Mini Reviews

I have seen a lot of movies that I haven't written about. Either I didn't have the time or didn't have very much to say. Looking back at my list, most of them fell on the mediocre scale, but here are a few mini reviews for the bigger releases I missed as well as two movies that might make it on to my Best and Worst lists.

Horrible Bosses 2
Stars: Jason Bateman, Jason Sudekis, Charlie Day, Chris Pine, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx
Plot: The three lovable goofballs from the first movie decide to go into business for themselves, but when a rich businessman steals their idea, they orchestrate the kidnapping of his spoiled son as payback.
Thoughts: Chris Pine is very pretty. I will never complain about having to look at him for two hours. Other than that, this is pretty much exactly what you would expect if you saw the first one - a ridiculous, sometime funny, sometime eye roll inducing comedy.
Grade: C+

Obvious Child
Stars: Jenny Slate
Plot: After a one night stand leads to an unwanted pregnancy, a New York City comic, who is kind of a mess, tries to figure out what to do with her life.
Thoughts: I heard so many good things about this movie, but it was a huge disappointment for me.  Does it want to be a romantic comedy for the hipster set? Does it want to be a quirky coming of age movie? Does it have to have so many sophomoric jokes? I'm sorry, but fart jokes are for 13 year old boys, not seemingly well educated people who get to write screenplays for a living.
Grade: D

Wild
Stars: Reese Witherspoon,  Laura Dern
Plot: After a divorce, a heroin addiction and the death of her mother, lost soul Cheryl Strayed decided to find herself by hiking the 1100 mile Pacific Crest Trail.
Thoughts: I absolutely loved the memoir on which this was based. The movie? Not so much. Don't get me wrong. It's incredibly well made with superb performances. I loved the flashback segments, but as much as I love me some Reese Witherspoon, I can only take a much of watching her walk and eat and try to put up a tent. It just all became a bit redundant after a while.
Grade: B

The Gambler
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, Brie Larson, goddess of the world Jessica Lange
Plot: A college professor with a gambling addiction finds himself in way over his head when he owes extravagant amounts of money to three different scary loan shark types.
Thoughts: While I appreciate a good nihilistic lead character more than you can imagine, this movie never quite reached the sum of its parts. At times, it felt exciting and brilliant, and at others lazy and cliche. I read that this was originally going to be a Scorsese / DiCaprio project and I can't even imagine how good it could have been then. But I guess unlike our titular character,  those guys know when to walk away.
Grade: C+

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Stars: Martin Freeman, Orlando Bloom, Lee Pace, the exquisite cheekbones of Cate Blanchett
Plot: We are nearing the 9 hour mark and things are happening and there is a war and, honestly, I'm not that into it AND THEN BIRDS START DROPPING BEARS INTO THE FIGHT AND SHIT GETS REAL.
Thoughts: I have a love-hate relationship with The Hobbit movies that mostly leans toward the latter. I mean, I loved the second one as much as I hated the first one. The last in the trilogy (Fingers crossed) is mostly boring until the epic battle scene FINALLY starts. Somewhere in an alternate reality black hole bookshelf,  there is a really bad ass four hour / two movie version of The Hobbit that I'd like to see.
Grade: C-

Blue Ruin
Stars: Macon Blair
Plot: A drifter enacts revenge when the man who killed his family is released from prison.
Thoughts: The plot of this movie is as simple and straight forward as they come. There is probably about fifty sentences of dialogue in the while movie. The lead actor kind of has a Zach Galifianakis meets Nathan Lane thing going on. The director wears his love for the Coen Bros. firmly on his sleeve. And despite or because of all that, this is one of the best movies I have seen all year. It's a thrilling slow burn modern day masterpiece with a star who is so mesmerizing you can't even stand to blink. Why isn't Blair a huge star? Why isn't everyone every where talking about this movie all the time? I have no idea.
Grade: A

Mini Reviews

I do this thing where I like to watch as many movies released in a certain year as possible. For instance, right now, I pretty much only want to watch movies released in 2014, no matter how good or bad they might be (incidentally, I'm so over just about any movie I actually wanted to see in 2013 but didn't get a chance to watch). A lot of the year's earlier films are currently being released on DVD, so I've been catching up with things via Netflix and Redbox. My whole thing is - I like to have as much of a complete list of movies for my Best and Worst list by the end of the year. Sometimes, you can even find little gems hidden in there. And sometimes you are stuck watching a really crappy movie, but, hey!, at least Sam Rockwell is in it. That being said, here are some of the movies I've been catching up on lately.

Veronica Mars
Stars: Kirsten Bell, Jason Dohring
Plot: Once sassy high school private eye Veronica is now on the verge of becoming a high-powered NYC lawyer, when her bad boy (read: sexy) ex-boyfriend is accused of murdering his pop star girlfriend. She flies home for one last case, and, of course!, a ten year high school reunion.
Thoughts: This was less a cinematic experience and more like binge watching a few episodes of Veronica Mars. That's not a bad thing! I was obsessed with Veronica Mars when it was on TV and I used to watch the Soapnet marathons any chance I could. Who doesn't love a sassy, smart ass private eye with a rich, baby boy soulmate?? So, it was truly great to see all the old characters that were so familiar and whom I actually missed! Plus, they had some great new additions for the movie like Gabby Hoffman and Martin Starr! So, this wasn't a bust per se, but it also felt more like a made for TV movie than anything else.
Grade: B

In Secret
Stars: Elizabeth Olsen, Oscar Isaac, Jessica Lange
Plot: A young unhappily married woman in Victorian Paris begins a steamy relationship with a mysterious stranger with killer sideburns.
Thoughts: Yawn! For a movie that is about explicit sex, lies, deceit, manipulation and murder, In Secret is pretty damn boring. I mean, the saving grace, of course, are the performances, which are stellar, especially goddess of the world Jessica Lange. In short, come for Lange, stick around for Oscar Isaac's sexy sideburns (I could literally think of nothing else for days after watching this movie!).
Grade: C

Vampire Academy
Stars: Zoey Deutch, Sarah Hyland
Plot: Something about good vampires and bad vampires and protectors of vampires and an academy. I guess I'm too old to understand.
Thoughts: Listen. Sometimes I just have to give my inner 14 year old what she wants. Do you really think I want to be addicted to Pretty Little Liars? Do you really think I want to browse the YA shelves every time I hit up a book store? The answer is no. But, sometimes I just can't help myself. My inner 14 year old thought this movie would be a whole lot of snarky, campy fun. Kind of like Pitch Perfect, but with less singing and more vampires. But that didn't happen. The only reason this movie doesn't get a worse grade is because of Deutch who is ADORABLE and HILARIOUS and SASSY and WONDERFUL. With the right material, she could become a huge star.
Grade: D+

Earth to Echo
Plot: Three boyhood pals spend the last night before one of them moves away tracking a mysterious map, finding an adorable alien, and escaping nefarious construction workers.
Thoughts: My boyfriend says we don't watch enough "nice movies." I understand his complaint. I like my movies dark and twisted and violent. So, when there is a nice movie that he wants to see, I go with him. Earth to Echo is a nice movie. The problem? It's utterly forgettable. Like, I saw it less than a week ago and already forget a lot of the plot. What I do remember about it is that it's cute and sweet and highly likable, especially if you have kids in the 8 to 14 range. I wish it would have been more memorable though. I make lists of all the movies I see in a given year and that's a good thing in this case because come December, I might forget about this all together.
Grade: C+

Better Living Through Chemistry
Stars: Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde
Plot: A small town pharmacist begins an affair with a pill popping married rich woman and his life somehow manages to get better and fall apart at the same time.
Thoughts: Like I said above, at least Sam Rockwell is in it! This movie is pretty much just a giant mess of unlikable characters who do stupid things. None of what anyone does makes any sense and the end is just so absurd that it seems more likely to me that Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man would come flying through the sky and land in my backyard than any of this movie actually happening. It doesn't get an F because of the 30 second sequence of Rockwell dancing, which is glorious.
Grade: D-