The Hangover Part III (2013) - Starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, John Goodman, Heather Graham, Melissa McCarthy. Written by Craig Mazin and Todd Phillips. Directed by Todd Phillips. Rated R. Now in Theaters.
The Wolfpack is back. And this time, there's no bachelor party, no forgotten night. But the Wolfpack still finds themselves in trouble as a gangster (Goodman) forces them to track down Leslie Chow (Jeong).
The saying goes "third time's the charm" and I think this movie lives up to that saying. Yes, it's not like the first movie, but everyone complained about the second film being too much like the first. I, for one, liked how the story line was changed up. This film is more of an action, one-liner filled, less raunchy (comparatively) comedy film than the other two. I laughed insanely hard at this movie- much harder than I laughed at Part II - and thoroughly enjoyed it. The chemistry between the leads continues to be fantastic and all of the actors continue to deliver strong comedic performances, especially Galifianakis, whose child-like Alan continues to shock and amuse. Newcomers to the franchise John Goodman and Melissa McCartney fit right in with the rest of the cast. One disappointment is that Goodman wasn't really given a chance to show of his comedic chops and instead was just the big bad villain for the film. One complaint I have read about this film is its pacing. It does tend to rush things to a degree, especially in the beginning, but I feel like the pacing doesn't really hurt the film that much.
This film makes up for the shortcomings of the second film. If you're a fan of the original, you should like this one. If not...well, oh well. I liked it. I liked it a lot. It almost makes me wish that there was a 4th one coming out, but this is the end. And what a spectacular ending it is.
Heads Up: Stay for the mid-credits scene. You'll be glad you did.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Friday, May 31, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
The Hangover Part II (2011) - Review
The Hangover Part II (2011) - Starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, Paul Giamatti, Jamie Chung, Mason Lee. Written by Craig Mazin, Scot Armstrong and Todd Phillips. Directed by Todd Phillips. Rated R. Available on DVD.
The Hangover Part II continues the story of the Wolfpack that began in The Hangover. This time, they're in Thailand for the wedding of Stu (Helms) and once again, Stu, Alan (Galifianakis), and Phil (Cooper) find themselves in an insane situation after a bachelor party they don't remember.
The problem that a lot of people have with this movie is that it is too similar to the first one, which undoubtably it is. But I think the bigger problem is that even though it tries to be exactly like the first one, it's nowhere near as funny. To me, the humor is a lot more gross this time around. And while the first one definitely had its share of gross moments, it was much better with one liners and funny jokes. This movie just doesn't seem to land as well.
I still enjoyed it. Maybe it's because I love seeing these three guys together. They're great. Ken Jeong, reprising his role as criminal Leslie Chow, is also good, but I don't find him as hilarious as a lot of people seem to. Maybe I just wish he would be a little less naked.
I think if this movie would have come out and the first movie never existed, people would have received it more warmly. But when compared to the first film, one of the most successful comedy films of all time, it just doesn't hold up as well.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
The Hangover Part II continues the story of the Wolfpack that began in The Hangover. This time, they're in Thailand for the wedding of Stu (Helms) and once again, Stu, Alan (Galifianakis), and Phil (Cooper) find themselves in an insane situation after a bachelor party they don't remember.
The problem that a lot of people have with this movie is that it is too similar to the first one, which undoubtably it is. But I think the bigger problem is that even though it tries to be exactly like the first one, it's nowhere near as funny. To me, the humor is a lot more gross this time around. And while the first one definitely had its share of gross moments, it was much better with one liners and funny jokes. This movie just doesn't seem to land as well.
I still enjoyed it. Maybe it's because I love seeing these three guys together. They're great. Ken Jeong, reprising his role as criminal Leslie Chow, is also good, but I don't find him as hilarious as a lot of people seem to. Maybe I just wish he would be a little less naked.
I think if this movie would have come out and the first movie never existed, people would have received it more warmly. But when compared to the first film, one of the most successful comedy films of all time, it just doesn't hold up as well.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Hall Pass (2011) -- Review
Hall Pass (2011) - Starring Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate. Written by Pete Jones, Peter Farrelly, Kevin Barnett, Bobby Farrelly. Directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly. Rated R. Available on DVD and HBO Go.
Hall Pass follows Rick (Wilson) and Fred (Sudeikis), two married men, who are given a "hall pass" - a week off of marriage - by their wives (Fischer and Applegate). They are given a chance to do absolutely whatever they want with whoever they want to do it with and will face no consequences once the week is over.
Which is something that would 100% absolutely never happen. Ever. I spent the whole movie thinking this. It is completely unrealistic, and I get that comedies a lot of times are about ridiculous situations, but to me, this was too much of a stretch. But even with this ridiculous of a situation, this movie was immensely boring. I literally - no exaggeration- only laughed once during this movie and it was at Jason Sudeikis, who I typically find pretty funny.
Maybe it's the fact that I can't stand Owen Wilson's style of acting - like Woody Allen with even more stuttering- or maybe it's just not a good script. But if you're planning on watching this, find another comedy to watch. Chances are that it will be more realistic, funnier, and all around better than this one.
Rating: 1 out of 5.
Hall Pass follows Rick (Wilson) and Fred (Sudeikis), two married men, who are given a "hall pass" - a week off of marriage - by their wives (Fischer and Applegate). They are given a chance to do absolutely whatever they want with whoever they want to do it with and will face no consequences once the week is over.
Which is something that would 100% absolutely never happen. Ever. I spent the whole movie thinking this. It is completely unrealistic, and I get that comedies a lot of times are about ridiculous situations, but to me, this was too much of a stretch. But even with this ridiculous of a situation, this movie was immensely boring. I literally - no exaggeration- only laughed once during this movie and it was at Jason Sudeikis, who I typically find pretty funny.
Maybe it's the fact that I can't stand Owen Wilson's style of acting - like Woody Allen with even more stuttering- or maybe it's just not a good script. But if you're planning on watching this, find another comedy to watch. Chances are that it will be more realistic, funnier, and all around better than this one.
Rating: 1 out of 5.
Monday, May 27, 2013
The Hangover (2009) - Review
The Hangover (2009) - Starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifiankis, Justin Bartha. Written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. Directed by Todd Phillips. Rated R. Available on DVD.
If you haven't seen The Hangover by now, you should. There's a reason why it was as popular as it was. It's funny, and at the time, original. The chemistry between the three leads is fantastic and their performances in this film is what helped their careers become even larger. At the time this film was released, no one really knew who these people were. Now everyone does. (Yes, I realize those are sweeping generalizations.) I really do enjoy this film. Something I really like about this movie, in addition to the great writing and original plot, is how this film is directed. Lots of the shots in the movie are really cool visually. The song selection for this film is also quite great. The humor, at times, is really disgusting, but the really funny parts to me are the quick one liners and the crazy situations that the characters face.
I like this movie. I like it a lot. And it's still funny the third time I've seen it, which a lot of comedies aren't.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
If you haven't seen The Hangover by now, you should. There's a reason why it was as popular as it was. It's funny, and at the time, original. The chemistry between the three leads is fantastic and their performances in this film is what helped their careers become even larger. At the time this film was released, no one really knew who these people were. Now everyone does. (Yes, I realize those are sweeping generalizations.) I really do enjoy this film. Something I really like about this movie, in addition to the great writing and original plot, is how this film is directed. Lots of the shots in the movie are really cool visually. The song selection for this film is also quite great. The humor, at times, is really disgusting, but the really funny parts to me are the quick one liners and the crazy situations that the characters face.
I like this movie. I like it a lot. And it's still funny the third time I've seen it, which a lot of comedies aren't.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
New Year's Eve (2011) - Review
New Year's Eve (2011) - Starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Biel, Hilary Swank, Michelle Pfieffer, Zac Efron, Seth Meyers, Josh Duhamel, Jon Bon Jovi, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele, Robert De Niro. Written by Katherine Fugate. Directed by Garry Marshall. Rated PG-13. Available on HBO Go and DVD.
New Year's Eve follows several individuals and couples during New Year's Eve in New York, which is an amazing time of the year. If you were looking for this movie at the store, you would have to look next to the Cheetos because this is a giant cheeseball of a movie. The stories are unrealistic. The characters aren't all that interesting. The dialogue is terrible. The acting, despite the cast, is almost amateurish. It almost seems like everyone who worked on this film phoned it in. The only thing redeemable I found in this film was the fact that Robert De Niro did pretty well in it, but that was nowhere near enough to safe it. The jokes were stale. I wanted so much to laugh at Seth Meyers, who I think is hilarious and quite talented, but all the jokes were stale jokes. The lowest, and cheesiest moment, is definitely the Bon Jovi/Lea Michele duet montage while everyone is searching for love. On top of this, there was more product placement in this movie than I have ever seen before, which explains how they were able to pay so many actors to do a whole lot of nothing.
This movie almost made me want to never visit New York during the holidays. Almost.
Rating: 1 out of 5.
Monday, May 20, 2013
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (2012) - Review
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (2012) - Starring Charlie Sheen, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray. Written and Directed by Roman Coppola. Rated R. Available on DVD.
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III follows Charles Swan (played by Charlie Sheen, who the character is obviously based on), a graphic designer who is trying desperately to get over his girlfriend who left him. He has an active imagination that creates fantasy scenes that he imagines while dealing with things.
This film is completely over-the-top, but not in a good way. It aspires to have the same type of quirkiness that Wes Anderson films have (Coppola wrote two of Anderson's films), but it doesn't really succeed. Yes, it's weird and off-beat, but it just isn't interesting. I was completely unable to care about any of the characters or what was going on. For a film that had so many things happening in it, it was pretty boring. The actors seem to barely care about what is going on themselves, except it seems for Sheen. The redeeming quality is the cool visuals present in the films.
If you've thought about watching this movie, I recommend just watching something else.
Rating: 1.5 out of 5.
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III follows Charles Swan (played by Charlie Sheen, who the character is obviously based on), a graphic designer who is trying desperately to get over his girlfriend who left him. He has an active imagination that creates fantasy scenes that he imagines while dealing with things.
This film is completely over-the-top, but not in a good way. It aspires to have the same type of quirkiness that Wes Anderson films have (Coppola wrote two of Anderson's films), but it doesn't really succeed. Yes, it's weird and off-beat, but it just isn't interesting. I was completely unable to care about any of the characters or what was going on. For a film that had so many things happening in it, it was pretty boring. The actors seem to barely care about what is going on themselves, except it seems for Sheen. The redeeming quality is the cool visuals present in the films.
If you've thought about watching this movie, I recommend just watching something else.
Rating: 1.5 out of 5.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) - Review
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller, Alice Eve. Written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, & Damon Lindelof. Directed by J.J. Abrams. Rated PG-13. Now in theaters.
Star Trek Into Darkness continues the adventures of the crew of the USS Enterprise as they face their most dangerous assignment yet: capturing one very dangerous man. Star Trek Into Darkness is the second in the rebooted Star Trek film series and it is once again directed by J.J. Abrams, arguably the most popular director of big budget Sci-Fi films of the moment (though Joss Whedon is probably a close second).
Into Darkness is a worthy successor to the first of Abrams' Star Trek films. There is more action in this one than the other and the action scenes are amazing. It has a very fun, but pretty predictable, plot. None of the "twists" that this movie had were all that surprising, but it was still very entertaining. And that's all I really want out of a big budget action movie. I just want it to be entertaining.
One thing that Abrams continues to do well in this film is to develop his characters and their relationships. Abrams is quite talented on focusing on characters amid all of the action scenes. This movie was very good and very entertaining.
What I keep thinking during the movie was "I can't wait to see what Abrams does with Star Wars."
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Star Trek Into Darkness continues the adventures of the crew of the USS Enterprise as they face their most dangerous assignment yet: capturing one very dangerous man. Star Trek Into Darkness is the second in the rebooted Star Trek film series and it is once again directed by J.J. Abrams, arguably the most popular director of big budget Sci-Fi films of the moment (though Joss Whedon is probably a close second).
Into Darkness is a worthy successor to the first of Abrams' Star Trek films. There is more action in this one than the other and the action scenes are amazing. It has a very fun, but pretty predictable, plot. None of the "twists" that this movie had were all that surprising, but it was still very entertaining. And that's all I really want out of a big budget action movie. I just want it to be entertaining.
One thing that Abrams continues to do well in this film is to develop his characters and their relationships. Abrams is quite talented on focusing on characters amid all of the action scenes. This movie was very good and very entertaining.
What I keep thinking during the movie was "I can't wait to see what Abrams does with Star Wars."
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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