The Rum Diary

This movie felt incomplete. I was just not sure what was accomplished when it was over because it felt like nothing. Johnny Depp was magic as always. whether he is drunk love struck, or nervous. He owns FACT. Giovanni Ribisi play this drunk/high crazy person Moberg, and is an excellent funny addition. Aaron Eckhart play the model rich tool bag to a T. And the very sexyful Amber Heard play Depps super hot love interest. The cast is wonderful is what i am getting at. Very stylized and cool, the scenery is set in gorgeous Puerto Rico as well as ugly Puerto Rico, but all are excellent. They drink rum like every two seconds which isnt a bad thing. The problem with me is that Kemp (Depp) has these adventures here there and everywhere while trying to be a writer in the semi-foreign land. He has the adventures at cockfights, at carnival, kinda grows as a person, but it doesn't end in much. or anything as far as I can tell. all I got was text that tells me how things end. So I have this movie that I technically like, but don't actually like because I felt like it left me hanging. If you like Depp I feel like you will enjoy this movie to an extent, if you don't you will feel like you tried to follow this story and spent this time for nothing.

In Time

Hey, can you spare a minute? This is an interesting idea. Everyone says, "Time is Money." What if it actually was money? And that is about as far as it goes, an interesting idea that is. Here is my biggest problem with this movie. You have to establish a reality. This one makes me believe it is in the future. A future where Time is the new money,everyone has clocks in their arm, all the cars look the same, pay phones make a come back, and no one ages physically past 25. WHY?! They make reference to "The clock" by saying, "I didn't start the clock." Who did? Why did they? How does that clock get in your arm? What makes you not age past 25? Why are there people clearly not 25, but are supposed to be? And why the heck did cell phones die? I don't need good reasons, just reasons. Not because it "Is". That makes it lame. It would have made more sense to have ketchup packets as money because at least they exist and I don't wonder how it came to be. But that problem in itself renders the film pretty much invalid. Do you like cliches? how about cliches about time? Then get ready because this one has ALL OF THEM. Making time, quality time, time in your hands, blah blah blah. It got to the point where you count them, and if i was doing that I have quit the movie. The action was also very lack luster. Of course this is a world where unless you have a terrible accident then you could in theory live forever as long as you have time on your clock. So, why would you engage in such risky behavior? The acting was fine Justin Timberlake was fine. Very cool and very James Bond, but he get accused of murder by being caught on camera. On camera where a man jumped off a bridge. How did you not see that dude? Anyway, Amanda Seyfried was cute in a sort of odd way. She goes from "snotty" to "naughty" and it pretty much work. Cillian Murphy is a time keeper. He makes sure that time stays as it should be and no one is doing wrong. He is wierd and tough and cool, too. The one problem i had with the cast was Olivia Wilde. There was not enough of her! she runs out of time at the start and I am left in a Wileless world :( This movie would be fine if it were from red box, then i would not expect the questions to be answered, I would still be pissed about Wilde, but sad action scenes would also make sense. Don't waste time, by making time to go see this in a theater.

Real Steel

Dispite all my friends telling me how terrible it would be, the little 5 year old me kept yelling, "nuh-uh!" And now that I have seen it little me screams, "robots are awesome!" And me now says, "Did I just watch Rocky with friggin' robots?!" Cause that's what it was, but without the thing that makes Rocky a fantastic story of triumph. The human factor. A down and out former decent boxer turned robot boxing failure has to overcome being a loser to win his son, and take a sparing bot to the top. The acting is fine. Hugh Jackman plays the degenerate dad who uses his son to feed his robot habit. He is good, rough, and entertaining nothing to complain about. Dakota Goyo is the son who digs up the robot and invest himself in it's success. He is also fine plays a tough kid who swears and dances with robots. The special effect may be like some other recent movies that work really well on the big screen, but fall short when you bring it home. Only time will tell, but in IMAX was a treat with its visuals and sound. The true short coming is the sad attempt at making it a story of triumph. The financial journey was the struggle. I would catch myself getting caught up in the fights then i would realize. THEY ARE ROBOTS! No one is hurt. You just fight til it breaks. But it was fun for what it was. Average to Good if you see it in IMAX.

Damn Yankees (1958)

Here is a story that has "got heart". As entertaining as they come. Basically a die hard baseball fan says he would give his soul for his favorite team, The Senators, to have big player so they can win some games. So the devil shows up to oblige. The music is catchy and feels hear felt in a sort of contrived way. Our hero Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter) is a all American cat as well as a newly endowed All American ball player. He becomes such through the efforts of Mr. Applegate, played by the wonderful Ray Walston, who uses his power and influence to shoot him straight to the top. Mr. Hardy is sensually assaulted buy, the supposed to be but surprisingly not so sultry to me, Lola (Gwen Verdon). Long-short it is a quite entertaining older film for anyone who like baseball, musical, or older movies. You'll get what you aim for from this adaptation.

The Wizard of Oz

I was given as an early birthday present the chance to watch one of the greatest movies of all time on the big screen. That movie of coarse is The Wizard of Oz. You can be enjoyed despite age, gender, race, or religion. It succeeds on so may different levels. The story is Dorothy (Judy Garland) gets caught up in a twista, and it send to the Land of Oz. She then must go on a trek to see the Wizard (Frank Morgan). On her journey she makes friendly with a Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), a Tim Man (Jack Haley), and a Lion (Bert Lahr). The general entertainment factor for this movie is off the charts. From the musical numbers, to drama, to comedy it delivers in a way that only those old films can. The special effects for the day had to be mind blowing. Shoot, there were parts in Thor that I thought looked worse. The use of color in Oz give a really different feel from one world to the other. And the costumes and make up stand up to anything modern. The cast OWNS. Garland plays the lost Dorothy to a T, as well as bringing her superb singing ability to the role. Bolger is the scarecrow. Brainless and floopy. He always has the movement to him that is loose and is the Scarecrow. Haley shows how soft and gentile the man made of metal is. And then there is the Lion. as entertaining as any character I can remember. The big fradey cat sells everything he does to the max, be it a joke, song, or fear.
The over the top Wicked Witch (Margaret Hamilton) and Wizard wrap this journey into your dreams nicely. Some say arguably the best movie, there can be no argument. It is one of the best. I highly recommend to anyone who love to be entertained.
p.s. this is also one of my favorite trailers I have seen

The Green Hornet

Here is a good example of a movie that is more fun than good. Fun in a goofy+action kind of way. The idea is a fatherly neglected millionaire playboy's (Seth Rogen) father dies and in an act of rebellion he and his new found friend Kato (Jay Chou) go to deface the monument and end up thwarting a criminal act, but get noticed for the vandalism not the heroics. So they decide to take to the streets as heroes posing as villains. Rogen plays this character about as good as you can play it as an action comedy. He is his normal funny self, but the situations do not fit the normal comedy that he does. So at times he feels out of place to me. A shinging point in this is Chou. Now he is a long shot from the master that was Bruce Lee, but I do feel he does the role justice. He and Rogen's actions scenes work well together where Rogen it terribly terrible and Kato swoops in to save him with his super senses. So the action (car chases, explosions, and fisticuffs) were satisfying. A quick funny addition to the beginning was James Fanco as crime boss Clear. The villain, who is racing up my bad guy charts is, Christopher Waltz. Some of you may know him from his undeniably evil role in Inglorious Bastards. He plays a goofy yet vile crime lord and again ratchets up my ranks of favorites because of his noticeably dark subtext. This movie does one thing well entertain. It does the action and serious without taking itself to serious which makes it work, and gives enough laughs satisfy.

Arthur (1981)

"How does it feel to have all that money? Feels Great." A very charming and very 80s comedy stating Dudley Moore as Arthur Bach. A multi-millionaire playboy that takes drinking to epic proportions. He falls in love with a "poor" lady, Linda (Liza Minnelli). And using the life principles taught to him by his faithful butler Hobson (John Gielgud), he learns that love is more important than money. Hobson's bluntness with Arthur is price less, and Arthur's drunken scenes (majority) are overtly funny as well as subtly funny. This is billed as a straight up comedy, and while it is funny, it often hits more serious notes from time to time that almost balance this movie out. It is a great distraction for anyone who love the 80s, Mr, Moore, or the best drunk ever.

Burlesque

I caught this on one of the movie channels and thought I would give it a shot, and well it happened. This movie had people I like such as Kristen Bell and Stanley Tucci. But it was not enough to save this movie. I should be called  "Christina Aguilera's excuse to dance sing an look hot." Which she did. Just not enough. It always seemed like the story was just a filler for these super sexy numbers.  And Cher... well I love her, but it is hard to display emotion when you have had more work one than Chaz Bono. Just empty. Christina's character comes from a small town and is enthralled by this place, and all she want s to do is be a sexy star on the stage. Like a slutty Barbra Streisand. What evs. Little girls who want to grow up to be stripper have problems.  If all you care about is hot chicks then fast forward to those parts, other wise watch Chicago.