How to Train Your Dragon 2

How to Train Your Dragon 2 was a lot more engaging than I was expecting; I couldn't turn away for most of the movie. The story is simple, but it's told well; the characters are interesting; and the graphics may not be flawless, but they are impressive.

I should've gone to see How to Train Your Dragon 2 in theaters. I'm pretty sure that I was planning to after seeing the trailer, but then when it came to the discount theater I decided I didn't really need to pay to see it on the big screen. Once I actually started watching the movie, I immediately regretted *that* decision. I think it is actually still playing at the theater, but I wasn't about to watch it later just to see it at the theater. I think the colors and the vastness of things would've played better, though.

I pretty much forgot everything that happened in the first movie, but I think they reminded us well enough. Jay Baruchel's voice was a little distracting, but luckily Hiccup didn't hog all the screen time, so there were other characters to be interested in. I found Cate Blanchett's transformation into an animated character to be a little creepy as well, though. Having the kids grow up a little was a good idea. They were supposed to be about 20, but they didn't seem quite that old to me. The title seems pretty unoriginal, but I guess they can get the most marketability out of the old one if they basically keep the title the same.

A Coffee in Berlin

Niko's interactions with the people he meets in A Coffee in Berlin are interesting, but the unsatisfying ending left me feeling like there wasn't any point in watching it.
The trailer for A Coffee in Berlin looked interesting, and it has a 7.5 on IMDb, which is pretty good. I couldn't remember what it was about anymore by the time I saw it. I like it better that way, though. The trailers always give too much away. I was immediately put off by the "upbeat jazz" soundtrack. It's the kind of music that causes me to completely write off any movie that uses it in the trailer. It makes me feel like the movie isn't going to have any substance. In this case, it took any depth and sincerity out of the movie, and made it feel like I didn't really have to experience what was happening.

Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon

Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon has some gorgeous settings, a fairly interesting plot, and likeable characters, but the atrocious CGI and bizarrely unrealistic action sequences are a little distracting.

The first Detective Dee movie was pretty disappointing, but I only watched it in the first place because this one looked interesting, so I was hoping it would be better. It was better, but not amazing or anything. I felt like the first one was a little hard to follow; this one was less confusing. The Empress' headdresses were supposed to be a big deal in the first one, but I feel like they were more impressive in this one. Dee didn't seem to do much "detecting" to me in the first one, and I think they did a better job of that with this one, too. This one is actually ranked slightly lower than Phantom Flame on IMDb, so I guess they don't agree with me.

The CGI was horrid in this one. It looked like a video game. It was tough to reconcile it with the live action stuff going on. The stunts were also pretty ridiculous; more like a cartoon than live action. There were some really beautiful shots of some of the sets, though. The scene at the dye shop with all the fabric was cool, although it took me a while to figure out why there was all that fabric hanging up; at first it seemed like they were just doing it to have an interesting set.

I thought Angelababy was in the first one; I must've been getting that mixed up with the Tai Chi Hero series. I was really confused about how Yin Ruiji got to the position she had in Phantom Flame, and why it didn't seem like Dee recognized her in that one. But it turns out Yin Ruiji wasn't in Phantom Flame, Shangguan Jing'er was, so now it makes sense.

Filth

The trailer for Filth makes it seem like it's going to be light-hearted, and while there are some funny moments, it's actually the most disturbingly depressing movie I've seen since Requiem for a Dream. James McAvoy delivers an impressive performance, but it's still tough to watch.

The trailer for Filth was pretty misleading. It makes it seem like it's going to be a funny movie about a guy who does some outrageous things, but there seems like there's a potential for him to change, which was what piqued my interest. It's actually about a severely mentally ill guy having a complete breakdown, and it's the most depressing movie I've seen since Requiem for a Dream. Movies like this should have with a disclaimer.

I love James McAvoy, but Filth was rough to watch even with him as the lead. He really does bring a lot to the character, though. He always pulls you in no matter what the role is, but in good performances like this (it reminds me of Heath Ledger as The Joker), it's always the small nuances, the facial expressions and mannerisms; it's not the over-the-top emotional stuff that makes the performance noteworthy.

I knew from the start I'd have to have subtitles on, and I was right. The accents and colloquialisms were Scottish, and they might as well have been speaking Spanish for all I could pick out on my own, which meant I had to read the movie about as much as I watched it. I probably missed out on some things, and I definitely didn't get to watch as much as I wanted to. Everything was shot super close-up; it felt really claustrophobic, and it didn't help that the subtitles were taking up a good portion of the screen.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: Days of Future Past is a nice addition to the series. The themes are consistent, the characters are interesting, and there's some cool stuff going on. Considering all the material they have, it seems like they could keep doing episodes like this forever. 

My X-Men exposition feels a little familiar since I just talked about it for the last Wolverine movie, but I'll say it again. I've never read the comics, but I liked the X-Men: Evolution animated series, and the first X-Men movie; I skipped the second one and First Class. I love James McAvoy, so that's pretty much all I needed to be interested in this one. The 70s kitsch might have seemed novel, too, but in practice it wasn't actually very interesting.

Mystique really bugged me. I don’t like Jennifer Lawrence, and I don't get why Mystique has to be naked all the time. It just looks weird. I don't remember how Mystique looked in X-Men, but in this one it really seemed like Jennifer was just wearing a nylon suit. Her hands were so obviously painted, it just didn't work; it made all the wrinkles in her hands stand out so much. I didn't like her hair, either. I don't like seeing her feet, and her body looks bizarre. It seems like she wears clothes a lot in the comics, so I don't see why they couldn't have put some clothes on her.

I have a problem recognizing Michael Fassbender, too. I feel like I just haven't seen him in anything. I kept thinking, "Am I supposed to know who that actor is? I know it's not Jude Law." And that was about as far as I could get with it. 

I loved the opening sequence. It brought you right into what's so cool about the X-Men; all the mutants' powers are so unique, and they can all do such cool things. I wasn't familiar with any of the characters, but I liked Blink's look. She had a lot of cool stuff going on. I wish they could've just stopped and shown us what she looked like. I don't think I like Ellen Paige as Kitty, but I never seem to like Ellen Paige in much of anything.

Rob the Mob

Rob the Mob has a lot of things going for it: great dialogue, charismatic actors, interesting characters, and an engaging plot. Unfortunately, it's all nearly negated by some fairly confusing scenes, pacing issues, and the incredibly short-sighted decisions of the main characters.

Rob the Mob is one of the few movies I've looked into that actually got favorable reviews. That doesn't seem to happen often. It started off pretty interesting. The dialogue was well-written, and all the characters were interesting. I liked all the different people at the collection agency. The boss was a little hard to get a handle on, though.

The Bag Man

The Bag Man's ending isn't perfect, but it's interesting getting there, and John Cusack and Robert De Niro are always entertaining to watch.

I was pretty much sold on The Bag Man from the trailer. I like John Cusack and Robert De Niro (is there anyone who doesn't like De Niro?), the other characters looked interesting, and of course like the tag line of the movie, you have to wonder what's in the bag.

The Art of the Steal

The Art of the Steal has quite a few funny moments, but it comes off as staged and gimmicky, and I felt more cheated by the ending than impressed. 

Online reviews were mixed for The Art of the Steal, but I like Jay Baruchel, I don't mind Kurt Russell, and it looked like it might be funny. The style was too "gimmicky." I didn't like all the "x-ray" shots of things inside of things, or all the times the names of people's roles popped up.  It felt really light. It didn't go in-depth into anything. It was like an unsatisfying episode of White Collar.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

 
I almost didn't make it past the first five minutes of Anchorman 2. It wound up being mildly interesting to watch, but it's not that funny, and most of the time it's just disturbingly bizarre.

I liked Anchorman, and Roeper said Anchorman 2 was funny, so I watched it. I almost didn't make it past the first five minutes. It wasn't funny in the slightest, and Will Ferrell looks weird these days. This was the first movie I've seen him in since someone pointed out how jacked his bottom teeth are. I never noticed them before, but it's like the arrow in the FedEx logo - once you see it, it's all you can see. Everything was just over the top and bizarre and off-putting.

I thought it might get better once the other members of the news team appeared, and it did a little, but overall the movie only made it to about 50% funny. The first one must have been better, but I don't remember it well enough to know for sure.

Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame

Detective Dee: Mystery of the Phantom Flame is visually interesting, but the story is somewhat confusing and the action falls flat.

I saw a trailer for Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon that looked cool, so I requested it from the library. When it came in, I checked IMDb to see if it was any good or not, and I found out it was actually a prequel. I figured I had better watch the original one first. I love the  Huayi Brothers movies. They're always so gorgeous. The costumes in this movie were great. The sets were beautiful; I loved the use of different colors of light. It was cool how the eyes of the Buddha looked out over the city; it was such an interesting shape to look out of.

The action was confusing, though. I had no idea what was going on half the time. I think I'd like to see fewer movies choreographed by Sammo Hung. It just gets boring when you can't follow what's going on. I had a hard time following the characters and the plot, too. I could've used some of the pop-on character names from the Tai Chi movies here.

Machete Kills

Machete Kills isn't as good as Machete. There aren't as many big surprises, some of the jokes/ideas that come around again aren't funny a second time, I didn't buy half the performances, and it drags in quite a few places. It still has some great gags, lines, and situations, though, and it was a lot more fun than Gravity.

 Machete was a great movie, so I was hoping Machete Kills would be good. Roeper only gave it a C, but I don't know how much I can trust him anymore. Based on that review, I decided not to see it at the theater. Once it came in on DVD, I thought I did want to see it at the theater; it took so long that I forgot what I decided. But now that I've seen it, I'm glad I didn't see it in the theater. I'm sure people would've been laughing/reacting a lot, and I hate hearing that.

Gravity

You don't see a lot of mundane movies about space, really. Gravity is interesting if you're into that kind of thing, and it does maintain a good level of tension. There are some nice shots, and the soundtrack is fine, but it's not that impressive overall. 

I wasn't really interested in Gravity, but it got so much hype, I had to watch it. I'm not a huge Sandra Bullock or space fan, but it wasn't so bad. She didn't really have a lot to do here, it seemed like. I was skeptical about watching her float around space in a space suit for an hour and a half, but luckily she gets out of the suit and does some other stuff inside spacecraft, too. It wasn't the most amazingly beautiful thing I've ever seen. There were some nice shots of the Earth, but if you've seen any of Chris Hadfield's pictures on tumblr, you've pretty much seen all there is to see (in fact, more interesting stuff than there was in Gravity). The score had some nice moments, but it was mostly unremarkable.

Sellebrity

In a word: boring.

I watched this movie over a couple days in about 8 sittings. I figured it wouldn't be worth sitting through all at once, and I was right. It wasn't very interesting or insightful, and it focused a lot on blaming the public for why celebrities exist and have such a hard time getting any privacy. I guess that's a valid assessment, but I wasn't expecting it to be the focus of the movie. I didn't really learn anything by watching this; I think E! probably could've done a better job in one of their specials.

The Counselor

The Counselor looks good and the soundtrack is cool, but that's not enough of a reason to watch it. The plot is laid out poorly, and the dialogue is pretentious and out of place. Whatever they were going for didn't work. 

It's been two months since I've seen a movie. So much for my "one movie a week" plan. The Counselor was a really disappointing return to movies. I didn't get a clear idea from the trailer what the movie was even about, but it looked slick. Roeper really steered me wrong on it - I can't believe he gave it an A+! I should've checked it out on IMDb; they're closer to the mark with a rating of 5.5. The actual movie was a lot like the trailer. I had no idea what was going on a lot of the time, and some things still weren't clear by the end.

Ender's Game

Ender's Game is well-made. The acting, writing, and production value are all fine. It's mildly interesting, but it doesn't really pick up until the end, and I wound up wondering why I watched it.

I haven't read any of the Ender's Game series, but the movie kind of looked interesting, and Roeper gave it a B at least. The acting was fine, and Asa was likeable enough as Ender. I'm not sure I would've kept the last name "Butterfield" if I were Asa. I guess he likes it.

The movie more or less held my interest, and it moved along at a quick pace. Probably too quick of a pace; in the book I imagine they had more time to draw things out. The pace made things seem a little choppy in the movie. It was well-made; it looked good, and the writing/dialogue was good. It was still a little flat, though. People on IMDb described it as "too linear" and "rushed," and I guess I'd agree with that.

The Lone Ranger

I don't know why The Lone Ranger got such bad reviews. It's a fun Disney movie with action, comedy, villains, likeable characters, and great cinematography.
 

The Lone Ranger got some pretty bad reviews, but it still looked like it might be fun. I don't really know anything about the TV series, so I went into it with a completely blank slate on that front; no expectations, and nothing for the movie to live/match up to. I was skeptical about Johnny Depp playing a Native American, and I was right to be; it wasn't so much like watching "Tonto" as it was just watching "Johnny Depp in makeup," but that's okay. I enjoyed his performance anyway.

I really liked what Armie Hammer did with the character of The Lone Ranger. He was pretty endearing. I liked how he always wanted to do the right thing, but he was naïve and kind of bumbling. He just seemed like a good guy, totally out of his element.

It kind of came across as a kids' movie, but then there was a lot of drinking and prostitutes and eating people going on, so it was weird in that respect. It was Disney, after all. I don't think Helena's character Red really needed to be in it. She didn't do much. And Helena's starting to look old. 

William Fichtner gave the performance of his life as Cavendish, or maybe the character design people just did an awesome job. He was barely recognizable; I didn't even know it was him until halfway through the movie. That lip problem he had going on was really disturbing. All the rangers were so dirty, too. That was weird.

Elysium

Elysium focused too much on the heavy-handed theme and not enough on the actual story elements. It wasn't exciting, believable, or worth watching. 

The trailer for Elysium didn't sell me on it, and neither did Roeper's review, even though he gave it an A-, which is pretty high. It's from the same guy who directed District 9. He really needs to lay off the heavy-handed themes. He's not changing the world with these movies. He's from South Africa, though, so I guess that explains where he gets it.

Cockneys vs. Zombies

Cockneys vs. Zombies was a cool idea, but the execution was atrocious. Nearly everything the characters did was illogical to the point of being obnoxious. I did like some of the characters, and it was funny at times, but you're better off just watching the trailer and pretending you've seen the movie. 

Cockneys vs. Zombies had a great trailer, so I was immediately interested. Roeper didn't review it, so I didn't have any help there. Reviews on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes were mixed. I felt like it was one of those movies where you would like it if you were predisposed to, so I kept it on my list.

That was a big mistake. This movie was terrible. The idea was cool - tough old people fighting zombies. But the execution was rough. It felt like some college kids got together and made a movie. The production value was just nonexistent. The zombies didn't look dead. They moved so slowly, I don't see how they could be a threat to anyone.

I haven't seen the classic zombie movies, but I think that's what they were going for with these zombies and effects; that and, they clearly had no money with which to make the movie. The effects were super fake and super gory at the same time. They were pretty gross. Even though the zombies were slow, I did still find them scary, but I'm easy to scare.

RED 2

If you liked RED (which I did), you'll probably like RED 2. They did less with weighty moments and more with comedy this time, which was fine with me. It was a fun ride with a little bit of everything from humor to action and intrigue.

I really liked RED, so I pretty much knew I was going to watch RED 2 as soon as I heard about it. It probably would've been helpful if I had read over a synopsis of RED first, though. I didn't remember much about it. Even so, RED 2 was hilarious right from the start. I was going to give it a 3, but it's so funny, I have to move it up to a 3.5.