caroline In The City) as Mr. Daniels.
Rebecca Gayheart (Jawbreaker, Scream 2, Urban Legend, Santa’s Slay, 8 eps of Beverly Hills 90210, 3 eps of Nip/Tuck) as Mrs. Daniels.
Horatio Sanz (Saturday Night Live, Wreck-It Ralph, The Dictator, Step Brothers, Year One, Road Trip, 3 eps of Gravity Falls, 3 eps of Upright Citizen’s Brigade) as Principal Crowe.

LINK URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2429074/combined