Punch-Drunk Love

I liked Punch-Drunk Love when it first came out 17 years ago, and I watched it again to see what I would think of it now. It's not a movie for everybody, but it hits perfectly for me. I can totally identify with Barry. The soundtrack gets a bit obtrusive, and the plot isn't terribly realistic. But I love the humor, and the way his sisters act is a spot-on representation of how people really are.

I generally haven't hated Adam Sandler movies. I liked 50 First Dates. I liked Billy Madison, although I was nine when I saw it, so my opinion might change if I saw it again. I think he eventually went south with the dumb comedies, though, and I haven't seen him in anything for a long time.

I saw Punch-Drunk Love when it came out, but that was 17 years ago, which is insane to think about. I liked it then.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins are great, and Dracula's character design is cool, but the movie is still way too cheesy.

I liked Bram Stoker’s Dracula slightly more the first time I saw it. Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins are still good, and the costumes are cool. But the rest is a little weird. It's way too cheesy and over the top.

Strange Days

This was either my third or fourth time watching Strange Days. It might just be because I first saw it when I was young and unjaded, or because I love William Gibson’s stuff and it’s cool seeing it come to life, but it’s still one of my favorite movies. The dystopian cyberpunk atmosphere is great; there’s romance and action; all of the characters are compelling; and Ralph Fiennes’ performance totally steals the show.

This was either my third or fourth time seeing Strange Days, and I still love it, even if it does look dated as hell these days. I wonder if someone who hadn’t read William Gibson’s stuff would have the same affinity for it, though. There’s just something cool about seeing something you read about being brought to life. The whole cyberpunk dystopian atmosphere is great.

Her

"Her" kind of gets more interesting when you reflect on it. The relationship stuff is slightly profound, although it does mostly just make you think again about things you already knew or realized. It's cool to see an imagining of the near future and the evolution of AI, though.

I'm a bit late to the game on "Her," but I wasn't really interested in it. Everyone kept saying it was good, though, so I checked it out. I do like Joaquin Phoenix. Not sure what everyone's doing with the Chester mustache and the super high pants in this movie. I guess it makes sense – the wardrobe as a whole is kind of futuristic and at the same time reminiscent of the past, and fashion always references the past.

There are a lot of good quotes in the movie. Although I couldn't hear half of it, so I'd probably have a better feel for it if I had been able to. "The past is just a story we tell ourselves" is a good one. It is true. Nothing's objective; you never really know what other people's feelings or motives were. I read something once that said every time you remember something, you're actually just remembering the last time you remembered it, so the memories you think of the most are actually the least accurate.

And specifically Samantha was referring to how something Theodore said about her made her feel, which means she was actually talking about "our perceptions of ourselves are a story we tell ourselves," which is also true. I've always thought that you create your own reality, though.

Deadpool

Deadpool as a character isn't entirely my thing, and the voice Reynolds went with was pretty obnoxious. But T.J. Miller was great, the action was cool, and it was funny as a whole.

Congratulations to me for finally seeing a movie from 2016. I hadn't heard great things about Deadpool, and I wasn't expecting to like it that much. I haven't seen much of the comics, so I spent a lot of the movie going, "I wonder if it's like that in the comic." I wasn't a fan of all the "fourth wall" stuff, but maybe because I had heard people praising a lot of it already. The tone as a whole didn't 100% click with me. Maybe more like 70%. It was a little too fast/cocky/self-aware for my taste. 

I don't know what Ryan was doing with that voice - another "is it like this in the comic?" moment - but at first I was pretty sure I was going to hate the entire movie because of it. It didn't seem so bad after we got to see Wade, though; and somehow it was even easier to take after we saw how he became Deadpool. He probably still could've dialed it back a smidge, though.

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.

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.

Syrup

 Syrup jumps around from event to event without any logical transitions or foundation. It's supposed to be slick and cool, but it's just transparent and hollow. There are a handful of funny moments, but they don't even come close to justifying watching the worst movie I've seen all year.

Syrup was copyrighted 2011, but it wasn't released until 2013. I wonder if it got hung up somewhere, or if that's just how long it takes for a movie to come out after it's been shot. I'm betting it was the former. This looked cool from the trailer, so I wanted to see it. IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes said it was a waste of time, but I was tired of not getting to see any movies because they all had bad reviews, so I watched it anyway. It turns out the reviewers were right: this is the worst movie I've seen all year!

It was so terrible, the entire time I was watching it I just kept thinking, "This is the worst movie ever made!" The flow was absolutely horrible. They would go from snippy and snarky to something that was supposed to be meaningful and emotional without setting it up at all. The music was terrible. It would be silent, and then a cue would come in out of nowhere trying to force you to feel something, and it was just obtrusive.

Everything was totally empty. The voiceovers with "marketing 101" and whatever didn't work at all. Anytime someone broke the fourth wall and talked directly to the camera it felt super awkward and out of place. 6 was awkward, too. Nothing she did ever made sense. It was bizarre how everyone picked a new name. 3, 6, Sneaky Pete, Scat. I don't think real marketing executives do that. And who the heck would pick "Scat" for a name, anyway? He said it was referencing jazz, and okay, that's great, but do you not know what else it means?!

The guys at the competing soda company were so dumb. It's like they were trying to have a realistic movie, and then they put those guys in, and it didn't make any sense. Amber Heard's face bugged me. There's something off about her left eye, and I didn't like all that dark lipstick. Her spiel about what men expect out of women didn't work. None of her dialogue worked; it was just bizarre. She did look gorgeous in a couple of scenes in her apartment, though.

The Host

The Host had some good ideas, and it did hold my interest for the entire time, but the writing, score, and characters pretty much ruined it.

I probably wouldn't have rented this if I had known it was a Stephenie Meyer (author of Twilight) book. I didn't find out until I already had it, and by then I figured I might as well go through with it, anyway. Roeper didn't review it, and IMDb didn't really like it, but I was hoping maybe it would still be okay. It wasn't. The music was overbearing and melodramatic. It was too exaggerated for what was going on, and it really brought you out of the experience.

Kiss of the Damned

Kiss of the Damned has great cinematography and music, but the writing and acting really bring it down. 

When I saw the trailer for this movie, I loved the music, and I like Milo from Gilmore Girls, so I was pretty much hooked. Roeper didn't review it, but at least one person on IMDb said it wasn't terrible, so I watched it. It turned out to be pretty interesting. The best part about it is the music. It's really good. All the songs fit the scenes perfectly, and the parts of it that are original score are amazing.

What Dreams May Come

What Dreams May Come was a little heavy-handed, and I don't agree with all the things they changed from the book, but I did like seeing where they were going with it and how they represented things.

What Dreams May Come was on my "to see" list for a while, but then I kind of lost interest in it. My boyfriend had a copy of the book on the bookshelf, so I decided to check it out. It was an interesting book, and that renewed my interest in seeing the movie. I would say about 75% of the stuff in the movie wasn't in the book, and a lot of what was in the book probably got lost in translation if you only saw the movie. I think a lot of the themes were probably only hinted at in the movie; they came through for me since I had read the book, but if I hadn't, I probably wouldn't have seen them so clearly.

Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies is a movie that suffered from the tragic "solid concept, shoddy execution." The idea was there, but it just wasn't fleshed out in the right way. Nothing seemed realistic, and it was a disappointment.

Warm Bodies is kind of bordering on a 2.5/3 rating. On the one hand, it's a really cool concept, and it finally gives an explanation for why zombies eat brains (I think Roeper said that actually, but it's probably what everyone will think whether they saw his review or not). On the other hand, it was basically adapted from a 7-page short story, and it felt like it. Sure, the author expanded it into a novelette, and then a screenwriter tried to condense that into a movie, but there were a lot of things that just didn't feel fully thought out.

Ruby Sparks

Ruby Sparks looked great and it was fun to watch, even though I didn't like Ruby. Nothing exploded and no one died, which was nice for a change.

I know what you're thinking: Paul Dano again? How many movies has this guy been in? I don't know, because this is the last one I know of. Not that I watched it just because he was in it; it just seemed like an interesting movie. He doesn't play the Looper-style character I'm into in this one, anyway. In fact, it's kind of hard to get used to his aesthetics here, but I managed to do it after a while.

Calvin was a lot like me, in terms of being serious, controlling, introverted, boring, etc. Unlike Calvin, I did not like Ruby. Part of it was her face. It was really weird. Zoe's so skinny, but she has this weird chipmunk fat face. She was kind of like the girl in Eternal Sunshine. Too kooky for me.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

I like Cage, it had some good moments, and the magic was flashy, but none of that could make up for the atrocity that was the writing in this movie.

I still love the part in the trailer where Jay asks Nic if he's crazy and he holds up his fingers signifying "a little bit," though.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Culkin's character was as interesting as Cera's was boring; Ramona was as cute as Cera was unattractive; the plot was as empty as the writing was meaningful, and it all came out to a wash.

Zombieland

The Crow

It's really a bummer that Brandon Lee died making this movie.

Slumdog Millionaire

This was okay, but it wasn't as revolutionary as everybody made it out to be.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

While watching this movie, I thought, "The last time I disliked characters this much was when I saw Being John Malkovich," and sure enough..this was written by the same man. Unfortunately, this didn't grab me the way that did, and it was even tougher to sit through. I think I may have to write off Mr. Kaufman altogether, no pun intended.

Better Off Dead

This is a terrible movie to watch if you can't stand surrealism, and if you're looking for surrealism, it probably won't be surreal enough.