Movie 26 - The King's Speech

For movie 26 I tagged along and watched The King's Speech. The King's Speech is rooted in history and deals with King George VI's speech impediment and him overcoming that to rally his country. I wish I could tell you who was in this, the only person I really know off hand is Helena Bonham Carter. King George or Berty (thanks TJ!) as his family called him has quite the stuttering problem. He also has a problem in that he's on the short list to become king after his father dies, who is in poor health. His brother is next on the list but his lifestyle doesn't really fit with what a king's should be so no one really expects him to be king for long. So that means Berty has to try to fix his speaking problem. He's tried many people and no one is helping until he starts with a man named Lionel. Lionel has a more therapeutic approach that at first doesn't sit well with the royal family. The cinematography in this movie is sometimes really pretty and sometimes kind of artsy fartsy feeling. There are also parts where it kind of feels heavy handed, in particular the part where they are watching a little 8mm recording and it conveniently has a completely different thing on the same reel and the characters get to say a little something about it. This is a pretty good movie, it's not something I'd watch again but it was decent enough for one viewing. It didn't really grab me like I would have liked but that could have been the crappy theater and I audience I had to work with so give it a shot on your own.

3.3 fuck fuck fucks out of 5

Movie 25 - Black Swan

For movie 25 I payed to see Black Swan at the local cinema. Black Swan stars Natalie Portman as a ballerina who wants to be all that she can be and land a major role as the swan in the number "Swan Lake." She has a fixation on being perfect and it turns in to obsession. She has a mother who treats her like she's twelve and is overbearing and seems to be living vicariously through her daughter. Her mother was a ballerina too but had to give it up when she got pregnant. She's so fixated on being perfect that she ends up not being perfect for the role she really wants. Well, not all of it, the part of the swan requires her to play a technical side and a more passionate side. She's so in to being perfect that she can't let go for the passionate half. So that's the plot which didn't turn me off, the other parts of the movie did somewhat. The camera work is something that you will notice in the first five minutes of being pretty different than most movies this side of the straight-to-dvd river. They are uncomfortably close and dizzying. Maybe that statement was a little harsh but I think that it will turn a lot of people off to the movie. I'm sure it was intentional and done in order to make us as uncomfortable as the main character but it almost seems like too much to me. The special effects are sometimes a little overdone for this type of movie. I mean, yeah it illustrates her descent and what have you but I think it may have been a tad much. Things can also feel a little dramatic or theatrical due to the music sometimes. I'm sure that's on purpose too since it is a movie based around a performance but if you put all of those things together the movie can start to feel a little iffy. Great performances and definitely an interesting movie but I think some of the creative choices will detract from this movie in some way for a lot of people.

3.8 toenails out of 5

Lizz says, "I hated the camera shots in Black Swan and it wasn't as good as I expected."

Movie 24 - Futurama: Bender's Big Score

Movie 24 was Futurama: Bender's Big Score. I hope all of you are familiar with the show! This movie deals a lot with time travel and paradoxes and about internet scammers and love and all that good stuff. Basically what happens is everyone gets a bunch of spam, Bender gets taken over by some spyware viruses and some aliens come in and control Bender and weasel a lot out of everyone via scamming. It's neat that this type of show delved into such a storyline with time traveling and all. A problem I often end up noticing with feature length versions of short cartoon comedy shows is that they always seem like a few similar episodes stitched together. This one is kind of in that territory but not as much as some other movies like this I've seen. The Futurama "essence" is in full effect here and I don't watch the show very much for whatever reason so it was fairly fresh to me and I'm sure fans of the show wouldn't mind more Fry and friends.

3.7 unfinished Mona Lisas out of 5

Movie 23 - The Fighter

For movie 23 I took a trip to the theater to see The Fighter. The Fighter is a movie based on true events about boxing and in a lot of ways it is similar to Rocky. This movie stars Mark Wahlberg as Mickey who is an up and coming boxer and younger brother of Dickey played by Christian Bale. Dickey was once a big shot boxer himself but these days he's mixed up in crack and thinks he's on his way back up to the top. Christian Bale does a PHENOMENAL job in his role. During the credits they play a little segment featuring the actual people and the actual Dickey and his mannerisms and way of speech are spot on. Mark does a good job too but I really felt that Mr Bale steals the show, even if his character throws every kind of monkey wrench into the plans of his younger brother. Mickey's whole family has problems, he seems like the only one with his head on straight other than his dad or step-dad, I forget what he actually is. His mom favors Dickey way more than poor Mickey and they both seem to be milking him just for the money he gets for fighting. This was such an outstanding movie, a Rocky for a new generation, except the actual boxing segments are better done. The title of The Fighter applys to more than one area, Mickey fights in the ring, fights for and against his family, fights for his own happiness, fights for his girlfriend and fights to overcome such a shitty situation around him. A great movie, don't miss it.

5 cakes out of 5

Lizz says, "It was really really good and it gave me goosebumps at the end."

Movie 22 - Eclipse

For movie 22 I watched Eclipse. Eclipse, for those living under a rock, is the third in a quadrology of vampire romance novels turned movie that are insanely popular. I'm coming at this as someone who never read the books. I'm going to assume most of you know what happens in the other two previous movies or books because so does this movie. I remembered bits and pieces from the first two like that Bella is awkward and loves Edward but also likes Jacob and Ed and Jake hate each other because they're from different monster schools but there's also this lady trying to kill Bella for some reason and also Bella has some special blood or something. A gripe I had with this one is it doesn't really get people like me or "outsiders" or even "boyfriends of Twilight fans" back up to speed in any way. It doesn't talk about why Bella is so important or much about the secret society that seems to be pulling strings in the background even though I know they went over it in previous films. As a result I felt like I was just floating along watching the movie and watching scenes play out without much context. The acting is a thing of question in this one, I don't remember liking the first one much but I did sort of enjoy the second one because it revolved more around someone with some personality but this one kind of falls between the two. This movie really felt like just a bridge to get to the next movie to me. The specials effects are a little hit and miss. I would tell people who aren't fans and who aren't friends of fans that they aren't missing anything but I think they already know that and I think all the fans and poor boyfriends have already seen it anyway.

2 ugly rings out of 5

Lizz says, "I liked it but I was surprised there wasn't that big of a fight scene because I felt like it was a huge part of the book."

Movie 21 - Blade Runner

Movie 21 and tonight I watched Blade Runner. This is set in the future, 2019 to be exact. In this future there were some androids made to be as human as possible, even more human than human in some cases. There was very little way to differentiate an android (replicant) from a human. At some point all replicants got exiled to Mars and they were outlawed on Earth. A "Blade Runner" is a special cop that hunts down and "retires" these replicants once they sneak back onto Earth. Earth is a much different place in 2019 especially LA. The city is dark and dirty and neon lit, the people talk in a mishmash of different languages and it's just so dang DIRTY. Advertisements are on everything and televisions are still in tubes. I thought it was kind of funny that with all the prediction the people making this had about the future they couldn't even think that one day our televisions would be inches thick instead of around a foot and a half. I thought the setting was really well done it has that whole cyber punk thing going on that a lot of sci-fi movies seem to have. It feels similar to the 5th Element that way, just with an extra layer of dinge on everything. This movie raises some questions on how to handle a manufactured being and what not. Honestly I didn't have the best viewing of this movie, as I watched it in about 5 different segments due to events outside of the movie needing my attention and as such I didn't get a great feel for the story. I will watch it again at some point, maybe even the director's cut. Unfortunately at the moment I feel that I can't give a proper score so I'll just rate what I did see, just take this one with a grain of salt.

3.7 origami gum wrappers out of 5

Movie 20 - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

For movie 20 I decided to watch Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Well, I myself didn't decide, my girlfriend kind of decided for us. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is supposed to be a fairly classic musical I guess, we got the idea from a book called 501 Must-See Movies or something like that. This has Marilyn Monroe in it playing a ditsy lady who seems more interested in how fat a man's wallet is than the man himself. She's the definition of a gold digger in this movie but she doesn't really think she is. Also she's dumb as a brick. There's a scene where she thinks a tiara is a necklace and asks how you get it around your neck. This also has Jane Russell in it and I only know that because I can see it right up there. She plays the anti-Monroe's character in this movie, she's more interested in a hunk than a guy with a lot of money. Also while Jane's character wants more of a fling Marilyn's character seems to want marriage. This is an extremely classic movie and the fact that I'm pretty jaded or whatever I found this movie pretty dull. I didn't much care for the music and the story didn't really grab my attention all that much. bleh

1.4 jock-strap looking swimming trunks out of 5

Lizz says, "meh"

Movie 19 - Devil

Movie 19 was Devil. Devil is an M. Night Shyamalan movie about some people who get stuck in an elevator. This may be the Jaws of elevators in that this movie will make you nervous when you set foot inside one of those things again. This movie stars a bunch of people you've probably never seen before so I'm just going to leave it at that. As I said before there's a group of people stuck in an elevator, all of them end up being pretty dicey people. I'm having a really big case of writer's block tonight so bear with me. There's an annoying old lady, an annoying young lady, a weird ugly salesman, an uneasy security guard and a shady looking guy all stuck on this elevator together. They all get a little crazy and start distrusting each other and what not. Then someone gets attacked while the lights are out. And then someone dies. It all spirals downhill from there. The movie as a whole felt very average to me and wasn't very suspenseful or anything fun like that. Everything just happened and the movie chugged right along. It was interesting to have something like an old folk tale take place in a modern setting. Just rent it if you're in the mood for something average.

2.7 hats in the wind out of 5