Django Unchained

Some parts of Django Unchained dragged, and overall it was too long, but there were a lot of great scenes. Waltz' character was kind of annoying, but Foxx was fine, and DiCaprio was awesome. If you like Tarantino's stuff, it's worth watching while you can still catch it at the dollar show.

I've actually wanted to see the original Django for a few years now, but it hasn't happened yet. I didn't think I needed to see this one at the theater, although I'd always planned to see it at home. But then yesterday I saw that it was available on iTunes, and I thought, "How many times are you going to get a chance to see a Tarantino movie in the theater?" Lucky for me, it was still at the dollar show (which is actually $3.50, but I think that's reasonable).

You could tell what kind of movie this was right from the opening credits. Tarantino was definitely having fun with it. I'm glad he got to do a movie like this, and it's an interesting concept. It goes on for so very long, though. There was a lot that could've been cut out. Self-indulgent, you might even say.

The Avengers

The Avengers got too much hype, and it went on for too long. It missed the mark in a lot of ways, but the dialogue was good. Tom Hiddleston pretty much made the movie as Loki, and I like Chris Hemsworth and Robert Downey Jr., too.

Somehow, I haven't been able to see The Avengers until now. I did request it from the library four months ago, but the library system in this county really sucks in terms of having enough media for the amount of patrons they serve. So, I'm late to the party, and I already knew all of the funny/interesting scenes.

I'm not a fangirl; I'm not into comics at all, but I've spent enough time around them to be bored to tears. I haven't seen The Hulk or Iron Man. I've seen enough parts of Thor and Captain America to know I'm not interested in the rest. I did like Iron Man 2, and I liked Hellboy. They should've brought him in, too. But I guess he's not Marvel.

The Avengers movie got way too much hype, at least in my circles. I heard about it for months before it came out. I didn't like the marketing, either. Too full of itself, maybe. I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of the movie. I do like the Iron Man character, and Robert Downey, Jr., and that aspect was good. The light on Tony Stark's chest is always a distraction for me. I imagine filmmakers are always thinking about when and to what extent it should be visible. I don't think they always made the right decision on that in this movie. Chris Hemsworth does a great Thor; that's a character I enjoy, too. Ruffalo was good.

I watched the featurette on the DVD, and I think it was Whedon (maybe not though) who said something like, "You'll always see Chris Evans as Steve Rogers now, it overrides all his other roles." No, actually, I won't. I see him as the guy from The Losers, which I liked better than this movie, anyway, thank you very much. I like Evans, but he looks kind of weird as Captain America. It doesn't really work for me.

Johansson did a fine job with Black Widow. Renner didn't do anything for me as Hawkeye, though. Loki was a great villain. That part totally worked for me from his first scene. Tom does a leer that's perfect for the role. Going in, I felt like the plot was going to be kind of dumb, but Tom at least made that part of the movie better than I was expecting it to be. I loved what they did with his hair, too; the little bits curling up in the back were a great touch.

Killer Elite

Killer Elite was great. I'm a Statham fan, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Dominic Purcell get a big role, too. I liked the characters, the plot was good, and the action was fun.

Killer Elite is another movie that needed better press. I hadn't heard of it until I saw a Roeper review. He made it look good, and I'm always down to watch anything with Jason Statham, so I gave it a shot. It turned out to be one of the best movies I've seen this year. The acting was perfect, it had some original action scenes, and the plot was totally unique. I highly recommend it if you're into this kind of movie.

The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride is solid for a cult classic. It's funny, the lines are quotable, and there are some entertaining parts. It's not really my thing, but it wasn't terrible.

They probably could've come up with a better title for The Princess Bride. It's not very descriptive. But I guess the whole movie basically is about her. I hadn't ever seen this movie before, which, in certain circles, would be considered crazy. I liked it more than Labyrinth, at least (although that’s not saying much, because I didn't like Labyrinth at all. I even rated it 2/5, which is pretty rare).

Being Flynn

There are some interesting characters in Being Flynn, but you don't get to learn much about most of them, and the movie doesn't really go anywhere as a whole. Unless you're as into Paul Dano as I am, I don't recommend it.

 
I hadn't seen or heard anything about Being Flynn until Roeper reviewed it. He made it look interesting (and he liked it), so I thought I'd give it a shot. I like Paul Dano. I think he'll be interesting to keep an eye on. I'm not sure this movie is really worth watching if you're not into him, though. It kept my attention, but I pretty much knew the whole time it couldn't be going anywhere good, or at least if it did, it wouldn't be realistic.

The procedural stuff in the homeless shelter was kind of interesting.

Hanna

Hanna was a great movie. The score adds an entire dimension to the experience, the villains are great, and the action is solid. It's got some major plot holes, but it wasn't intended to be taken seriously.

Hanna: probably not the last in the long line of movies I wanted to see, then decided I didn't need to see after all, then decided to watch after seeing Roeper's review. I'm glad I saw this one. The action sequences were great. I loved Tom Hollander's character. He was so interesting. The Chemical Brothers did a great job with the score. It added a whole dimension to the movie. Cate Blanchett was a superb villain, too. I loved all the languages and accents.
 

Safe House

Safe House: Reynolds and Washington both give great performances, but that didn't quite make the movie for me. The whole "chase" theme got old after a while, and the ending was just bizarre.

Safe House is yet another movie that was vaguely on my to-see list, then shelved, then revived by a Roeper review. Reynolds and Washington both give great performances here, but that didn't quite make the movie for me.  The whole "chase" theme got old after a while, and the ending was just bizarre.

At first, everything was really fast, and I had no idea what was going on. Then I got into it, and it was pretty interesting. Then towards the middle-end, I just got really sick of the action. I was like, "Okay, alright, chase, we get it! Chase chase chase, they should've just named it 'Neverending Chase Movie.'"

There are some good action sequences, and some good car chases.