The Giver: A Review

March 10, 2015March 10, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

I guess this is just the weekend for me to watch drab sad movies based on popular books. Any person would have to admit that Fault in Our Stars is a better movie than the Giver but it angered me more where The Giver was just uniformly bland. It’s a shame too because I love the novel and have been to a Lois Lowry lecture and heard her talk about the characters and world so lovingly. It pains me to say it but The Giver is not a very good movie.

In truth it should never have been made in the first place. It’s basically a book about a boy who sits in an office, receives memories and then decides to leave. That works in the book but in the movie it feels like a dystopian therapist session that’s not very interesting.

They actually get the world pretty good except they invite color way too early and the appearance of color isn’t nearly shocking enough for Jonas. He doesn’t seem to be really effected by what he see’s until the war when in the book every session is jaw dropping for him. It is also way more of an emotional journey for The Giver where here it seems like he decides last minute to go along with Jonas’ plan. In the book he tells him about his daughter earlier and they seem like son and father deeply connected.

I thought they handled the baby ‘release’ about as chillingly yet not grotesque way as they could and the father never seemed trustworthy where in the book he totally does. Katie Holmes is terrible and I am all the more convinced she cannot act to save her life.

I guess I’m jumping ahead of myself. If you are unfamiliar with The Giver it is a dystopian novel (written long before the recent trend yet the last one to make it to the big screen…) about a society which has removed all choices, memory and emotion from human experience. Each day the residents are given injections to dull their senses and all abnormalities, even pleasant one’s like twins or babies who cry too much, are removed so all conformity is ensured.

The residents have lost the ability to see colors and are living in black and white, happy with the choices they are given. They are also taught to use ‘precise language’ such as talking about why they love someone not just saying ‘I love you’. They also are taught to never lie and to always apologize for everything.

At the beginning the graduating seniors are given their assigned roles and careers and young Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) is given the rare responsibility as ‘The Receiver of Memories’. He is assigned to the current receiver or The Giver played by Jeff Bridges. He is told he will live by different rules than everyone else and he stops taking the pills and injections.

The Giver then gives Jonas all the memories of society- the wars, joys, and colors, and this naturally causes him to feel conflicted. Everything is heightened when he finds out more about his father and they have a new baby assigned them named Gabe. There is also a girl he wrestles with feelings for named Fiona played by Odeya Rush.

Meryl Streep is a convincing villain as The Chief Elder who is the only one besides The Giver who knows what is really going on. However, she like any despot convinces herself that the suffering is for the best. “When people choose, they choose wrong” she says.

Evidently this was a passion project for Jeff Bridges and he is good as The Giver but the structure of the story just doesn’t work as a movie. It’s too much people sitting talking and sharing random events and that works in the book but not in the movie. I don’t think there is anything they could have done to have made it work. Once Jonas breaks free and is out of the Giver sessions I felt it gets some momentum and I started to care more. That last segment and the last scene with the sled was very good.

Maybe a really artistic director like Terry Gilliam or the way Ridley Scott directed Blade Runner it could have worked but I think you’d have to work a little more action into the story or find a way to narrate the memory giving so you get the emotion shared in the book into the movie.

I actually think it could work very well as a TV series where each week he confronts a new memory and things build bit-by-bit. You could really get to know the characters and the memories a little bit more than you can in a movie. Thoughts?

I really love the book so it’s a shame. It’s the kind of book 100 people could read and get 100 different messages out of it. Some see it as very religious. Others as agnostic and according to Lowry both are right. That’s what makes it a great book but a challenging movie.

The movie also does embrace the Biblical allegories more than the book. We see apples and the idea of original sin is discussed more than memories on their own. I didnt mind that but I also like the subtlety of the book a little better

Everyone tries and it isn’t terrible, but like The Book Thief movie it has all of the pieces but none of the magic. Read the book instead. In my opinion it is a much better book than The Hunger Games (and much less cynical).

As far as content a baby is killed but it is mostly off screen. Jonas is chased with a baby and war and other pain is depicted in the memories. Other than that it is pretty tame. No language that I can recall.

Overall Grade- C Content Grade- A

I wrote this post and then looked at an old comment I made when it first came out. Looks like I thought it could be a good TV series then and still do now! Some things never change! Funny. (And I was right on about Lowry focusing more on characters than setting which is unusual for dystopian novels)

Fault in Our Stars Review

March 10, 2015March 12, 2019 | Rachel's Reviews

So I am continuing to get through the 2014 releases and I think like last year it will probably take me till June to be done but this last weekend I got through 3 more including The Fault in Our Stars.

Based on the best seller by John Green Fault in Our Stars was a huge hit making 305 million on a 12 million budget. I know many love it and the book but I had mixed feelings.

Fault in Our Stars is about a girl fighting cancer named Hazel Grace who meets a cute boy in group therapy named Augustus Waters (such movie names…). He’s a free thinker and likes to put a cigarette in his mouth because “you put the thing that does the killing right between your teeth. You don’t give it the power to do its killing’

This was all kind of charming but I don’t know if he was just a little bit too smug. I never felt too drawn into Augustus played by Ansel Elgort.

Shailene Woodley, on the other hand, is great as Hazel and her part doesn’t really give her that much to work with but she is so good you become very attached to her. (Lily Kenna as a young Hazel is also very good and looks an amazing amount like Woodley). The dialogue felt a little too cute at times and it was just ok for me. I can see how it would really work in a book but it doesn’t feel authentic even with how relatable and real Woodley is in the part.

Laura Dern and Sam Trammell are fine as her parents and the supporting cast including Nat Wolf as their blind best friend are all good.

The romance between Gus and Hazel is very sweet but it all felt a little too Nicholas Sparksian for me. I guess at least there isn’t a big cancer ‘reveal’ like in his movies but it all felt kind of manipulative and corny. I knew what was going to happen and was waiting for the big shoe to drop, but I was still enjoying the relationship and tearing up at the thought of both soon dying. I’m not a monster so of course that affects me but it doesn’t necessarily mean it is a good movie. The movie has to earn the tears it evokes.

Next we get a long segment where Hazel and Gus get to fulfill her dream of meeting her favorite author in Amsterdam. This is Gus’ Make a Wish wish and Hazel anxiously awaits knowing what happened to the cancer-stricken girl in her favorite book.

This is where the movie lost me. William Dafoe plays the author Peter Van Houten as one of the biggest jerks in movie history. He’s right up there with the dictators, despots and murderers. I’m serious. It took me out of the movie it was so over the top. It kind of made me angry at the movie for manipulating me and making me feel such anger and for what? What does that anger do? It’s not like 12 Years a Slave where I learn about evil and human history. This is a man who would never exist so it is anger merely there to make me, the viewer, angry.

It’s like this movie pretends twitter, social media and news doesn’t exist. This is a popular enough book for it to be big in the US when written in Amsterdam and yet an author will say to 2 kids with cancer flown across the world:

“You are a side-effect to an evolutionary process that cares little for individual lives. You are a failed experiment in mutation”

Give me a break movie. Last year the chef Ina Garten couldn’t fit a Make a Wish kid into her schedule and it was a huge story. Her career took a huge hit and she didn’t even say anything mean. Can you imagine if something like this happened with a teen novelist? Forget it. It would be all over twitter and everywhere else. He’d have to be JK Rowling rich to not have to be at least passably nice to these kids.

I don’t know. It really kind of pissed me off. Screw you movie for making me care about these characters and then putting them in a situation where they are basically verbally flogged for no reason.

Another speech by Van Houten:

“Let’s imagine you’re racing a tortoise. The tortoise has a ten-yard head start. In the time it takes you to run ten yards the tortoise has moved maybe one yard, and so on, forever. You’re faster than the tortoise, but you can never catch him, you see? You can only decrease his lead. Now, certainly, you can run past the tortoise as long as you don’t contemplate the mechanics involved. But the question of “how” turns out to be so complicated that no one really solved it until Cantor’s proof that some infinities are bigger than other infinities. I assume that answers your question”

Why did that need to be there? Just to prove what a great guy Gus was? We already knew that. To show there is something worse than death by cancer? That could work if it was a little bit subtle (say the grumpy lady in Pollyanna who comes around) but this just made me angry at the movie.

I guess at least we know Green Goblin will not be the worst person William Dafoe has ever played. That’s for sure.

And then the movie piles on by taking them to the Anne Frank house next! (Where they kiss for the first by the way and the other attendees at the house cheer which seemed very strange thing for people to do in the Anne Frank house). Give me a break! Know when to allow your viewers to breathe and take in all they’ve seen, and when they do don’t make it tonally awkward and unsatisfying . I’ve been less exhausted watching WWII movies.

The movie then picks up some steam and there is a lovely eulogy moment and I did cry a lot at the ending even though it was pretty predictable but that writer scene really ruined it for me. I felt manipulated and disgusted and it never could quite win me back.

I know that’s the way the book is and they try to throw a little bit of redemption for Van Houten but I already felt thoroughly emotionally drained and manipulated by the movie to care much. I guess the book would have done the same for me.

So despite some good performances and a nice look to it I can’t recommend The Fault in Our Stars. However, if you like the book and that scene doesn’t tick you off than I can see why you might like it. Even without it it’s just not my favorite kind of movie. A lady at my church just died from cancer and it was really sad but it was also inspiring. I wish there was more of that kind of feeling in The Fault in Our Stars.

As far as content it is pretty mature for a teenage weeper. There is a sex scene with a lot of skin and a litle language (although if there was ever a moment to cuss someone out it is Van Houten) I would say its right on the edge of an R and is for mature teens only.

Those of you who liked it I’d love to hear your thoughts?

Overall Grade- D Content Grade- C

Beyond the Lights Review

March 9, 2015March 9, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Beyond the Lights is a tough movie to review because I can’t really defend it and yet I want to. I don’t know if any of you can relate to that feeling when watching a movie? You know it isn’t great and yet the performers or some other aspects just seem to work for you and you like it.

The sole reason Beyond the Lights works is the magnetism, warmth and believability of the two lead actors, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Nate Parker. Despite her unwieldy name I predict Gugu is going to be a huge star. She is so great in this case playing a Rihanna-like star on the rise named Noni Jean. She is sexy, beautiful and seemingly confident but in our opening scenes she is sitting on a balcony edge contemplating suicide.

Her mother is played by Minnie Driver as a fairly cliched ‘manager Mom’ but I did like that she was smarter than nearly everyone else in the room and she thinks she is advocating for her daughter while completely failing at it. This is kind of an interesting dynamic; although not all that original. Still, the performers elevate it to be quite compelling.

Noni’s Mother tries to talk her daughter off of the balcony ledge but is unsuccessful. (Again completely not getting what Noni is really saying). Now steps on to the scene our hero Kaz Nicol, Noni’s bodyguard for the night who saves her life and tells her ‘I see you’. Corny line but I’m telling you it works.

Her Mom, the label, fans, don’t see her but this good man does. This begins our romance and basically the movie plays out exactly like you might think but that’s not a bad thing. These are two very likable people who are trying to be their best self and love the other. They have great chemistry together and I at least enjoyed seeing their romance play out.

Gugu also does her own singing in Beyond the Lights and it great. Everything from the hip-hop tracks with a guy known in the movie as Kid Culprit to the softer moments of Nina Simone’s Blackbird, are wonderful. Not just an adequate movie soundtrack but a CD I would be interested in buying even without the movie.

They try to throw in a political track for Koz led by his father played by Danny Glover and that doesn’t work very well. It feels too cute with how closely it mirrors Noni and her mother’s relationship. Luckily it isn’t in the movie that much.

Most of the movie is just Noni and Koz getting to know each other and since I liked both of them that was fine with me.

There is also a nice message of being your authentic self and that weaves and images do not give the popularity that lasts or provide any kind of real self worth. For a movie with a suicide attempt and a fairly conventional romance the messaging is actually kind of subtle and effective. Again probably because we like the lead characters so much we don’t mind them teaching us something rather ordinary but important.

If you hate it I totally get it. Like I said I can’t really defend the movie except that I loved the performances, music and the two lead characters. I liked their romance together. It felt believable and it had a heart to it which I enjoyed. All together it is a film where the parts are better than the sum and most of that praise goes to Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nate Parker and the music. For what it is I liked it.

When I think of what the movie would be in the typical hands of Tyler Perry I especially like it. There are very few African American female filmmakers and Gina Prince-Blythewood does a good job writing and directing the movie. The dialogue feels real and believable even if a little corny. It just works.

As far as content there is some sensuality but its pretty tame. The more explicit segments are probably in the photo shoots and dance numbers but they probably aren’t much worse than an episode of Top Model or the Grammys. There is a scene of domestic violence but very minimal language. I’d say its fine for teens and up.

Can you relate to what I’m saying about a movie which you know isn’t great but you still enjoy because of the performances or some other aspect? I’d love to hear what some of yours are.

Overall Grade- C+ Content Grade- B

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

March 7, 2015March 8, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Finally some more objective voices are poking through on the extremely overrated Birdman. Great review and I
agree.

The Duff: A Review

March 7, 2015March 10, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Since the 80’s there has been a great tradition of high school comedies at the movies. Most of them are on the ‘She’s All That’ forgettable to terrible level but every once in a while they can be great like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Clueless, Mean Girls, Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Juno.

The new teenage comedy The Duff is definitely trying to be like these great movies especially Juno but it just can’t quite get there. It dips far too often in sitcom territory and I found myself wishing an edgier writer like Diablo Cody was at the helm. In fact, it’s practically the same movie as Drives Me Crazy with Melissa Joan Hart from the 90s which is no masterpiece. It’s not terrible and the target demographic will probably enjoy it but it could have been great.

The Duff stars Mae Whitman of Parenthood and Tinker Bell fame as a teen girl who finds out she is the DUFF of her two best friends. In the world of this movie that means the Designated Ugly Fat Friend.

Whitman is Hollywood’s version of ‘fat’ and ‘ugly’ and she looks like she is 30 (26 in fact) but so does everyone else in the movie and she is very appealing in the lead. I don’t know if it is quite the star turn of say Emma Stone in Easy A or Ellen Paige in Juno but she is very likable and fun The script is based on a novel by an actual 17 year old which is surprising because it dips into the cliches of a teen sitcom on ABC Family far too often. Scenes like the makeover or the caddy beautiful mean girl have been done to death and are so maudlin here. We even get the big unrealistic high school party you’ve seen in a thousand other movies.

It tries to tackle deeper themes of labels, social media, reality tv, shallowness of communication and even sex in today’s teen culture but it just doesn’t go far enough, and sticks with the obvious and duh types of revelation. As a youtuber I can also say that uploading, editing, adding graphics and promoting a video is not nearly as easy as they make it seem. They keep saying things like ‘make it viral’ and ‘how many hits are we getting?’ when it hasn’t been uploaded. It makes me think the movie doesn’t know as much about social media and movies as it thinks it does. You don’t just throw around keywords and get social commentary. There is also a principal who is an obvious copy of Tim Meadows in Mean Girls. Sigh…Usually in these types of movies the ‘ugly girl’ has a mentor who teaches her how to be cool and win the guy all the while actually making said mentor fall in love with her….Spoiler alert- there is not much different here. It is alarmingly similar to that Taylor Swift music video with the boy next door who see’s all her crazy antics but she’s really in love with him. Actually the Taylor Swift video is more clever because she plays the mean girl and the girl next door…You know your movie has problems if a Taylor Swift video is more original.

But it’s not completely awful. The cast is pretty likable and Whitman and her mentor boy have ok chemistry. I also liked that her pretty friends aren’t actually jerks like she thinks they are. In fact, she kind of dumps her life-long friends pretty quickly which is awkward for our hero. They haven’t done anything wrong and yet she treats them like the mean girl who is posting the mean videos. In fact, her one friend removes the offending videos. It’s kind of strange.

There were just so many times when I could see better movies trying to break free from the script. Like when Whitman was so clearly following the look and rebuttals of Juno but the dialogue wasn’t nearly as sharp with none of the weightier subject matter. They even have Allison Janney playing Whitman’s mother (she is the stepmom in Juno). Janney is great in her few scenes as a divorcee who became a motivational speaker and guru and loves to give advice in cliches. This made me laugh because I also have an aunt who is a motivational speaker/guru.

I kept trying to think about my teen self and if I would have loved this movie. I think I probably would have enjoyed it like Can’t Hardly Wait or Never Been Kissed. I knew they were bad but they had likable performers and I liked them. I’d be curious to know what my 15 year old sister thinks of it when she gets a chance to see it (she’s in Disneyland right now and didn’t answer her phone!).

One interesting thing in The Duff is she gets a pretty embarrassing video of her sent to the whole school. They laugh at her but then she ‘owns it’ and it blows over pretty quickly. I wonder how accurate that is? I mean if someone had done something like that to me in high school I would have been in extensive therapy but I wonder if everyone has an embarrassing video or photo these days so it is increasingly less of a big deal? I have no idea but I was surprised how light the movie treated something that to me seemed like it should be extremely devastating. Different world since I went to high school back in 1995-1998!

Like I said, it’s not a terrible movie, just kind of forgettable and average. I wasn’t miserable watching it. The performances are fine and it has a nice message about putting out the best version of yourself and ‘owning it’. The music wasn’t very unique or special for this kind of movie which usually have a soundtrack as part of its character and personality (think Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller, Clueless). Whitman actually reminds me a lot of a smarter Britney Murphy and she’s likable. Hopefully she can finally get out of playing a teen.

It’s target demographic will probably enjoy it but I don’t think it’s the kind of teen movie that will become a classic. It’s just too sitcomy and ordinary for that.

I know I have some teen readers- what did you think of The Duff? I’d love to hear.

For us old fogies what teen movies did you like and do you still enjoy it?

As far as content there is some profanity, a scene in a male locker room but it is pretty tame. Nothing kids don’t get in actual high school. (I swear you couldn’t pay me enough to go back to high school and my experience wasn’t that bad but still…Ugh)

Overall Grade C Content Grade- B

Movies I Saw in February

March 1, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

I thought I would share with all of you my latest videos on my channel. I would be grateful if you gave the videos a watch, give them a thumbs up if you find them valuable at all and subscribe to my channel. That would be amazing. Thanks!

Movies I Saw at Home in February

Breakfast at Tiffany’s Review

Movies I Saw at Theater in February

My Favorite Superhero Movies

February 27, 2015February 27, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Hey guys!

Now that I’ve been thoroughly depressed by the Oscars let’s talk about movies that will never get a live action Oscar- superhero movies. I have actually not been a huge superhero movie fan. In fact, in 2011 I wrote a post on my other blog called ‘Thumbs Down to Summer Movies’. I had recently seen Green Lantern and it was the tipping point. Here’s what I said

“It’s at this point I must make a confession- I don’t like super hero movies. It’s hard to explain why but I have never liked them. With the exception of Harry Potter, I can’t think of a super hero/fantasy franchise I’m a fan of (I’m a marginal fan of Lord of the Rings). I also like the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones, but they have been sullied by mediocre follow-ups in recent years.

Despite all the special effects I find most super hero movies boring and I don’t like 3D”

So, yes I had sworn off superhero movies and all their progeny but then Avengers happened and I smiled at these likable fun characters with witty dialogue. And we got 2014 and I saw Captain America 2 which was actually a spy movie, Xmen Days of Future Past which is actually a time travel story, Guardians of the Galaxy which is actually a space opera, and Big Hero 6 which is a movie about loss and grief in the guise of a superhero movie.

It was then I had a revelation ‘I like superhero movies when they aren’t superhero movies’. Ding, ding, ding! Fortunately for me Hollywood has figured this out and aside from the odious Man of Steel and the cluttered Amazing Spiderman 2 they have had a remarkable track record of late to the point where I’m actually looking forward to superhero movies now (although highly skeptical about Batman v Superman but we will see). Marvel at least has made me a believer.

I feel like I also have to give a caveat that I am actually not a big Dark Knight fan. It’s super well made and acted but it was just too violent for me and I found it cynical, dark and Batman is such a bore. I wanted him to lose the whole way through. You can all hate me now but it’s really how I felt….

So with all that what are my favorite superhero movies? Here goes.

10. Superman- Christopher Reeves is so charming as Superman and he makes an ok Clark Kent. It doesn’t get bogged down in exposition but is light and fun with great music and decent if hokey special effects. Gene Hackman is good as Lex Luther . Superman is kind of a boring superhero because he’s so perfect but this film finds the balance of embracing the silly while not being too silly (aka Superman 3 and 4…). We also don’t get too much of the Savior metaphors like we do with Man of Steel or Superman Returns that take themselves way too seriously.

9. Batman Mask of the Phantasm- Yep friends this is my favorite Batman movie. Maybe that won’t be a surprise because I love animation but I honestly think this is the best movie depiction of Batman. He’s not just a bore but he gets jealous, frustrated, happy, a mixture of emotions. Kevin Conroy is great as Batman and perhaps it is only in animation that you can pull off the mixture of Bruce Wayne and Batman because you can draw whatever you want it to be where an actor may just be better at one side than the other (same problem so far with Peter Parker). Mark Hamil is wonderful as Joker. It’s a well written script with a bit of a mystery involved but it isn’t too grim or violent. Now I just wonder when the heck it will come out on blu-ray!

8. The Rocketeer- A movie too often forgotten but a very sweet homage to 40’s action movies. It stars Billy Campbell as a stuntman who finds a rocketpack that was designed by Howard Hughes. Jennifer Connely plays his girlfriend and the rest of the cast is stellar with Alan Arkin, Timothy Dalton as our Nazi bad guy, Terry O’Quin and more. I defy you to not be charmed by it.

7. X-men: Days of Future Past- Of the big franchises Xmen has always been my favorite. Even when I had sworn off the genre I still kind of liked the X-men movies. Maybe partly because they are the only franchise to pull of interesting female characters and they almost always deal with something thoughtful and complex without getting mean spirited and who doesn’t like Hugh Jackman? I think the recent X-men Days of Future Past is the best of the 7 (including the Wolverine movies) to have come out. It has it all- amazing ensemble (Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Michael Fassender, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, James McEvoy I could go on. Almost every member of the cast has an Oscar nomination or win. Not bad for a superhero movie).

But its also the Inception of Superhero movies. The time travel element creates layers of a puzzle to figure out and Quicksilver is an amazing villain with special effects. It’s great!

6. Spider-man 2- For my money it is the only good Spider-man movie that has come out so far. The others have good elements but this is the only one that fires on all four cylinders. The special effects still hold up, the large set pieces like the train fight is gripping, Tobey McGuire is charming enough to get me to ignore Kirsten Dunst and James Franco and him have good rivalry. But really the reason the movie is special is Dr Octopus who is such a great, engaging villain. He has really positive motivations through a lot of the movie but he has no self control . It makes him very interesting and fun to watch.

5. Captain America 2: Winter Soldier- A great superhero movie because it’s not really a superhero movie. It’s a spy flick like Mission Impossible with an amazing villain for Winter Soldier, great action fight sequences, a car crash sequence which felt so real, Robert Redford is great (that’s the quality of actors we are getting now!). The Nick Furry twist was very clever and it is so well paced. It never lost my interest or got boring. They build the case with very minimal exposition typically housed within a trip to the museum or some other outing so it doesn’t feel like exposition. Captain America is likable and Chris Evans keeps the character innocent like a man from the 40s might be while still being tough.

4. Big Hero 6- I just got Big Hero 6 on blu-ray and watched it and loved it all over again. It is a superhero movie with real heart. I loved the connection of the two brothers through Baymax. It reminds us that those we love never really leave us because the love continues on. I also loved the diversity of the Big Hero 6 and I thought the motivation of the villain was really clever and surprised me. Also Sanfransokyo was gorgeously drawn and a fun new setting. Overall a huge win for Disney.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy- Don’t worry this is my last from last year. Guardians has everything I want in my superhero movie. It is a likable band of misfits that are gathered together to fight a bad guy. I love the friendship between Groot and Rocket. Chris Pratt is great as Starlord. It’s fun, keeps you guessing and has the best soundtrack I’ve heard in years. It really reminded me a lot of Star Wars with a much weaker villain, and that’s really its only mark against it. I think they actually picked the wrong villain. Nebula is much more complex than Ronan. Still I loved it!

2. Incredibles- Even when I had sworn off Superhero movies I still loved The Incredibles. What’s so great about this movie is it includes so many of my favorite genres all in one. It’s a family movie with a stay at home Mom and her 3 kids who all have their struggles, it’s a movie about work and how when we aren’t doing what we are made to do we aren’t happy, and its gorgeous animation. Every choice they made works. The villain is very scary with a believable and brief backstory. Edna is hilarious (no capes!), and the ending is perfect with everyone learning just the right lesson. Also love Samuel L Jackson as Frozone! It’s actually the first movie I saw when I came home from my 20 month mission for my church and it was a great choice to get reintroduced to cinema.

1. Avengers- This actually came out when I was in my ‘I hate superhero movies’ phase but it was the biggest movie ever so of course I ended up seeing it and to my surprise I loved it. What I liked most is it didn’t take itself too seriously. It was fun without being stupid. I hadn’t seen most of the precursor films leading up to Avengers except Ironman but I don’t think you need to enjoy the movie. Joss Whedon is such a great writer creating likable characters that we can root for and a team dynamic that is unpredictable.

I like that the destruction isn’t too bad and its not really trying to teach us anything. Just give us a team we can root behind and see them seriously challenged by a formidable villain in Loki, who I love. Tom Hiddleston is my favorite performance in the movie. He has motivation behind what he is doing and he never gets mean or too violent like the Joker can. He’s probably my favorite comic book villain, maybe because he doesn’t really see himself as a villain. In the end the script is well written and funny with good action. That’s enough to get 1 on my list.

So there you go! What do you think of my list? I know all of you would put the Dark Knight so maybe give me some other one’s besides Dark Knight you would have included? I’d love to hear.

What are the worst superhero movies? Well, I haven’t seen all of the worst but I’d probably say (does Howard the Duck count as superhero movie? If so than he’d be 1):

1. Catwoman

2. Batman and Robin

3. Superman 4

4. Green Lantern

5. Man of Steel

Oscar Reactions

February 24, 2015March 4, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

“Cinema is far too rich and capable a medium to be merely left to the storytellers.”
―Peter Greenaway

So the Oscars came and went last night and for the most part I was really bummed out. I did horribly on my picks so hopefully none of you went off my ballot…(I think I got 9 right). I know it is the Oscars and they usually screw it up. It is just a stupid awards show but at the same time it feels good as a film lover when films you love get recognized.

Highs-

There were some highs of the extremely long telecast (honestly next time make it an hour and get this done more quickly!).

1. Lady Gaga singing Sound of Music and Julie Andrews coming in was the highlight of the night. I didn’t realize it was the 50th anniversary of Sound and have now ordered the 50th anniversary bluray which comes out next month. Sound of Music is my favorite musical and I was shocked to hear Gaga have such classical pipes. Who knew?

2. All the musical numbers were ok and at least brought some energy to the show. I particularly liked Everything is Awesome from Lego!

3. John Legend and Common were very good singing Glory from Selma but I thought it was strange they used their real names for the award. They don’t do that for the Grammy’s or any other award or any other part of their music? Kind of odd.

4. I was happy with all the acting winners even though I haven’t seen Still Alice (I can only handle so many depressing movies at once guys!). They all are deserving winners. I was especially happy for Patricia Arquette as she will go down as my favorite Mother in the movies ever.

5. I was also happy to see Grand Budapest Hotel win so much but it should have won best original screenplay. Birdman’s script was nothing special. I also didn’t think Imitation Game was the best adapted screenplay of the year but the winners speech was great. I think Wes Anderson deserved it for GBH’s script.

6. We all knew Kaguya and Song of the Sea weren’t going to win and if Lego wasn’t going to be included than I am thrilled Big Hero 6 won. I like How to Train Your Dragon 2. I gave it an A. However, I think out of the 3 mainstream Big Hero 6 had more heart. I connected more with it emotionally and it is more creative with its cityscape and characters. The fact is I’ve seen movies that look and feel like Dragon and Boxtrolls. They are both great but I’m super happy Big Hero 6 won.

Lows- oh boy there were a lot.

1. Neal Patrick Harris can be so great. I’m a huge fan of him on How I Met Your Mother and he’s great hosting the Tony Awards. But I think he may have gotten the HIMYM finale writers to write the jokes for the Oscars because they all fell just as flat. Not one joke worked. In fact, most were really awkward like when he bothered seat fillers or appeared on stage in his underwear. Also the belabored unfunny bit with the predictions box was terrible.

Here’s what you do Oscars- have a 1 hour show where you give the awards for acting, best picture, animation, music, costumes, effects and screenplay. Have a couple montages a combined number that showcases every song and your done. 3 and 1/2 hours was brutal.

2. I sincerely don’t understand the Birdman love. It is a well made movie and Keaton is good but for it to win director, script and picture is baffling to me. I don’t get how nobody else seems to see how misogynistic and predictable it is? Characters like the critic are so poorly written and completely unbelievable. Honestly out of the 8 nominees it would have been my 7 out of 8. People said Boyhood was overrated but I think Birdman is very overrated.

I guess it makes sense for Hollywood to love a movie about how hard it is to be in Hollywood, how tortured and difficult it is to be a star but why the rest of American moviegoers championed it is a mystery to me…Boo!

3. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes got the shut out last night which was easy to do because it was only nominated once for visual effects. I loved Interstellar. It’s one of the best sci-fi movies I’ve ever seen. But come on, as great as Interstellar looked we’ve seen visuals like that before. Just last year we had even better space visuals in Gravity. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes created whole characters that were not there and made them come alive. They were flawless visual effects. Andy Serkis should have been nominated and I thought Gary Oldman was terrific in that movie (I will never forget the scene where he finally loads the battery in the ipad and can see photos of his dead family. So powerful). Sigh…

4. Citzenfour wins- It disgusts me anyone would award a film even mildly praising Edward Snowden (and then she did in her speech too). He has hurt our national security and put people’s lives at risk. America is a weaker less secure place because he thinks he knows what is best and he twists his recklessness and ego into supposed honesty.

I rarely agree with President Obama but even he said about Snowden:

“If any individual who objects to government policy can take it in their own hands to publicly disclose classified information, then we will not be able to keep our people safe, or conduct foreign policy.”

4. The Boyhood snubs really bummed me out. And it’s not just because it took 12 years to make. It is a movie about LIFE and all the small things that make up a person. It’s about the journey of adolescence and how you become who you are. I honestly think we will look back and wonder what the heck were they thinking? Kind of like when Saving Private Ryan lost or the way we see American Beauty as a bunch of pretentious nonsense now. I think Birdman will not hold up like Boyhood will.

I can see film students for years studying Boyhood and the small moments of authentic conversation. Scenes like when Mason is in the photography lab with his teacher. That is so authentic to life. I think if we all could be a fly on the wall we would realize how many small voices are championing us along the way. Again I quote…

“Cinema is far too rich and capable a medium to be merely left to the storytellers.”
―Peter Greenaway

It makes me sad so many people missed what was special about Boyhood. Why does every movie have to be the same? Not every book tells a story. Some are random, some teach us, others are poetry and others are art. I think movies should be granted the same license to take on differing forms and purposes.

People look at every movie as having to entertain you when it doesn’t need too. People make the same criticism of Fantasia. That it is boring and has no story. Ridiculous. Fantasia is trying to inspire you with art and music. It’s not trying to tell you a story but give you something beautiful to contemplate. Boyhood is trying to get you to think about your life and that has value.

I just think people need to go into different movies with different glasses. I don’t watch Schindler’s List and Star Wars with the same mindset, looking for the same things. I don’t watch Tree of Life and Monty Python with the same perspective.

If you only like movies for entertainment sake than you miss out on so much. It makes me sad.

I found myself thinking yesterday of the amazing documentary Hoop Dreams. This follows 2 inner city boys for 5 years as they dream of basketball stardom. It is a movie about LIFE and how our dreams can both haunt and inspire us. Movies like Hoop Dreams and Boyhood have high value but they require some effort on our part.

Most of the sublime movie going experiences of my life require effort. Last night the academy had a chance to recognize a film that took on life but required some effort on the part of the moviegoer and went instead for the story of how hard it is to be a star…It makes no sense to me.

I guess it’s appropriate because in 1994 Hoop Dreams wasn’t even nominated for Best Documentary. It’s so silly.

I think Roger Ebert’s thoughts on Hoop Dreams apply to Boyhood:

“A film like “Hoop Dreams” is what the movies are for. It takes us, shakes us, and make us think in new ways about the world around us. It gives us the impression of having touched life itself…

Many filmgoers are reluctant to see documentaries, for reasons I’ve never understood; the good ones are frequently more absorbing and entertaining than fiction. “Hoop Dreams,” however, is not only a documentary. It is also poetry and prose, muckraking and expose, journalism and polemic. It is one of the great moviegoing experiences of my lifetime“

I’d say the same thing about Boyhood and just like Hoop Dreams holds up 31 years later because it is about life and human experience so will Boyhood because even if the trappings change, growing up is never really that different.

I wish I could talk to Richard Linklater and tell him how much his movies have ment to me. If you are out there Richard thank you! My life is better from watching your movies. How many people can say that about watching Birdman?…

I guess at the very least the Oscars got me to see a lot of movies I probably would not have otherwise seen, so there’s that. Thanks for the great year of films 2014 (Btw I am going to post an updated best and worst list now that I have seen more of the 2014 movies) .

What did you guys think of the Oscars?

Animation Lookback 2014 Videos

February 22, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

I had one of the worst nights of insomnia in my life so I’ve spent most of last night and today working on a new series on my youtube channel. It is a look-back on animation in 2014- the highs, mediums and lows. It is basically my Rachie’s post in video form. I thought you might enjoy them and I would love if you gave them a watch. I would also appreciate it if you subscribed to my channel. I do box reviews and movie reviews of which you will probably be more interested in the latter but I try to post good thoughtful content and am improving every day.

This series I think turned out very good. I hope it will help the public at large become aware of some of the smaller special animated movies, as well as maybe seeing ‘the big 6’ in a new light. Thanks again for watching the videos and for all your support.