Life As We Know It

Well here is life as I know it. The world revolves around two people. Justin Bieber and Fergie.  Yes, Justin Bieber and Fergie.

Well, first off, “I got a feelin” (Fergie), that you will all really enjoy this movie!

The movie is about two young people, Holly and Messer, who are set up on a date together by their best friends. And like all blind dates, Holly and Messer do not get along well.  Tell me of one blind date that has actually ever worked out. It never happens.  But as fate would have it, these star-crossed haters and thrown back together after tragedy strikes their friends. Holly and Messer are named the legal guardians of their friend’s child, Sophie.

The movie had many funny parts. I’m talking, lol, laugh out loud parts.  Messer is plated by Josh Duhamel (Fergie’s husband).  Duhamel’s acting is not too shabby.  I mean, it wasn’t Oscar contender worthy or anything, but he played the “dumb dude” quite well.   He probably acted so well because he didn’t want to upset his wife, Fergie.  I don’t think anyone would want to make Fergie mad.  Boom Boom Pow!

 

I never knew that I would enjoy another movie with Katherine Heigl ever again after seeing The Killers.  I think that Katherine Heigl is frankly one of the least funny people on the planet. I don’t get her humor and I don’t even think she is a good actress.  I think that she is only where she is today because of her looks. She is a beautiful, blond actress to whom directors think they can just give a script to and have a box office hit.  With all of this Heigl bashing aside, I really did enjoy her in this movie. She played her role well and had me laughing with some of the things she said. 

All in all, I think this movie is definitely worth seeing.  I liked it a lot. I am usually way into the scary, action, suspense movies, so this was a nice break from that.   It was just one of those feel good movies that had you laughing all the way through it. Comedies are hard movies to make. Not that I have ever made a comedy, I just know how hard it is to keep people’s interest in a movie that is supposed to be funny the entire time. I was pleased and thought it was pretty funny. And for that, I will give this movie three out of five Fergie’s.

RED

“What was that movie called again honey?”

“What movie?”

“Green?”

“Oh you talking about that movie with the name that is some color?”

“Yeah I can’t remember, maybe like blue?”

“No, I know it wasn’t blue……I think it was pink.”

 RED! People! The movie is called RED!

The movie is about “Retired Extremely Dangerous.” Get it? Get it? RED!

If you are a fan of the show 24 you will like RED. Ok, I take that back.  If you are above the age of sixty, and are a fan of the show 24 you will like RED.  It was weird walking in the theater and seeing a lot of old people.  I didn’t know old people saw “cool” movies. No offense to old people of course.  But then I realized after watching this movie that it wasn’t a “cool” movie. Which was too bad because I was really excited to see this movie.

Movies with all star casts are either great (Ocean’s 11)……or they bomb (Valentines Day).   RED has an extraordinary cast: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Richard Dreyfuss, Helen Mirren, Brian Cox, and John Malkovich.  It’s sad that a movie can have such an excellent cast and still fall short. 

Bruce Willis plays Frank Moses.  I don’t know why they decided his name should be Frank Moses because he really was just a 65-year-old Jack Bauer.  Moses is an agent who worked for the CIA back in the day, and now the CIA is out to kill him.  Moses is trying to settle in to “normal” retired life and focuses most of his time reading romance novels in order to woo Sarah Ross played by Mary-Louise Parker.  Mary-Louise Parker stole the show.  She was the comic relief and played her role exceptionally.  Without Parker, this show would have dragged more than it already did.

Anyway, Moses goes around and gathers all his fellow agents and tries to figure out who is chasing them and attempting to kill them all.  Doesn’t that sound like a cool plot for a movie? (Seriously, no sarcasm, it sounds like a cool movie)  It is a cool premise, but for some reason the movie just didn’t really do it for me.  I enjoyed it, but I wished I hadn’t spent money to see it.  This is a movie that would be worth getting at Redbox or even seen at the dollar theaters.  The movie wasn’t terrible, but nothing special either.   If you are thinking that this is the action movie of the fall, don’t be fooled. Harry Potter is going to be the action movie of the fall.

 

I don’t want to write much more on this movie.  It was slow, but entertaining enough to keep your interest until the end.  Like I said, I think the older generation will like this movie a lot more than the younger generation.  So all you old people, go for it. Young people, go see Inception again.

Hereafter

You guys should know something. I enjoy watching C-SPAN.  Yes, you read that last sentence correctly.  I enjoy watching C-SPAN.  Some people think C-SPAN is boring. Well these people have obviously not seen Hereafter.  I can honestly say that I think that this is the worst movie that I have seen all year. There is slow, and then there is agonizingly slow, and then there is Hereafter slow.

Hereafter is the story about George Lonegan (Matt Damon) who has a gift/curse to talk to dead people.  But he doesn’t talk to them in a “Sixth Sense” kind of way( it’s more of a “boring “ kind of way).  He is a psychic who relays messages from the living to the dead so that the living can move on with their lives.  Lonegan has retired from this psychic work, but his older brother convinces him to do a few readings for his friends.  Lonegan has to decide whether or not he wants to start doing readings again for money.  Heck, times are tough, and I heard that psychics are in high demand again.

The movie follows three separate storylines.  One story takes place in America, one in France, and one in England.  So you’d think that one of these storylines would be interesting.  Nope. It felt like I was watching three boring movies at the same time. Since one of the story lines takes place in France you have to read subtitles a lot of the movie.  I don’t mind reading subtitles; I just hate reading subtitles when I have a headache. 

 

The only ray of sunshine in this movie was Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village/Lady in the Water).  She is in the movie for a total of about 12 minutes.  I’m a huge fan of The Village so I was happy to see her in this movie.  I just wish there was more of her in the movie and less of everything else.   She plays Matt Damon’s love interest. 

I had only read great reviews going into this movie so I’d thought that it would certainly be worth my money.  Nah….just wait till this movie comes out on Redbox or something.  If you are a Clint Eastwood fan then you will like this movie.  It is artsy and all that other junk that Clint Eastwood does.  I am not good with slow movies.  I probably looked at my phone 15 times to see if it was almost over.  As soon as the movie was over, the first words to come out of my mouth were, “Finally. It’s Over.”

Save your money. Go see Inception at the dollars or something.  

It's Kind of a Funny Story

“So Justin what movie did you see this weekend?”

“It’s Kind of a Funny Story.”

“Really? What happened?”

“No, that’s the name of the movie.”

“Really? It’s Kind of a Funny Story?”

“Yeah.”

“And how was it?”

“It was kind of a funny story.”

So some people have never even heard of this movie.  I had seen previews for it and it looked interesting enough to see.  You can check out the preview here.  The movie is about a 16-year-old boy named Craig(Keir Gilchrist) who is suicidal.  He calls a suicide hotline number and decides to check himself into a psychiatric hospital.  The teenager’s ward is closed, so he is admitted into the adult psychiatric ward.  It takes him about five minutes for him to realize that he is not suicidal anymore and wants to get out.  However he is committed to stay for at least five days.

Through the movie we follow Craig’s story and explore the issues of depression.  However, it is difficult to have a movie about depression when Zach Galifianakis is involved.  Galifianakis (The Hangover, Dinner for Schmucks) plays Bobby, a patient of the psychiatric ward.  Bobby is nice to Craig and they develop an interesting friendship in the movie.  Bobby treats Craig with respect, but explains to Craig that he has no idea why he is suicidal.  To Bobby, Craig has a good life and should never be in a psychiatric ward.  Craig asks Bobby throughout the movie why he is in the psychiatric ward, but Bobby doesn’t reveal the truth until the end of the movie.

Craig develops a love interest for Noelle (Emma Roberts).  Noelle is a cutter who has gone through some serious stuff in her life.  They begin to fall for each other, but then, of course, there is some drama that gets in the way of their little love fling.

The acting is great.  Zach Galifianakis does not play the dorky type as he does in most movies.  He takes this role seriously and you develop a lot of sympathy for his character.  Gichrist and Roberts are great too.  It’s hard for child actors to play these kinds of roles.  Somehow, these two lovebirds pull it off though. 

I’d definitely put this movie in my top six movies of the year.  (Top six movies? Is this guy crazy? He has a list of top six movies?)  I have already had people ask me if it was hilarious.  No, it wasn’t hilarious.  I laughed a lot, but it’s what I will call a “deep comedy.”  They make the movie funny to keep your interest, but I wouldn’t classify this movie as a “comedy comedy.”  I don’t think this movie will make a ton of money at the box-office, but it’s worth seeing.   If you have ever dealt with depression, or know someone who has dealt with depression, it’d be worth your time and money.  I really liked it.  I liked it more than I thought I would.  It feels long at some points, but a movie based on depression is probably not supposed to be a fast-paced thriller. 

So if you are sitting at home reading this, you probably have time to go see a movie.  I vote you go see this one.  

The Social Network

“I wanna be a billionaire….so freakin bad…..” .  You have probably heard the lyrics to the song “Billionaire” by Travie McCoy.  Well I have finally found out the secret to becoming a billionaire.  Invent Facebook.

So I’m going to be honest and say that I didn’t really want to see this movie when I first saw the trailer for it a few months ago.  A Facebook movie? Really? 

I am addicted to Facebook enough, I don’t think I need to go see a movie about Facebook.

But you all know me.  I have to see every movie.  A couple days before the movie came out it had a 100% rating on rottentomatoes.com.  That never happens.  If you have ever logged on to rottentomatoes to find out a movie’s rating, you never see 100%. Ever.  So I had some high expectations for this movie going into it.  And let me tell you, they were met once again.

Do you know the story of Facebook? I had no idea.  I had no idea of how it was created, who created it, when it was created, or why it was created.  Facebook now has over 500 million members so it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to brush up on your history.  I am not saying that this movie is completely accurate, but I am saying that it is interesting enough to go see. 

As always, I don’t want to talk too much about the movie itself because I don’t want to ruin it for those who have not seen it yet. But I will say this much.  I wanted to delete my Facebook account the minute after I saw the movie.  Last week I saw Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and learned that “greed is good.”  Once again, this point was reinforced after watching this movie.  Mark Zuckerberg is a not exactly greedy, but just stupid.

“But Justin he invented Facebook! He is a GENIUS.”

“I know, he is stupid in the sense that he has absolutely no understanding of how to maintain relationships with people.  He takes advantage of people and doesn’t understand the consequences of his actions….until he is being sued for millions of dollars.”

The movie is really bleak.  There is no hero.  No one wins.   The movie is a real winner though.  It has already stirred up alot of Oscar talk and it is sure to win some awards.  The acting was phenomenal.  Mark Zuckerberg is played by Jesse Eisenberg.  I am pretty sure that this movie is his shot to fame.  He was so believable in his character and as you are sitting there watching the movie you forget that he is acting.  I have never met Mark Zuckerberg personally, but for better or worse, I will always picture him the way that Eisenberg portrays him.

My initials are J. T. Guess who else shares my initials?! Justin Timberlake....Mr. J.T.  Justin Timberlake plays Sean Parker, the inventor of Napster.  I had no idea, but I guess Parker was somehow connected with the launch of Facebook and owns parts of the company.  Justin Timberlake was awesome in his role.  I also think that he could be successful in an acting career if he wanted to give up singing.  But then again, I like the song Sexy Back, so from one Justin to another, "Justin, don't give up your music career."

The other actors are just amazing too. The 2.5 hours movie fly by.  I walked out of the theater amazed that I was so entertained watching a movie where the entire movie is mostly talking and computer programming.  (And some partying).  This movie is so engaging and you really don't notice that it is really a long movie.

“That sounds amazing Justin!”

“Go see it then!”

I loved it.  I have no more to say.  Just go see it. I came home and bought two books off Amazon.com to learn more about the history of how Facebook got started.  Yeah….I liked this movie enough to spend more money on finding out more about it.