Displaying Category: Rating_3

Oh look, another Judd Apatow movie. This time, instead of foul-mouthed teenagers we have foul-mouthed comedians (who are kind of like teenagers, I guess). The movie is set up to be a fairly straightforward "seize the day" idea wherein Adam Sandler's character is pushed close to death by a rare disease. But, in a miraculous turn, the experimental Canadian drugs work and he's gunna live! No mystery there, it's all in the trailer. Also in the trailer is Sandler's growing relationship with an old ex, Leslie Mann. The thing is, the movie isn't about seizing the day and hooking up with your exes, it's about the importance of relationships and friends in particular. In this case, the growing and sometimes rocky friendship between Sandler and Seth Rogan. Friends are an invaluable currency in the economy of life (I just made that up).

Overall, the movie was decent. There were some funny moments and some offensively graphic language (which is why we all love Apatow movies, right?) There are some emotionally touching moments, but it never really goes full tilt one way or the other. It's not full-on comedy or full-on romance or full-on buddy movie. It's a solid movie, but just not excellent.

3/5

I first saw this show several years ago at the Kennedy Center with a large group of friends. At the time, I really enjoyed show. The music was good, the video presentation was good, even the on-stage bits, while kind of goofy, were still entertaining. Seeing it again, this time outdoors at Wolf Trap, was pretty much the same thing, only outdoors and surrounded by lots of intoxicated people who felt obligated to make their most inane thoughts known to everyone. The basic show was essentially the same, though I expect the games highlighted were different, the formula was unchanged. Actually, one of the most interesting segments was when they got a kid from the audience to go up on stage and play Guitar Hero. If he could play Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith on hard and clear 200,000 points he would win a laptop. He told them to set it to expert and then proceeded to get a 609 note streak and something like 317,000 points. I basically don't know anything about the game, but that was pretty damned impressive. Especially when you imagine that this kid had the pressure of thousands of people watching him very closely as well as the NSO playing backup to the song. Talk about being a guitar hero! So generally, not a bad evening, but I don't expect to be going again when it comes around in the future... not unless there's a friend who really wants to go.

3/5

The movie opens by explaining that the Autobots have partnered with an American military unit to form "NEST" and together, they seek out and destroy Decepticons wherever they are found. So that's nice.

Then things get stupid as we follow the daily drama of the Witwicky family and the completely incoherent relationship between Sam and Mikaela. Skipping that crap we next find Sam going autistic and possibly schizophrenic. Moving on... we see giant robots fucking up some shit. Finally, what we came here for! Actually, we got a dose of that in the opening, but now we're pushing through to the more "plot" driven fucking shit up stuff. I know, it's as weird to type that as it is to read it.

That's pretty much the extent of it. I will say, though, that I was rather impressed with the on-location work at the Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum and this old relic in particular. Really, I just like location shots I recognize. So if it wasn't already clear, the movie was entertaining in that stuff blowed up real good. That's really all I care to remember.

3/5

I just finished watching the fourth episode of NBC's new series Merlin and I think I like it. The show follows a young Merlin (approximately 17 or 18) as a servant of Arthur Pendragon at Camelot. The king, Uther Pendragon is played by the only actor I actually recognize, Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Repo), who plays a really wonderful mean old king who is extremely over-protective of his children and also hates the smallfolk (which includes Merlin) even though Merlin has saved his son's life approximately five times in four episodes... which is kind of the problem with this series. It's getting difficult to believe that Uther is going to keep spewing this hatred for Merlin even though the young chap has proven his faithfulness and dedication and trustworthiness time and again by doing a significantly better job at keeping his son alive than he seems capable of himself. Besides this constant conflict, we find the typical elements of television drama such as young romance, family conflict, trust issues, and fear of the unknown (generally in the form of magic). Unfortunately, the show lacks witty dialog and seems to feature fairly low-budget effects. Still, it's entertaining given the current drought of new programming and I'm a sucker for fantasy, especially in prime time on a major network.

3/5

I got the impression the general assumption is that this movie would suck. In fact, it did not suck. We're not talking quality cinema, but it was sufficiently entertaining.

My biggest negative comment is how two dimensional everything felt. Plot, characters, it all felt thin and none of it was moving as it should have been.

It was nice to see some of the mutants in the earlier stages, but they had such bit parts that it wasn't really satisfying. In the end, for $6, it was a wonderfully entertaining morning.

3/5

Falsettos is a decent musical about a Jewish family going through some "rough spots," as they say. I emphasize the Jewishness because it seems to play an important part throughout the show. In fact, the opening song is about four Jews bitching. It wasn't really clear what they were bitching about or the extent of said bitching, but I guess it was important to set the tone that there are some disagreements in this Jewish family unit.

The basic premise of the story is that a man, leaves his wife and 11 year old son for another man (inexplicably named Whizzer). The wife starts seeing her ex-husband's psychiatrist, who she soon marries. The son is an insomniac struggling with what "love" means. It sounds complicated, but there didn't seem to be any real depth there. We're simply told how things are, but not really shown anything to make us feel what the characters must be feeling.

The music was fine, I mostly heard drums, piano, and clarinet. I usually like to hear some guitar in my musicals, but the lack of didn't really hurt it. The vocal performances were fine and I was very satisfied by the excellent balance of vocals and music so as to prevent one from overpowering the other.

The show ends with the son's bar mitzvah taking place around the hospital bed of the dying Whizzer. We're never really told of what he is dying, but it's clearly something gay people get. This act was set in 1981, so I wouldn't think the reference is to AIDS, but that or something similar seemed to be the implication. It all seemed too contrived for me to take it seriously. I'm not suggesting there needs to be reality for something like this, but it was contrived enough that I wasn't really buying into it and therefore had a difficult time getting into the whole thing emotionally. Sure, it was sad, but I didn't really feel moved.

3/5

Since I haven't really been posting reviews like this up till now, I should make it clear that yes, I do like these sorts of movies. Romantic comedies and dramas and tug-at-the-heartstrings sob-fests. I love it all. I recognize they aren't necessarily good for me and give me all sorts of crazy unrealistic ideas of what love is and how it (should) work in the real world. So, fair warning...

In terms of quality, the movie was fine. There weren't any really glaring issues. The writing was decent and the pacing wasn't problematic. Acting was good and that's pretty much all I have to say regarding the technical side.

So was it an entertaining movie? Well, I did feel entertained at times. I laughed and a few times I felt my emotions being very distantly influenced. I usually look for a bit more emotional response, but you know, this was a big cast and lots of different intertwining stories were swirling around, so maybe it didn't hit every note, but I'll give it a little credit given the scope of it all.

The perspective is very clearly from the female side of things. It's about women trying to understand the "signs" that men put out there. This seems odd to me, you know, I'm a guy and the signals are all pretty obvious, but I suppose women could use some education there, so it's all good.

I won't be giving anything away by stating the big messages you are supposed to walk away with. First, if a guy is into a woman, he will do everything he can to spend time with her. I would really like to think this applies to men and women alike, but I suppose women might be a litle more complex here? Either way, I would agree. You aren't going to avoid someone you want to spend time with. You will find some way to talk with the person or see them or whatever. Second big message, there's always hope. This is, of course, one of those "magical" messages like believing in fairies and Santa Claus, but it is something I try to hold on to myself. I'm not saying I don't fail to keep hope alive now and then, but I do tend to come back to it eventually.

Alright, this review has strayed from the movie to broader life outlooks, and while I love the subject, it's probably a bit further off track than I need to be right now.

3/5