5/23/2011 THOR

The introduction of Thor to comic book movie fans was a mediocre one.  Chris Hemsworth is great as Thor, but the movie lacks all believability and depth that the latest comic book movies have provided.  Iron Man and Batman have set the bar so high that it is hard to reach those.  I have never known much about Thor, so this movie did nothing to make me really want to know more. 

As most know, Thor is the God of Thunder, and he comes from another dimension not from earth.   He is cast away to Earth by his father, Odin, played by an underutilized in this movie, Anthony Hopkins.  There he is taken in by some earthlings with one being the beautiful Natalie Portman.  He, of course, falls in love with her in like a week.  He must prove to his hammer or his father that he is worthy of his godly powers to return to his dimension and have his super powers.

To be such a big budget style movie, there is not much depth or explanation of Thor and his world.  The overall plot is just not great at all.  The Frost Giants are just pretty pathetic villains, and are so insignificant.  There is no Joker or Obadiah Stane. It is just a wam bam thank you mam, meet Thor, come see the sequel, and go see Captain America/Avengers.  The problem with it all is that I will go do all the above because I have to finish it off, and see how they put it all together to make the Avengers in a couple summers.  Be sure and stay to watch all the credits like all the Avenger series movies to get a small sneak peak of what’s next.  Hopefully, Thor is not a big player in the next movies, or maybe the Thor sequel is a lot better.  I’ll give Thor another 3 M&Ms out of 5. 

Peter Travers' Take

Roger Ebert's Take

5/23/2011 Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids is not a bad movie, but I really don’t think it deserves a lot of the praise it has been getting.  It is underneath the few gross out comedic moments a chick flick. 

Bridesmaids is about, obviously, from the title, a bride and her bridesmaids in the pre-wedding rituals.  The main character is Annie played by Kristen Wiig.  I’ve always enjoyed her on SNL, and she does a great job in several scenes in the movie.  I think that she is just best in small doses.  Anyway, Annie is going to be the maid of honor in her friend’s wedding played by another SNL cast member, Maya Rudolph.   Annie lives in an apartment with a very odd English couple that I still haven’t figured out why that was even included in the movie because they were just strange and not funny at all.  She doesn’t have very high self esteem when it comes to men.  She continues to see a guy (John Hamm) that treats her like a piece of meat through most of the movie.  Couldn’t believe that Hamm agreed to his role, but it was kind of funny to see him in this type role.  Annie begins to unravel because of one of the other bridesmaids, Helen, begins to take a lot of the spotlight.  Helen wants to be in control of everything and she has the money to be in control, so this drives Annie nuts.  The journey goes through the almost bachelorette party, trying on dresses, shower, and then the eventual wedding.  Annie messes every one of these events up in some sort of fashion, and everything else in her life.  She meets the perfect guy by getting pulled over by a cop for her tail light being out, and runs him off because of her insecurities.      

Bridesmaids gets 3 M&Ms out of 5. There are several hilarious parts throughout the movie but to say it is on the level of the Hangover is a far reach.  The movie began to drag a little at the end, and turns into a straight chick flick for the last 20 minutes. If it would’ve been an hour and 44 minutes instead of 2 hours and 4, it might’ve been better.  Men go see it with your girlfriends, but don’t be fooled you will be singing “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips when you walk out of theater, and get your chick flick ending.  How else would it be? 

Peter Travers Take

Roger Ebert's Take 

4/21/11 INSIDIOUS!

Finally, a scary movie that is just that, scary! I had my hat covering my face through several scenes in the movie, while the two girls in front of us rarely looked up from their heads in their hands.

I can’t believe that this has not gotten more word of mouth, but it just did not have much money behind it. It is made by the same people who created Paranormal Activity and Saw. If you liked Paranormal, it is more in that realm than Saw. I’m not saying that it is a great movie or anything, so don’t go see it thinking it is an Oscar worthy movie. It is just a good ‘ol scary movie! I think they were hoping for the same response as the original Saw and Paranormal Activity, which were low budget and made a lot of money by word of mouth.

The movie begins with a family moving into a new house that creaks with every step, which is a must in these type of scary movies. Things begin to happen that are abnormal that makes the family assume that the house is haunted. You can see from the trailer that it is, actually, something other than a haunted house.

Insidious keeps from using gore, blood, and guts to scare you. There is hardly any blood in the entire movie. The director draws the audience into expecting things to happen at certain times, but then something pops out when you least expect it! It uses great sound and camera angles to provide the scariest movie I've seen in a long time.

I give it 4 M&Ms out of 5, which means it is a movie to see! I don't think that Insidious can turn into another franchise for the Paranormal and Saw folks, but it really doesn't need to be. It is what it needed to be, and they need to leave it at that. If you like scary movies, please go see this and let me know what you think!

Peter Traver's Review

Roger Ebert's Review

3/6/11 THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU REVIEW

The Adjustment Bureau is one of those it is what it is movies.  If you’ve seen the trailer above, you pretty much can figure out what is going to happen.  It doesn’t go much deeper than what you see in the trailer.  I went into this one with decently high expectations.  I like Matt Damon a lot, and Emily Blunt Is not bad to look at for a couple of hours.  I always enjoy movies that go into the possibility of there being a plan to this life we live. 

The movie got off to a rocky start because it opens with him losing an election for Senate because of his immaturity, and then he meets Blunt in a bathroom where they kiss after talking for about 5 minutes.  Rather stupid in my opinion, but that is because that has never happened to me.  This may happen to people all the time, but I just don’t hear about it.  If it wasn’t for that scene, I might have been a little more into it.  I just felt that was a little bit absurd to have them kiss the first time they ever meet, and in a bathroom. 

The rest of the movie is about him trying to find her again.  The Bureau is supposed to keep them from meeting ever again.  I won’t go into why they don’t want them meet to again other than just think of someone that influences you in certain ways good or bad.  You will understand once you see the movie.  Basically, there is a plan to this life is what the movie entails, and the Adjustment Bureau is there to keep everything on track.  They carry around little books in their hands that can help them determine the decisions that a human is going to make.  If they want them to decide one way, they can influence that decision.  They can cause you to misplace your keys, so you might miss someone they don’t want you to see at a certain time.  It’s the little things in life that slow you down that they may have their hand in. 

My main problem with the movie is that they had an opportunity to go deep into this subject, but they kind of skated around it.  They spoke of the “Chairman”, but didn’t really go into what or who he/she is.  I guess they wanted to the audience to interpret that the way they want to interpret it.  The books that they carry around showed all kinds of symbols and things like the audience was supposed to be able to understand what they meant.  They would just glance at the book, and get concerned about the coming events.  There were a lot of unexplained things including why they felt that Matt Damon’s character was so important to go through all the trouble that they go through to keep him on plan.  They do a little, but not enough to appease me. 

Overall, I gave it 3 M&Ms out of 5, which means it is worth seeing.  It is a movie that ends up being about chance, and whether or not we are in control of our own lives.  The love story is forced, but Damon and Blunt do a good job of trying to save it.  Most of us like the idea of life having a plan, so that part of it is fun to watch unravel even if it doesn’t answer every question we may want answered in the end. 

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