Monday, February 18, 2013

4 Movie Reviews!

Here Comes the Boom- This is a typical Kevin James comedy. It is about a high school biology teacher who gets involved in mixed martial arts as a way to make money to save his school's music program. It is far fetched but I thought there were some really funny parts. I enjoyed the first half more before the movie started to take itself too seriously. I give it 6.6 stars.



Warm Bodies- I saw this movie only knowing it was a zombie comedy. It is basically a remake of Romeo and Juliet but it involves a love story between a zombie and a live young woman he has feelings for. I really liked this movie. I try not to use the word cute, but it was a cute story and was a good combination of romance and comedy. I thought it was clever, entertaining, and had a good message. I give it 7.5 stars.



Bully-This is a documentary about the problem of bullying in schools. It  featured many victims and even some of the bullies. It is a sad problem that affects so many kids and I don't mean any disrespect to those heart breaking incidents that it featured, but I didn't think the documentary was done that well and it was kind of slow. I give it 6.3 stars.



Jack Reacher- This movie was much better than I expected. Tom Cruise is an ex- U.S. Army investigator who gets involved in an investigation for an ex- military sniper accused of going on a shooting rampage in Pennsylvania. Reacher is much like a modern day Sherlock Holmes. There is plenty of suspense and mystery as he pieces together details of the crime, but there is also plenty of action in this movie. I had a hard time taking Rosamund Pike seriously as the female lead but besides that, I really liked this movie which included a surprise acting role by Werner Herzog as a freaky villain. I think I would actually like seeing more episodes of Jack Reacher than I would of future Mission Impossible movies. I'd love to see it turn into a series. I give it 8.1 stars.




Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Catfish

I am usually behind the times so it shouldn't surprise you that I am reviewing a movie that came out a couple years ago. When the recent events surrounding Manti Te'o and his mystery girlfriend came up in the news, I heard several people debating if it was possible to deceive someone in an online relationship to that extent. One of the people I heard talking about this simply said "Just rent the movie Catfish and you will see for yourself."

I had not heard of this movie before but those comments piqued my interest and I decided to rent it. Catfish is a documentary style film about a photographer in New York named Nev Schulman who receives a painting of one of his photographs. The gift was created by an 8 year old artist living in Michigan who really liked his work. Over time she continues to send him additional works and he develops a friendship over the phone and via Internet with her and her mother and sister. Over the course of several months Nev starts to develop more of a friendship with the older sister who is an attractive young woman shown to the right according to her Facebook account.

SPOILER ALERT:

After some time Nev and his roommates begin to suspect something is not right with the relationship when they discover several inconsistencies with the mysterious girl's story. They end up travelling to Michigan while documenting the experience to find out what is going on.

When they arrive, the mother of the young artist is very surprised to see them and eventually introduces them to her 8 year old daughter who they soon determine is not an artist at all. After several hours and multiple excuses of not being able to get them in touch with the daughter Nev has developed a relationship with, they realize that she does not exist.

The mother who is a woman in her 40's pictured to the left was the actual artist and had been sending him her artwork and pretending it was from her young daughter. She also created the imaginary older sister and had developed a relationship with Nev and had set up a string of fake accounts on Facebook to support her complicated story.

This movie was very interesting but I was as suspicious of the film makers as they were of their catfish. What are the odds that they just happened to be filming a documentary about their friend just as this happened? At any rate, it was an interesting show and it makes you think twice about trusting online friends you have never met in person. I give Catfish 7.2 stars.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

I'm going to be honest. I rented Salmon Fishing in the Yemen last week and I have not been able to get myself to watch it. I heard it was pretty good and I like Ewen McGregor and Emily Blunt, but I just didn't have the energy to give it a chance. I think the word "fishing" turned me off. I finally gave up and returned it to Netflix. That is only the second time in my life I have rented a video and not watched it.


Since I wimped out and can't give you a review, I guess I will just share this picture from the movie and tell you it was probably a very nice film...especially this scene which shows the stars of the movie sitting on a dock. Anyway, IMDB gave it 6.8 stars and I imagine it it pretty good but I just don't have the desire to confirm my suspicion.

Yours Truly,

Lazy movie reviewer guy

PS- Check back in later this week and I may review a movie that I actually watched.
 
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