Stuff on Screen

Ok so I did that thing again where I watched a whole lot of stuff but didn’t tell you about it. I know I don’t have to but I want to. It saves you from having to wade through all the crap that is out there and it allows me to do 2 things that I love, watch movies and judge things. It is totally win-win.

New-ish

I was excited to see this movie. It looked fun, colourful, and downright entertaining. So when free tickets were up for grabs at work I jumped on them and headed to the theatre. I am sorry to say I was pretty disappointed in this movie. They did some cool stuff with the animation, the prop design was pretty interesting with all the alien technology, and it is a very colourful film but all of that is superficial. Everything that would have given the movie substance just felt flat, confusing, or just missing. Kids will like it (as indicated by box office numbers) cuz it is colourful and kinda silly, but there is very little in there for more mature minds.

This movie was not what I was expecting. I was expecting classic James Bond but younger, you know that cool, sly, stylish. Which it did have but it was closer to the current bond style, sprinkled with Point of No Return, crossed with Tarantino; hyper violent fight scenes (I cringed at points) and a substantial amount of course language. I liked it. I thought it was a lot of fun, the fight scenes were awesome, the actors were great, and the overall story was (good) campy.

I didn’t watch this because I was making some sort of political statement, I watched it cuz This is the End was hilarious and these guys are funny. I will admit, if it wasn’t so much in the public eye I probably wouldn’t have seen it yet. It is pretty entertaining. It is a funny movie with a lot of good laughs. I will say though if some of the stuff in this movie is true then that isn’t really something to laugh at. But as a viewer here, where we are “free”, it seem so ludicrous that you can’t help but laugh at it. Watch it though, you will get a few good chuckles out of it.

Ugh! The poster is a LIE! There is nothing defining about this chapter. This was long, boring, and pointless. I can’t even give it a visual thumbs up. It looked over thought, comical, or just flat out stupid. Don’t bother, you don’t need to know the end. You know what happens? He goes home. Done.

Finally Got Around To It

All the way back in 2010 I reviewed R.E.D. and I loved it. It was fun, witty, and generally entertaining. I was looking forward to watch its follow up but never made it to the theatre and it just kinda fell off my radar. It showed up on my On-Demand feed and I was like yeah. And by the time I was finished I was not that excited about it. It was….boring. They tried so hard to top the previous movie that it all seemed so ridiculous that I couldn’t get into it. If you don’t want your memory of R.E.D. tarnished don’t watch this.

A couple years ago everyone made a big hoopla about Silver Linings Playbook. Jennifer Lawrence won the Oscar for her performance, Bradley Cooper was praised for his, and the overall film was called one of the best of the year. I was not impressed. It wasn’t bad, it was…fine. I get it, it was an interesting story (based on a book), and the acting was good, but there was nothing particularly great about it. I can’t think of a reason to tell you not to watch it but, on the flip side, I can’t really tell you a reason to watch it.

I watched this based on a friend’s recommendation. It wasn’t bad. Its a suspense/thriller that’s moody, dark, and very stylized. Its well written, acted, and cast and not overly predictable. The movie works but there is nothing spectacular about it. You can give it a shot.

So this turned out to be a pretty slick sci-fi film that had some legit cool future tech in it. The prop designer really came up with some interesting logical designs (really dug the fold of motorcycle. I think that exists already though…does it?). The overall story was good but they injected some unnecessary hammy-wanna-be-pull-on-heart-strings stuff that came across heavy handed and trying. But for the most part it was a fun movie to watch even though one aspect of it was totally predictable which I thought was going to be the big thing was really played down. You’ll enjoy it (up to the last 5 mins).

This movie is funny and super cute (Yes, it is a romcom, I watch those sometimes). It isn’t ridiculously cheesy, it has a level of realism that I enjoy, and there are a few good laughs in there. This is one of the few movies filmed in Toronto that is actually set in Toronto and they were in a lot of places that I know pretty well. They also went to places that made me think I should totally go there. I just liked it, you might too.

Off My List

Yes I have an actual list.

Much cooler in theory than execution. Teenage girl assassins killing people. It looked kinda campy and fun but that only lasted for the first 15 mins or so. The rest is boring, meandering, and kinda pointless. You can skip it.

I really liked this one. It was weird, in all the best ways, even though it seems totally normal. It is about a couple who go to a retreat…That is the most I can tell you without ruining anything. It is well scripted, acted, and edited. The way the story comes together is seamless without losing the audience while keeping them intrigued by what is going on. You should definitely have a look at this one.

This one was reviewed by a movie/media blog I frequent. It sounded interesting so on the list it went. It was good. Dark, gritty, very real. It is about revenge and its consequences. Its really well done. Even though he does some horrible things you really root for the protagonist. The quietness and malice makes you a little uncomfortable at times but that is one of the things that makes it good. Give this one a shot for sure.

A friend of mine told me about a web show called Nirvana the Band the Show. It is about a band trying to break into the music scene in Toronto. Its weird and kinda funny. Those same guys did this movie. At first I was super skeptical about it but my friend saw it at a festival and said it was really good. But because it had such a small opening and a short lived stay in the few theatre it was in, I didn’t get to see it. It popped up on my On-Demand and gave it a look. It is so good! At its core it is about bullying and what that does to people. But it is so much more than that. And the overall direction the movie takes is dark and twisted but completely logical. You see how the characters change and move and where they end up makes sense (even though it is pretty horrible). It is no where near what I expected but this one is a must see.

This movie was sold to me as a look at the world of voice actors and for some reason I was under the impression that this was more of a pseudo-documentary kind of thing than a regular movie. Well I wouldn’t have minded if the movie was better. It wasn’t horrible and had some great acting talents in it but it just felt kind of flat to me. The pacing seemed off, the characters weren’t particularly interesting, and the direction the story went was very…”meh”. I can’t really recommend this one but you can have a look if nothing else is on.

Well that’s it. Happy watching!

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