Mini Reviews

I have been slacking lately, and I promise to pick up the pace for all my loyal readers (haha). Anyway, I've seen a few movies this year that I haven't had time to write about so I figured I would write a little something about them before moving on to the SUMMER BLOCKBUSTERS (read: Godzilla, which is literally the only thing I care about right now).

Endless Love
Stars: Alex Pettyfer, Gabriella Wilde
Plot: A sheltered rich girl falls for a charismatic bad boy and they fall crazy in love with each other. Dance parties, breaking and entering, and burning down houses ensues.
Thoughts: I mean, the movie was decent. There is nothing special about it, but I also seriously didn't mind starring at Alex Pettyfer (he so pretty) for an hour and a half. Plus, he and Wilde had a really sweet chemistry. And she is just about the prettiest girl I've ever seen. And it just occurred to me that the only redeeming qualities this movie had are its pretty stars.
Grade: C-

Bad Words
Stars: Jason Bateman
Plot: A grown man finds a loophole and decides to enter a child's spelling bee. Bateman's character is pretty much the most terrible person that ever walked the face of the Earth as he bad mouths and tortures kids, knocking them out of the tournament one by one.
Thoughts: Hilarious is a good word for it. Bateman, who also directed, knocks it out of the park with this very funny, very dirty, very raw movie. My only concern with it was that it felt really, really long and it was only 90 minutes. FYI: That's a sign of a bad editor. If a movie is short and feels long, you've got a bad editor on your hands. Inversely, if a movie is long and feels short, give that editor an Oscar!
Grade: B

Draft Day
Stars: Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Chadwick Boseman
Plot: A day in the life of the General Manager of the Cleveland Browns as he struggles to make big decision regarding the NFL draft. Unfortunately, no cameos from Johnny Manziel.
Thoughts: I liked this movie, especially the last third of it which is unrealistic but still hugely exciting (and, just so you know, the real draft is not even close to being that exciting). The movie is mostly held together by the endless charms of Kevin Costner. But the strange editing (split scenes, characters walking through said split screens and crossing into a different space) is really off-putting and distracting. Chadwick Boseman absolutely kills it as a hopeful Brown.
Grade: C

Neighbors
Stars: Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Seth Rogen, Dave Franco
Plot: A Frat moves next door to a pair of new parents who are struggling to grow up and still be cool.
Thoughts: This movie is super funny, if not a little heavy handed. Neighbors sort of assumes that the audience is really stupid, spelling things out for you, like we can't just pick up on the hints that Byrne and Rogen are struggling with not being young or hip anymore, or that Efron is the golden boy who is terrified of the future. They have to hit you over the head with these things, saying them out loud. Still, Neighbors is definitely a good time. Byrne steals the show, and it's really nice to see a comedy that lets the woman actually be funny and not uptight or something. Also, Zac Efron's abs are a thing of beauty and perfection and I almost never want to see another man besides him shirtless ever again. See it for his abs alone!
Grade: B

Fading Gigolo
Stars: John Turturro, Woody Allen
Plot: An aging florist decides to become a gigolo and is pimped out by his neighbor.
Thoughts: Ugh. This movie is dreadful. First of all, if you are blessed enough to have Woody Allen appear in your movie (he hasn't appeared in a movie that he hasn't written/directed in decades), then you should probably give him the script and let him do a once over on the whole thing. The script is absolutely terrible, with characters acting certain ways with no purpose whatsoever. Nothing anyone does in this movie makes any sense whatsoever. It's terrible. Stay away.
Grade: D

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.