Just For Fun

(Which really this whole blog is just for fun since no one reads it, but it allows me to exercise my inner movie nerd.)  But, so, anyway, the yearly wrap up of 2014 begins...

M.V.P.
Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin, Lucy; Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Chef.
Runner Up - Tom Hardy in Locke and The Drop.

BEST ENSEMBLE
Birdman
Runner Up - The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST LIMITED ROLE
Allison Pill in Snowpiercer
Runner Up - Matt Damon in Interstellar

BEST MOVIE POSTER
Nightcrawler
Runner Up - Whiplash

BEST TRAILER
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Runner Up - Gone Girl

BEST KISS
Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson in Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Runner Up: Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike's "sugar kiss" in Gone Girl

BEST CHEMISTRY
Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Runner Up - Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in 22 Jump Street

BEST DANCE SEQUENCE
Zac Efron and Seth Rogen Dance Off in Neighbors
Runner Up - Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum dance along side the car in 22 Jump Street

BEST MUSICAL SEQUENCE
The finale of Whiplash
Runner Up - Lip sync scene from The Skeleton Twins

BEST SONG
Lost Stars from Begin Again
Runner Up - Everything is Awesome from The Lego Movie

BEST SCORE
Birdman
Runner Up - Under the Skin

BEST ACTION SEQUENCE
Quicksilver in slow-mo in X-Men: Days of Future Past
Runner Up - Out running a wave in Interstellar

BEST CAR CHASE
Police car chase at the end of Nightcrawler
Runner Up - Nick Fury car chase in Captain America: The Winter Soldier

BEST FIGHT SCENE
Torch / tunnel scene in Snowpiercer
Runner Up - Elevator scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier

BEST IMAGE
Parachuting with red streaks in Godzilla
Runner Up - Glimpse of a fight on an ice planet from above in Interstellar

BEST SINGLE SCENE
The final ten minutes of Whiplash
Runner Up - Releasing the horses in Foxcatcher

BEST OPENING SHOT
The practicing drummer at the end of a long hallway in Whiplash

BEST ENDING
Final ten minutes of Whiplash
Runner Up - The gut punch ending of The Drop

BEST CLOSING CREDITS
Sequel mania in 22 Jump Street

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Birdman
Runner Up - Under the Skin

BEST COSTUMES
The Grand Budapest Hotel

BREAK THROUGH PERFORMANCE
Nat Wolff in The Fault in Our Stars and Palo Alto
Runner Up - Mackenzie Foy in Interstellar

BEST COMEBACK
Michael Keaton in Birdman
Runner Up - Don Johnson in Cold in July

BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE
Ralph Fiennes in The Grand Budapest Hotel
Runner Up - Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in 22 Jump Street

BEST VILLAIN
Sebastian Stan in Captain America : The Winter Soldier
Runner Up - Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl

BEST HERO
Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow
Runner Up - Scarlett Johansson in Lucy

BEST BAD ASS
Frank Grillo in The Purge: Anarchy
Runner Up - Chris Evans in Snowpiercer

BEST ABS
Zac Efron in Neighbors

BEST SEXPOT
Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A BAD MOVIE
James McAvoy in Filth

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A MEDIOCRE MOVIE
Adam Driver in This is Where I Leave You

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Birdman
Runner Up - The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Gone Girl

BEST QUOTE
"I feel like grabbing you by your ears right now and screaming in your face, 'I'm not fucking interested'." - Nightcrawler
Runner Up - "There are no two words in the English language more harmful than 'good job'." - Whiplash

22 Jump Street

The best thing about 22 Jump Street is it has a sense of humor about itself. Right from the start, it endlessly mocks tired sequels and the funniest parts of the film are actually courtesy of Nick Offerman and Ice Cube, who both repeatedly let the audience know that, yes, this is a sequel, and yes, they are aware it has to be bigger and more outlandish, and yes, they know the audience wants to see the same thing over and over again. This is a self-aware movie, unafraid to make fun of itself, and right from the start, we know that this is going to be a fun movie, not something that is overly serious.

After breaking up a drug ring in high school in 21 Jump Street, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) head to college this time around to find the supplier of a brand new drug called Whyphy (pronounced WiFi, which stands for Work Hard, yes? Play Hard, yes?). While part of the fun of 21 Jump Street was the fact that the roles were reversed - Hill's nerd became the popular kid, and Tatum's jock became the unpopular one - this time, it's more straightforward. Jenko finds a brand new soul mate in the form of Zook (Wyatt Russell, son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, new crush du jour of mine, thankyouverymuch), a hot Big Man on Campus quarterback. This leaves Schmidt feeling completely alone and left out. He's more than jealous of their new found bromance, and finds solace in a group of art students, including pretty girl Maya (Amber Stevens). From there, the movie is more or a less a retread of the original - one of the guys struggles to fit in, while the other gets an experience he completely missed out on the first time around. They bicker and fight and try to solve the crime, and eventually end up at Spring Break with a bunch of half naked co-eds. But, honestly, if you liked the first film, the second will not disappoint.

Hill and Tatum have a great chemistry and they are still as fun to watch as ever. Hill is well known for his comedic talents and one would go into this movie expecting him to be super funny, and he is, but Tatum is just as funny, if not, at times, funnier. They play off of each other so well, and they are truly a great on-screen comedic duo. The movie is funny and action-packed. Not to mention, this movie has one of the greatest closing credit sequences that I can think of! Of course, the movie isn't flawless. It is redundant, at times, and sometimes it feels like it's a lot longer than it has to be. But, again, if you liked the first film, you can't really complain. The sequel is just as funny and just as fun.

And while Hill and Tatum are superb as the leads, there are a few actors with smaller parts who steal the show. First and foremost is Ice Cube. He's absolutely killer in this movie, but revealing why would give away a pretty big plot twist, which I won't do. Needless to say, he kills it though. Then there is Jillian Bell, as Maya's roommate, who absolutely hates Schmidt from the get-go and makes endless jokes about him secretly being an old man trying to pass himself off as a college student. I already mentioned Wyatt Russell, who is a good actor and not just dangerously attractive. But the real stand outs of the film, for me, have to be The Lucas Brothers as the identical twins who live across the hall from Schmidt and Jenko. They are a pair of finish-each-others-sentences, chill as f**k, stoner bros who steal every damn scene they are in.

Overall, 22 Jump Street is the rare sequel that is just as good, or maybe even slightly better, than the original. It's funny and self-aware, and you should definitely check it out.

Grade: B

Best Supporting Actor 2013

For Best Supporting Actor, I have the exact opposite problem that I had for Best Supporting Actress. For Actress, I thought there were not very many options and I was not happy with my final list at all. For Actor, there are way too many options and I could make an entirely different Top Five list and still be completely satisfied with my choices. Let's call it an honorable mention: Barkhad Abdi for his soulful villain in Captain Phillips, Sam Rockwell for his hilarious father figure in The Way Way Back, Casey Affleck for his angry and broken soldier in Out of the Furnace, Woody Harrelson as a violent meth head in Out of the Furnace, and Kyle Chandler as a scene stealing dead beat dad in The Spectacular Now. Pretty impressive list, right? However, those are the also rans. They've got nothing on these guys:

05. Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street - Every once in a while, a movie comes along with a role that is perfect for a certain actor. This year, that movie / role / actor is Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street. This role seems tailor made for his strong points. If anyone saw Moneyball a few years ago, they know Hill is more than just some funny sidekick. He's got serious acting chops. And his role in The Wolf of Wall Street perfectly combines his darker side with zingy one liners. To say Hill nearly steals the show with his manic, wild right hand man role is an understatement. He's superb in the role, right down to the crazy accent, wild clothes and questionable teeth.

04. Ben Mendelsohn in The Place Beyond the Pines - Ben Mendelsohn is probably my favorite actor that is unknown by just about everyone in the general public. I fell for his volatile psychopath in Animal Kingdom (a really great Australian movie that everyone should Netflix immediately) and never looked back. As a mentor to a young bank robber, Mendelsohn gives a truly great, intense performance. I remember after seeing this movie, way back in March, I tweeted (@wonderfulscar) "Is it too early to start the Oscar campaign for Ben Mendelsohn in The Place Beyond the Pines?" Unfortunately that's not going to happen, but, at the very least, I can honor his scene stealing, manic work on my blog.

03. Bradley Cooper in American Hustle - In a movie starring Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Jeremy Renner, Robert DeNiro and Jennifer Lawrence, I never in a million years thought I would walk away thinking Bradley Cooper was best in show. But that's where we are when it comes to American Hustle. I never took Cooper seriously as an actor until last year's The Silver Linings Playbook. Maybe working with director David O. Russell is good for him. It seems he does his best work for that particular director. And in this film, he's easily the MVP for me. He plays Richie, a ladder climbing FBI agent who maybe wants to be a part of the con a little more than he admits. His character is easily the most complex and Cooper pulls it off effortlessly. He even pulls off that ridiculous hair.

02. Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club - Here are a few things I have learned about Jared Leto in the last few months: He seemingly hasn't aged a day since his starring role on My So-Called Life way back when. He is prettier, skinnier and has better hair than me. Also, he's a crazy great actor, starring as an AIDS infected, transvestite junkie in Dallas Buyers Club. Leto becomes this character to the point where, if you didn't know who the actor was going into the movie, you would swear it was a woman, or an actual transgender actor. He is nearly recognizable and becomes the heart and soul of this movie, which tends towards the gritty and dark. In a few months, he'll probably be adding "Academy Award Winner" to the front of his name.

01. Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave - I've always thought it would be a cool thing to get to vote for the Academy Awards. (That's probably why I decided on the top five format this year - this is like my own personal ballot.) But I wouldn't want to be the person that has to decide between Leto and Fassbender for Best Supporting Actor. Both are in a league of their own this year. But, for me, I give the slight edge to Fassbender as the violent, hateful, angry, probably bi-polar plantation owner in 12 Years a Slave. He's a hateful character - a slave owner who treats his wife like dirt, attempts to murder at will, rapes the woman he really loves. But, somehow, beneath it all, his character also has a certain charm. Fassbender's performance is like a live wire. It is explosive and intense. He truly makes the movie better when he's in a scene. In my opinion, not only did he give the best performance by a supporting actor this year, he also gave the best performance. Period.

The Wolf of Wall Street

Were you ever at a party or a bar or where you were sober or mostly sober? The people around you are drunk as hell and they are super fun and amusing. At least for a little while. Perhaps for the first two and a half hours, or so. Then you just want to get the hell out of there as quick as you can because amusing drunks turn to sloppy and annoying drunks real quick. If I had one criticism of Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street, it would be that. It's perhaps a bit too long. We could have done with one less scene of debauchery. There are two scenes in particular that could have been cut completely, or at the very least trimmed. I did read an article online that tried to make the argument that the three hour running time further illustrates the point of the movie, which is all about excess. That's an interesting theory, but I still think the movie would have been a tad better if it was cut down just a tad.

That being said, The Wolf of Wall Street is a goddamn great film. It's not about wolves, or even Wall Street really. This movie is about drugs. Or more particularly, addiction - addiction to drugs, addiction to sex, but mostly addiction to money. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort and when we meet him he's young and impressionable, fresh faced and eager to please. At lunch with his very first boss and mentor (Matthew McConaughey, in the movie for only about twenty minutes, but I'll be damned if he doesn't steal every one of those twenty minutes), he refuses to drink alcohol, wonders how his boss can snort coke at lunch and then go right back to work. Flash forward a few years, and Jordan is running his own firm, doing a lot of shady, questionably moral / legal dealings and getting ridiculously, crazy, stupid rich. Like, so rich that he at one point wads up a hundred dollar bill and throws it in the garbage. He has so much money he doesn't know what to do with it all. So he gets himself a trophy wife. And a fancy mansion. And a lot of cars. And a yacht. And a helicopter. And a pretty outrageous drug habit (he claims he does so many drugs in one day that he could treat all of Manhattan for a month). The parties and the brazen disregard for any sort of normal life is all so outrageous that you wouldn't even believe it... if it weren't all absolutely true. And it is. Every thing that happens in this movie is true, which makes it all the more crazy. Eventually, Jordan gets what's coming to him, but not before he sleeps with tons of hookers, throws a midget at a human sized dart board, takes an orgy filled trip to Vegas and manages to sink a boat off the coast of Italy. This movie is wild!

With the exception of The Departed, Leonardo DiCaprio has never, never been better. I read an article where the author suggested its because he isn't needy, and has no desire to have the audience like his character. Maybe this is true. I think it's because he's never been so free. When was the last time DiCaprio looked like he's having fun in a movie? He is completely uninhabited, going places he has never gone before. He dances (and the ten or fifteen seconds where he dances at his wedding are, I think, the best goddamn ten seconds in all of film in the entire year)! He does physical comedy! He struts around and preens like the cock of the walk! He is having the time of his life playing this despicable douchebag and he's so unbelievably charming that you almost want Jordan to get away with all the terrible things he's done. Almost. DiCaprio isn't the only stand out. Jonah Hill is pretty superb as well, as Jordan's right hand man, a wasp-y weirdo who is perhaps a bit wilder even than Jordan. He absolutely nails the role. He's also never been better. Other stand outs include Margot Robbie as Jordan's volatile trophy wife, Jean DuJardin as a slick Swiss banker and Kyle Chandler as a straight arrow FBI agent. This is a cast of hundreds, and everyone nails it.

Now let's talk Martin Scorsese, because dude is 71 years old. He's already made his masterpieces. I wouldn't blame him one bit if he retired and spent five days a week golfing. But somehow he's making movies like he still has something to prove. He's making movies like a 28 year old fresh out of film school. He's making movies with more balls than kids half his age, or a third of his age. This movie has so much energy, is such a non-stop party that it's almost hard to believe it was directed by someone who is in his seventies. But Scorsese, more or less, showed absolutely everyone else who was boss with this movie. No one else is even close to him in terms of directing this year. There's him, and then everyone else. He is such a master of his craft that he manages to not let this movie go too far. Last week, I talked about David O. Russell ripping off Goodfellas, but letting the movie go too over the top. There was a big chance with that happening with The Wolf of Wall Street, but it never crosses that line. Scorsese keeps it in check, and keeps things from going into that campy zone.

I know I just spent three paragraphs praising the hell out of The Wolf of Wall Street, but keep in mind, it's not for everyone. Four people walked out of the theater that I was in, even before the halfway mark. This movie is absolutely brazen and wild and out of control. Jonah Hill masterbates! All the orgies! Leonardo DiCaprio snorts coke off a hookers ass, and later, Margot Robbie's tits! Speaking of, so. much. nudity. All the nudity. Plus, they say variations of f**k something like 560 times, according to IMDB (I don't know whose job it is to count). So, The Wolf of Wall Street may not be your cut of tea, but if you can take the craziness, it's definitely one of the best, most outrageous, ballsiest movies of the year.

Grade: A-

Friday Top Five: Most Anticipated of 2013

The movie year is more than halfway over. That means it's almost time to be done with these disappointing summer movies and finally get to those Oscar hopeful / prestige movies. So, this week, I will be counting down my top five most anticipated movies for the rest of the year. Just as a disclaimer, I would like to say that a few of the movies I'm very excited about are either already in theaters or opening very, very soon. (Examples: I'm planning on seeing Fruitvale Station and The Way, Way Back this weekend and The Spectacular Now, Blue Jasmine and Elysium all open in the next few weeks). So, I'm mostly going to focus on fall / early winter releases with this list:

5. Oldboy (Spike Lee)
Release Date: October 25, 2013
Starring: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson, Sharlto Copley
This is Spike Lee's remake of the super violent, super amazing Korean movie of the same name. The original Oldboy is bad ass in every way you can possibly imagine, featuring a ballsy story line and brutal violence. I'm not opposed to film makers remaking foreign films (especially when that director is Lee), because most Americans won't even give movies with subtitles a chance. Here's hoping the remake, and maybe even subsequently the subtitled original, will find a whole new audience.

4. American Hustle (David O. Russell)
Release Date: December 25, 2013
Starring: Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Robert DeNiro
Umm... look at that cast! O. Russell has been pretty flawless lately, going 2 for 2 with his last two efforts the flawless The Fighter and the sweet Silver Linings Playbook. This is the story of a conman who is forced to work with the FBI to help take down the mob. So, it pretty much sounds like everything you want out of a movie.

3. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)
Release Date: October 18, 2013 (limited)
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Sarah Paulson, Alfre Woodard, Garrett Dillahunt, Quvenzhané Wallis
Besides this, McQueen has made two movies. Those two movies (Hunger, Shame) are damn good. So, the combination of McQueen and star Fassbender (who appeared in his previous efforts) is already cause for excitement. Again, look at that cast! This movie is the story of a free black man sold into slavery during pre-Civil War times.

2. Inside Llewyn Davis (Coen Brothers)
Release Date: December 6, 2013
Starring: Oscar Issac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Garrett Hedlund, John Goodman, Adam Driver
As far as I'm concerned, the Coen Brothers are the closest thing to flawless in the context of making movies. This is their take on the 1960s folk scene and based solely on the trailer, I think they already have the most beautifully shot film of the year (Will there be a better shot than that cat starring at himself in the window of the subway? Probably not).

1. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)
Release Date: November 15, 2013
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Kyle Chandler, Shea Whigham
This trailer was released a few months ago and it pretty much blew me away. Not only does it look like a less brutal version of American Psycho, but also it features DiCaprio dancing to Kanye West! What more could you want from a movie? Scorsese barely makes a mistake, and this cast is on point. If I made a list of my top five movies of 2013 so far, this trailer would be number 1. Looking forward to November!

Friday Top Five: Baseball Movies

Next Friday I will be MIA because I am heading up to Boston for the weekend to watch the Boston Red Sox play the New York Yankees. I'm pretty excited, which might be the biggest understatement of my life. But for this week's Top Five, I will be combining two of my favorite things - movies and baseball!

05. Fever Pitch (Farrelly Brothers, 2005)
This one is sort of just for me. I know it's not the best movie about baseball, but as a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan, I can't help but absolutely love it. The premise is that teacher Ben (Jimmy Fallon) can get over his heartbreak after a sweet but failed attempt at romance with Lindsay (Drew Barrymore) simply because we, as Red Sox fans, get our heartbroken every year. Of course, this movie was filmed during the historic 2004 season where the Red Sox finally broke the curse and won the World Series after 86 years so they had to do some ending re-writes. This movie is like watching history being made again and again.

04. A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992)
As a girl who idolized her older brother who played baseball and was obsessed with baseball from a pretty early age, just imagine how much I loved this movie when it came out. Girls playing baseball!! I was probably 10 or 12 when I saw this movie so I think it had a pretty big influence on me at such an impressionable age. The whole cast is brilliant in their roles, even Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell, who aren't typically the best actresses. But if you come for Tom Hanks and his hilarious, drunken manager performance, you are going to stay for the sister rivalry between Geena Davis and Lori Petty.

03. Eight Men Out (John Sayles, 1988)
Eight Men Out is the story of the 1919 Chicago White Sox who managed to win the World Series at the last minute despite promising some gamblers they would throw the series in order to make a few extra bucks. The truth is, baseball has a dark side that existed long before PED scandals and this movie completely entrances. All of the performances are absolutely fantastic. This movie stars a who's who of hot young actors from the late 80s including John Cusack, Charlie Sheen and, future Walking Dead Michael Rooker.

02. Moneyball (Bennett Miller, 2011)
What do you get when you mix a super smart script from the best writer in the biz (Aaron Sorkin), a movie star performance from Brad Pitt, a star-making performance from Jonah Hill, and damn good directing? Well, you get Moneyball, the Oscar nominated movie from 2 years ago which is totally re-watchable and endlessly quotable. A must see!

01. Bull Durham (Ron Shelton, 1988)
Not only is this the greatest sports movie of all time, but also Kevin Costner says things like this: "Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days." Also, I am a full fledged member of the Church of Baseball.

This is the End

I'm sort of torn with how I feel about This is the End. When I left the theater, all I could think about was how damn stupid and pointless it all was. But as days pass and I think about it more and more, I'm left remembering the parts that were really funny. Plus, another movie starring most of these guys - Knocked Up - took quite a while to really grow on me. Now I love it, but that wasn't the case when I first saw it.

This is the End stars real life friends Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, James Franco, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson as themselves. They find themselves at a house party at Franco's new super mansion. Other guests at the party include Mindy Kaling, Michael Cera, Jason Segal, Paul Rudd, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Aziz Ansari, Kevin Hart, Emma Watson, and, even Rihanna. Soon, the apocalypse happens. Jay and Seth only realize this because they take a party break to walk to a convenience store to get some cigarettes. Everyone at the party think it's an earthquake (or, in one instance, that the Lakers won). Soon, just about every one at the party is sucked into hell except our stars who are left to tough out the end of the world at Franco's house with very few supplies and very weird art.

The best parts of This is the End are damn funny. The two moments that stick out in my mind are their homemade sequel to Pineapple Express starring Jonah Hill as Woody Harrelson, and Franco riffing on art (did you know Subway sandwiches are art??). Pretty much every (limited) line that comes out of Michael Cera's mouth is gold, but they make a huge mistake by killing him off in the first ten minutes. I sincerely love every person in this movie and I have since watching Rogen and Franco on Freaks and Geeks, Baruchel on Undeclared and Jonah (my favorite Jonah!) in everything. That's why I wanted to love this movie so badly. This cast is fantastic and you could tell they are friends in real life. They have a chemistry that is so natural and they make fun of each other the way only friends can. Franco and McBride steal the show by a mile. They are both hilarious and over the top, playing wild versions of themselves. McBride is the loud mouth, trouble starter turned cannibal (!!) and Franco is the pretentious art lover with a sort of obsession with Rogen.

But there are problems here. Rogen also co-wrote and co-directed the film with Evan Goldberg (who he also co-wrote Superbad, probably the best comedy of the last decade, with). I'm not entirely sure they know how to direct a movie, but at the very least they know how to string a bunch of you tube worthy clips together into some sort of cohesive entitity that has a very loose sort of plot and a very general good-natured quality. This isn't entirely a compliment. If these guys want to take the step into directing, they are going to need to learn some sort of craft. They could just always count on calling their funny friends to help them out (although, that seems to work for Judd Apatow). The biggest problem with This is the End is that the basic plot is pretty dumb. And it just keeps getting more outlandish (an exorcism scene) and more outlandish (cannibals) and more outlandish (multi-headed dragons!) and more outlandish (the final scene, which I won't spoil, but which is, possibly, the most ridiculous thing you will see on the screen this year, if not this decade).

So, it's sort of shame that they decided to go in such a far out direction with this film. They could have done an end of the world theme where they didn't really show anything happened but kept it all at a house while a bunch of spoiled celebrities tried to survive while talking about masterbation and while Jonah Hill keeps referring to himself as "America's Sweetheart." It would have been a much better movie, in my opinion. And who knows? Maybe I'll watch This is the End again some time and it will grow on me a bit more. But, for now, the ridiculous aspects ruined what was a perfectly funny movie for me.

Grade: C

Silent House & 21 Jump Street

Silent House - There are good things and bad things about Silent House. First, the good news. It's ridiculously creative. Filmed in one continuous take, the 88 minute long film was filmed in real time and features creative direction and camera tricks. Also, Elizabeth Olsen is INCREDIBLE. Her performance is so terrifyingly real and sincere that it's hard to not become involved in the story. The story, of course, is about Sarah (Olsen) who goes to her family's old lake house with her dad and her uncle in order to fix it up to sell it. It's been mostly abandoned for the last year and there are squatters who keep breaking in and destroying the house. Or maybe the squatters are still in the house. Because Sarah soon finds herself locked in the house. Then she finds her dad's unconscious body and so begins a game of cat and mouse with Sarah trying to stay alive and make it out of the house. Now for the bad news. The movie just isn't scary at all. Plus, it gets a little too weird at one point. Also, it's full of all the same old horror movie cliches. Then there's that ending. SPOILER ALERT. I'm not going to totally ruin the ending. I did like the IDEA of the ending. The problem is I don't think it was executed properly. An ending similar to that has been done so much better before in films like High Tension and Triangle. All in all, Silent House was merely mediocre. The creativity and Olsen's incredible performance definitely make it watchable. If it wasn't for those things, Silent House would just be another run of the mill, trite, boring wanna be scary movie.
Grade: C


21 Jump Street - A few days ago when I reviewed last year's remake of Footloose, I talked about how the best way to remake a classic film (or, in this case, TV show) was to make it your own while still paying homage to the original. Well, 21 Jump Street totally succeeds at both of these things. The film is based on the TV show that made Johnny Depp a mega star and is about a group of young looking cops who go undercover at local high schools. In the movie, Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum star as ex-high school enemies (Tatum was uber popular, Hill was a loser) who become besties and then find themselves going back into their old school to infiltrate a drug ring. This time around, Hill finds himself in with the cool kids (including James Franco's equally strange and talented younger brother Dave) while Tatum is a nerd who is mistakenly signed up for AP-Chemistry. So, the plot is pretty commonplace, but here's the thing - the movie is actually really, really funny. In fact, at certain points, I kept thinking about how this movie really has no right to be this good. In fact, after the barrage of trailers that took over for a while, I was convinced this movie was going to be terrible. But it's not. We all know Jonah Hill is funny but here, again, he's proving that he's a pretty damn good actor as well. Tatum is known as being a pretty face but after seeing A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, I always suspected there was a good actor in there somewhere. Here, he's funny and charming and absolutely great. The supporting cast (from Franco to Ice Cube to Ellie Kempler to a small scene stealing part from Johnny Simmons) is all fantastic as well. Plus, there are cameos by a bunch of the original cast members of the show (including Johnny Depp - whose cameo is absolutely great). All in all, 21 Jump Street is a GOOD movie. The only thing keeping it from being a great movie is the too long run time. Other than that, it's totally recommendable.
Grade: B

"How can you not be romantic about baseball?"

If I had the time and the privacy, I would write a long and detailed review of Moneyball and explain to you oh-so-well why I loved it so much. But I don't. So this will have to do. Moneyball is the reason I love movies. It perfectly encapsulates the reasons I love baseball and screenwriting and movie making in general. It may not be some poetic, ethereal experience like The Tree of Life, but as far as I'm concerned Moneyball is the best movie of the year so far. It's a great film, heartwarming and funny and so well done. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill (yes, THAT Jonah Hill) should both be nominated for Oscars. Go see it right this very second!
Grade: A

Get Him to the Greek

Get Him to the Greek is sort of The Hangover of 2010 insomuchas it's smart, better acted and directed than it has to be and very, very funny. A sort of spin-off of Forgetting Sarah Marshall (another comedy that is smart and better than it has to be), Get Him to the Greek this time focuses on British rock star Alduous Snow (Russell Brand). When the film opens, Snow is filming a hilariously bad video for a song called "African Child." He mistakingly thinks the song is going to change the lives of many but instead it tanks. Magazines say the only things worse that have happened to Africa are war and famine. Suddenly, his "monogamous" (meaning he tells her when he sleeps with other women) relationship with pop star Jackie Q (Rose Byrne and, honestly, I didn't know she could do funny this well) is falling apart. Then his 7 years sober goes out the window and he turns back into a destructive rock and roll has been.
Cut to Los Angeles where Aaron Green (Jonah Hill who was also in Forgetting Sarah Marshall but is portraying a completely different character here) lives a pretty unexciting life. By night, he watches marathons of Gossip Girl with his live-in intern girlfriend and by day he works for a record company head by a man named Sergio who is played by P. Diddy and who manages to steal this entire movie from Brand and Hill. Diddy is funny as hell! He gets all the best lines and his comic delivery is perfect. Who knew?!? Anyway, Sergio is looking for ways to make some money. A lot of lackluster ideas are thrown around until Aaron suggests a 10 year anniversary concert of Aldous Snow at the Greek theater. Sergio eventually gets on board and gives Aaron the task of going to London, collecting Aldous, and bringing him back to L.A. (with a pit stop in NYC for the Today Show) for the concert. As you can probably assume, hijinks ensue.
Let me be perfectly clear: it's not as if Get Him to the Greek is some sort of life changing experience or anything. But as far as summer movies go, and summer comedies for that matter, it's a damn funny movie. There is a 20 minute section or so near the end when they make a pit stop in Las Vegas and are partying in a suite where I don't think I ever laughed harder at a movie. The movie is just plain funny. Brand and Hill have a great chemistry together and both give better performances than they really have to in a funny movie. In funny movies, you don't really have to be a good actor. You just have to make people laugh. That these guys create characters who are not completely one-dimensional and have layers is an added bonus. Get Him to the Greek is not a great movie but it will definitely make you laugh.
Grade: B-

Superbad, Becoming Jane

Superbad - Superbad is pretty much one of the funniest movies I have ever seen in my entire life. It is definitely the funniest movie of the year. I can't remember when I laughed harder. The plot is quite simple: Three high school friends (the brilliant Michael Cera plays Evan, Jonah Hill plays Seth and Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays McLovin) are on a quest, during one of the last weekends before graduation, to get alcohol and sex. In that order. While the plot is quite simple, naturaly, nothing really works out as planned. I don't want to divulge too much and take away from the wonderfully concocted craziness of the script but let's just say that two slacker cops (SNL's Bill Hader and co-screenwriter and Knocked Up star Seth Rogen) show up to portray the best/worst cops in the history of film. Apparently Rogen and his pal Evan Goldberg wrote the script together when they were actually in high school. You can tell. These kids talk like they are in high school. These kids act like they are in high school. Nothing is watered down at all. And it's wonderful. This movie takes the raunchiness of Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin and wears the vulgarity proudly. This is bound to become a cult classic. It's the Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused of the myspace generation. This movie captures the sometimes hellish existence of adolescence perfectly. Hill and Cera have amazing chemistry together. Hill is manic and crazy, rocking a Richard Pryor t-shirt and a Jew fro. He finally gets to showcase just how funny he truly is. His overexuberance plays perfectly off of Cera's pitch perfect awkward, dead pan. He's the well-meaning, respectful nerd. He is the king of the awkward pause and uncomfortable silence. They play best friends the way only two people who have actually hung out together can play best friends. Their chemistry is wonderful. Hader and Rogen are a joy to watch as two outlandish cops. They try to steal the show but the script and performances are just so tight that no one really steals anything. The entire cast works together beautifully. But, it is probably new actor Christopher Mintz-Plasse that you'll remember in twenty years. This is his first acting role EVER! He is the coolest geek since "Terry the Toad" in American Graffiti. Mintz-Plasse plays Fogell - or McLovin which is the name he choses for his fake ID. He's more than memorable as he gets into one crazy situation after another with the crazy cops. If you want to laugh from beginning to end, then you absolutely have to see Superbad. In fact, see it twice since you'll probably be laughing so hard you'll miss some of the funny parts. This movie is definitely bonafide badass.

Grade: A-

Becoming Jane - So, I've tried to write this review three times now and it won't let me so here is the shortened version: Becoming Jane is more or less Pride and Prejudice: Redux. James McAvoy is brilliant, sexy, charming, vibrant, sexy, electrifying, sexy. Maggie Smith and James Cromwell are underused. Anne Hathaway just can't carry a movie by herself. Sorry. Someone explain to me why people keep refering to her as 'pretty'? The script is mediocre. The ending is great. James McAvoy skinny dips which is worth the price of admission alone. The cinematography is solid. The editing could have been better. There is some humor, some good points but the movie is mostly boring. Oh, and if James McAvoy ever says the words "Run away with me" to me. I'm going. Don't expect a note or a letter or a goodbye. I'm going. I don't care if he's poor. Those blue eyes alone are enough to keep me satisfied. This has been your shortened review.
Grade: C-

Behind the Mask, Evan Almighty, A Mighty Heart

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon - Guess what? The horror genre isn't completely dried up and dead and boring. It's not completely conventional and and it's definitely not completely predictable... thanks in part to the creative and unique Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. The tagline for the movie is, "Michael, Jason, Freddy... we all need someone to look up to." I was pretty much hooked from that alone. The story is presented as a documentary. Aspiring serial killer Leslie Vernon invites a few grad students to document his preparations for his big slaughter. What a unique way to present a horror film! We always see everything from the victim's point of view... never from the killers! We never really see all the preparation these guys have to go through: months of training, thinking of every possible escape route and coming up with alternate plans... even picking the perfect 'survivor girl.' She has to be a virgin with the potential to come out of her shell a better person, willing to fight for her life. But, here's the greatest thing of all: Leslie Vernon (played by newcomer Nathan Baesel) is a likeable guy! He's got a great sense of humor, a sharp wit and biting intellect. He's got tons of charm and charisma and Baesel is having the time of his life playing this soon-to-be serial killer. We also get to meet his mentor, the retired Eugene (Scott Wilson) and his 'ahab.' And, get this for the most perfect casting ever: the ahab (or... sort of good yin to his evil yang... think Dr. Loomis in Halloween) is none other than the one and only Robert Englund! I'm sorry but the fan girl in me can barely handle all the awesomeness of this movie. To top it all off, it's a really fun, really fresh, really great ride. This movie has a great idea and an amazing build up. It could be argued that it loses it's way with the ending (when it does become conventional slasher movie) but I was already having so much fun that it didn't matter too much to me. Make sure you watch all the way through the credits... and not just for Psycho Killer by the Talking Heads!
Grade: B+

Evan Almighty - What happens when you combine comedic geniuses Steve Carell, Jonah Hill, Lauren Graham and Ed Helms with one of the most beloved acting legends of our time, Morgan Freeman and one of the coolest men ever, John Goodman? Well, you get a mighty, mighty bad movie. This movie was not only not funny but also not entertaining in any way, shape or form. The only redeeming factors, for me, were Ed Helms and Jonah Hill who did their best to make the very lacking script work for them. Hill was one of the best things about Knocked Up and I can barely wait to see him team up with the young, comedic genius Michael Cera in August's Superbad. Now that's a comedy team with unbelievable potential. Helms is consistently one of the best things about the wonderful The Office. Still, these two alone cannot save this tired, heavy-handed, preachy, down-right boring movie. Carell just completely loses all of his sparkle and charm in this movie. And what a way to underuse the absolutely brilliant Lauren Graham. Not even underuse. How can you underuse something that you don't use at all? She's relegated to playing the dumb wife, a secondary, non-descript background character. How can anyone who has seen her work on Gilmore Girls not give her more to work with? She can more than hold her own with the big boys of comedy. Morgan Freeman does the same old God-shtick as the first time around. He's adorable and loveable but it's not enough to save this floundering mess. John Goodman does his best to play a bad guy but there's just one problem for me - I see him as nothing but a huggable teddy bear. Everything was rushed, the dialogue was laughably bad and the humor just wasn't funny at all.

Grade: D-

A Mighty Heart - I honestly can't think of a time when I've been more bored by a movie. Which is disappointing since I really had high hopes for this film. It tells the true story of journalist Danny Pearl (Dan Futterman) who disappears while on assignment in Pakistan and never comes home. Meanwhile, his pregnant wife Mariane (Angelina Jolie) has enlisted all kinds of people who look like each other and have accents you can't understand to try to find him before it's too late. Well, everyone knows that it is too late. Danny Pearl is beheaded on a videotape that is sent to Mariane's friends. Anyway, the movie is just a jumbled mess. There's too much going on and it becomes completely distracting, confusing and convaluted. After Danny goes missing, there's a lot of the same thing happening over and over: lots of random "Danny is missing" phone calls followed by discussions around a table and writing notes on a dry erase board. Then... more random "Danny is missing" phone calls followed by discussions around a table and writing notes on a dry erase board. Then... well, you get the point. The thing that probably bothered me most though was that Danny Pearl, who we are supposed to care about and worry about, the "heart" of the film, I guess, was barely in it. He was just a guy who showed up in a couple scenes and was sort of presented as this brilliant man who was stupid enough to be set up by these men who kidnapped him. The title of the movie is certainly kind of ironic since the movie has virtually no heart. The movie lacks any sort of emotion whatsoever and is just flat and boring. Now let's talk about Angelina. Her performance is completely unimpressive until one scene about 20 minutes from the end of the film. You know, the scene when she finds out her husband is dead. It proves her Oscar win for Girl, Interrupted was not a fluke. She's got talent. It's just a shame that her tabloid fodder life is getting in the way of her acting. She's no longer able to become a character. For me, I was never watching Mariane Pearl. I was watching Angelina Jolie do her best impression of Mariane Pearl.

Grade: D+