The Intern Review

September 25, 2015September 25, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

The Intern should have been a movie I loved. As most of you know I love romantic comedies. There aren’t very many made these days and I miss them. The Intern isn’t really a romantic comedy but more of a friendship comedy but it has the lightness of the genre. It is also a movie about work which is another favorite topic of mine in the movies. (I think the movie may be getting more praise than it deserves because so few movies like this are made more than how great it actually is…)

Unfortunately, I ended up with really mixed feelings on this one. I explain why in my video review where I give a spoiler warning to give you time to stop watching if you want too.

There are things I liked in The Intern. Robert Deniro and Anne Hathaway are really charming in their roles.

Anne Hathaway’s Jules (a very romcomy name) felt to me like what Devil Wears Prada Andy might be doing at that phase of her life. She has a daughter and her husband is a stay-at-home Dad. She runs an internet startup company that is new and hip and overwhelming her life.

They decide to hire senior interns and Robert Deniro is bored with his life much like the guys in Walk in the Woods. So, he decides to apply and gets the job. Showing up in a suit and tie and carrying a handkerchief for all girl crying moments (seriously) he charms his way into the hearts of the entire office.

He really charms the audience too. He’s so likable and fun and it makes you wish you could hire a senior intern to help you and give you counsel whenever you need it…

However, that is also a weakness of the film. He really becomes kind of a senior citizen superhero. I’m all for having characters in movies that are good people but why not have one piece of advice he gives actually not apply to the new workplace? Wouldn’t that have been an interesting dynamic for both characters to absorb and learn from?

I really liked the scenes with him and the other young men in the office but I also thought they could be a bit patronizing. Are young men really so stupid they need to be told to not show up for a new job in your pajamas?

But they do work and I was charmed by them and I did laugh. Where the movie really had problems for me was in the conflict and resolution in Jules’ personal life and with her marriage. It is very spoilery but I go into it in a spoiler section in the video if you want to know. Basically I didn’t buy the way it was all resolved. I didn’t think it made sense for either character (both professionally and personally) and it was kind of a deal break for me on the film.

So I like things about it but I think it could have been much better.

Overall Grade- C

I’ll See You in My Dreams Review

August 13, 2015August 13, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Last night I had a bit of time and figured why not check out a movie? For a second I thought about seeing if Fantastic Four is ‘that bad’ but just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I looked to see if there was anything else with actual good reviews I could see (I’m thinking about going out of my comfort zone and seeing The Gift but wasn’t ready yet). Then I noticed at the cheap movie theater I’ll See You in My Dreams was playing. This was a movie that I noticed at my local independent theater a few months ago and I thought it looked good. Then I saw it had good reviews (94% on RT) so I figured let’s give it a shot and I’m glad I did.

In many ways I’ll See You in My Dreams is similar to Second Best Marigold Hotel with both featuring senior citizens trying to live vibrant lives. They both explore themes of love, friendship, death and of course aging. I liked the overall experience of Marigold a little bit better because it is more joyful and there are more characters to bounce off of, but I’ll See You in My Dreams definitely has better writing and characters. So perhaps it would really depend on my mood? Either way I’m glad movies are being made with an older audience in mind ( I would group Mr Holmes in that demographic as well for 2015 releases).

I’ll See You in My Dreams stars Blythe Danner as a woman who has been alone for decades after her husband died in a car crash in 1994. But fortunately she has his life insurance and other income to live comfortably. She also has a group of girlfriends played delightfully by June Squibb, Rhea Perlman and Mary Kay Place (I hope I have friends like that when I’m older!).

This is one of those movies I love that feels very ordinary. It’s just about this woman’s life- her friends, losses, conversations etc. It opens with a death that will make even the most hardened tear up but Carol doesn’t really absorb it or respond to it and that bothers her. She also seems to be a bit of an alcoholic- medicating her loneliness with wine and other spirits.

She eventually is so lonely she starts up a friendship with Lloyd played by Martin Starr who cleans her pool. This could have been groan inducing but it is actually a sweet friendship (and that’s it. No romance!). The dialogue in their scenes is particularly strong. It felt almost like watching a good Broadway play.

He convinces Carol to go to the karaoke bar and sing and it turns out she has a great voice. There is something a little bit sad about that, and it seems like she senses the missed opportunity which is her life. (The movie really is quite tragic in a way).

There is also a lot of comedy with Carol going to a speed dating session and another hilarious segment when the cops pull the ladies over when they are a little bit tipsy from medical marijuana.

Then midway in the movie we meet Bill played by Sam Elliot. He is a gold old boy Texan who is never without his unlit cigar. Elliot is charming in the role but I never felt like him and Danner had much chemistry. I didn’t buy her being attracted to someone like him.

But without spoiling it a tragedy does occur and I loved Carol’s interaction with her daughter played by Malin Akerman. They did have chemistry and it was interesting Carol seemed disappointed with her daughter but it is never quite sure why. Perhaps it is because she is single and never gave her any grandchildren? I’m not sure but I found the relationship compelling.

In many ways watching Carol reminded me a lot of my Grandma who is still with us but unable to carry on the kind of relationship we once had, which makes me sad. I found myself feeling a little bit depressed at scenes because I miss talking to my Grandma and the way our friendship used to be.

I’ll See You in My Dreams is not a movie that will change your life but I liked spending 92 minutes with these people. They felt like real people I could relate too and care about. The dialogue was particularly strong from director and screenwriter Brett Haley.

This is coming out on blu-ray and Itunes soon so if you missed it I’d say it is definitely worth a rental. Especially if you can get your Mom or Grandma together and have a movie night you will have a cry together and enjoy the film.

Also this may be the last movie I will see in current day where a character doesn’t have a cell phone but does have one of those old school answering machines.

Overall Grade- B

Content Grade- B

There is 1 f word, some vulgar language, drug use for humor, death of animal shown, and some sensuality mostly off screen.

Ricki and the Flash Review

August 7, 2015August 7, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Well today I was planning on seeing Fantastic 4 but then I heard a bunch of people I respect say it is the worst superhero movie since Batman and Robin and I thought ‘surely there is something else I could see…’ and fortunately there was. I decided to go to Ricki and the Flash starring Meryl Streep and written by the great Diablo Cody. In many ways this movie is kind of like the Age of Adeline. It’s no masterpiece but a solid entertaining film.

Streep stars as Ricki who left her family when her 3 children were little to pursue her dream of being a rock star. Even now as a more mature woman she dutifully plays at a nearly empty club every weekend and works at Whole Foods during the day. This might seem like a sad lot but she is happy with the life she has chosen. Rick Springfield plays her bassist in the band and quasi-boyfriend and he is very good in the part (as in Age of Adeline the acting across the board elevates this material).

Then out of the blue Ricki gets a call from her ex-husband played by Kevin Kline in Indianapolis (I like how every movie uses my poor Indianapolis as the go-to for boring Middle America). Her daughter Julie, played by Streep’s real-life daughter Mamie Gummer, has been dumped by her husband and is in a deep state of depression. Kline is at his wits end and calling his ex out of desperation because she has been so inactive in most of the children’s lives.

She agrees to come and Streep does such a good job showing the insecurity of a woman who both has regrets and has no regrets. She’s confident but completely insecure at the same time. It’s very good. Because of the abandonment her children hate her and think she is a big joke.

I particularly liked a scene where they are at dinner and the way they are interacting reminded me of tense family dinners I’ve been at from time to time.

This is where Diablo Cody shines in writing complex characters that you both despise and root for at the same time. Ricki wasn’t a good mother because she wasn’t there for her kids; however, she was pursuing her dream which does make her sympathetic. Ricki is also not just the aging rocker but she is also a Republican with a brother who died in Vietnam. There are layers to her just like actual human beings.

There’s a strong element of work and dreams which is a topic I always respond too. How much is too great a sacrifice to be happy in your work? What is it worth to go for your dreams? Should Ricki have been miserable and stayed with her family or tried (and failed) to be a rock star? It’s an interesting question to ponder. The movie does also make the good point that if Ricky was a man our society would be far less quick to put the ‘bad father’ label on him for doing the same things.

Streep learned how to play the guitar for the movie in a matter of weeks and does all her own instrumentals and singing, which is pretty remarkable. We of course know from many other films (Mama Mia, Into the Woods, Prairie Home Companion etc) she can sing but she proves it once again here.

There are some problems with the film which take it down from being a favorite. The singing segments, while good, are all too long. Especially being covers (except for 1 song) we don’t need to hear the entire song. A verse or chorus is plenty to get the message. If they were going to do full songs I wish it had been original songs because wouldn’t someone who sacrificed so much for music do more than just covers? At least at the end with her family you’d think so.

The ending is also pretty sappy but I didn’t mind it because every family has sappy moments. Thank goodness we do because all the drama wouldn’t be worth it! But the ending does drag on a little too long as well (and it’s not that long of a movie). They definitely put a bow on everything and make all the problems go away. It is very sitcomy in that way.

All that said, the writing is good with complex characters. The acting is across the board good. The music is good if a little bit too long. Overall, I enjoyed watching Ricki and the Flash and being a part of this family for 100 minutes. I think if you go you will enjoy it and be glad you went.

After all, not every movie has to be a masterpiece to be worth a hardy recommendation.

As far as content there is some profanity and vulgar language, characters smoke pot and unmarried characters have sex mostly off screen. I’d say it is fine for teens and up.

Overall Grade- C+

Content Grade- B-

I’m thinking I made the right choice over Fantastic 4! 🙂

My youtube review

Shaun the Sheep Review

August 1, 2015August 2, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Believe it or not the next animated film of 2015 is here, Aardman Animation’s delightful Shaun the Sheep. Based on the BBC series of the same name (which I had not seen till today) it is a spin off of the popular Wallace and Gromit movie and series created by Nick Park and team. However, most of Wallace and Gromit’s humor is based on the PG Wodehouse type dialogue where Shaun the Sheep has literally no dialogue at all so they are quite different films.

The better comparison for Shaun the Sheep is the recent Minions. Both movies are about adorable creatures who can’t speak English and go on an adventure. In my opinion Shaun the Sheep is the much better of the two.

I went with a friend and her two kids. They seemed a little tired so that may have been part of it but they weren’t super into it. I think I laughed much more than they did so make of that what you will. That said, I think this is a funny movie for the whole family without any of that wink-wink humor Minions had in droves. There is a little bit of potty humor but not much. Mostly it is just funny sight gags and slapstick.

The plot is pretty simple (also an improvement from the convoluted plot of Minions). Basically Shaun and his buddies decide they want a break from the farm so they put the Farmer to sleep and attempt to make their escape. Unfortunately the Farmer ends up in the Big City and loses his memory. They must go after him and help him remember who he is.

There is a nice relationship between the Farmer and the sheep I liked. As crazy as it sounds it felt genuine. The sheep seem genuinely worried about their owner.

There is a ‘Animal Containment Specialist’ named Trumper who is the villain of the film. He is kind of like a Home Alone style villain who gets fixated on catching the sheep to his own funny detriment. (A little like the Farmers Wife in Chicken Run).

Shaun the Sheep is a brisk 85 minutes and despite having no dialogue aside from grunting and ba,ba,ba, I was engaged. It’s pretty funny the humans all talk like the Swedish Chef in the Muppets but it works because we get just enough of it.

I don’t know if Shaun the Sheep is quite as memorable as Chicken Run or Wallace and Gromit but I suppose that is a tall order. Is it one we will be talking about in 15 years like we do Chicken Run (can you believe it is that old!)? Probably not but I enjoyed it. And like I said compared to Minions it is so much cleaner, smarter and enjoyable.

I also like the design of the sheep. They are so cute but they also talk out of the side of their mouth in a funny way. Stop motion animation is so amazing to watch. It always blows me away.

If any of you get to see it let me know what you think especially if you are a fan of the series, which I am definitely going to check out.

Overall Grade- B+

Here is my youtube review.

Pixar Review 25: Up

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

It’s really hard to write about your favorite movie, or at least it is really hard for me. So has been my challenge for the last week or so as I’ve faced writing about Pixar’s beautiful film Up, my favorite movie (animation or not).

To this day I have never met anyone in my real life who doesn’t like Up, and it is both my brother and my favorite movie and we are as different as can be. It was also nominated for best picture not just animated film and receives wide-spread acclaim from critics and fans with a 98% on rotten tomatoes with only 5 rotten reviews and 276 positives. On the notoriously tough to please imdb Up has a 91% of user reviews a 7 or higher, which is truly remarkable. You get the idea. I’m not alone in loving this movie!

I like Up so much when I threw my dream party look at the cake I had made (it was an open house).

So why do I love it so much? It’s tough but I will do my best to describe.

Have you ever lost someone you love? Have you ever felt the pangs of regret that you wish you had said something or done something differently with the person who is gone? I certainly have and that is the message behind Up. It is what makes it special. It is what moves me so much. It is also a reminder that we need not feel such regret because the people we love are an active part of our lives as long as we live their dreams and make them proud.

To begin with in Up we get introduced to Carl and Ellie as little children. Carl is watching a filmstrip about Charles Muntz his hero. He tells the audience “adventure is out there”. This energizes Carl and he gets a balloon which is a hint of things to come. On his way home he finds a girl named Ellie in an abandoned house. She also loves Muntz and dreams of going to Venezuela and seeing the Paradise Falls. She chronicles all her dreams in an Adventure book and has a section called ‘Stuff I’m Going to Do’.

This is another theme of the movie- adventures and the power of big dreams to motivate us whether they are accomplished or not.

Ellie tells Carl he must take her to Paradise Falls ‘cross your heart. Cross it!’. Then we see what happened with that promise. A full life plays out and this is my favorite section of film ever. If you think of it from both the journey of a couple, of a life, and from Carl’s perspective of not keeping his promise to his beloved it is so moving. I’ve seen it so many times and it still makes me cry each time.

The thing is about regret is it can make you bitter and resentful. So has happened to our elderly Carl. He is lonely and talks to Ellie as if she was sitting right beside him (I love that throughout the movie because I believe the dead are with us cheering us on). A commercial developer has taken over the land near his house and they want him to sell. He tells him “you can have the house…when I’m dead”. You get the feeling he is just waiting to die and he see’s Ellie’s ‘Stuff I’m Going to Do’ and is overwhelmed with guilt at never having taken her to the Falls.

Through various contrivances he is going to be forced to assisted living but he decides to instead embrace the spirit of adventure and use a million balloons to take his house to the Falls. This is so beautiful when it is first taking flight.

Unfortunately for Carl he is not alone in the house but his neighboring boy scout Russell is a stow away. Russell is a lonely but eager kid who wants nothing more than to get his final badge in assisting the elderly.

There’s some dangerous weather but they eventually make it close to the Falls where they come in contact with a rare bird and some talking dogs! Some people don’t like the dogs. I do and think their fascination with squirrels is very funny especially when their voiceboxes go bad.

The most friendly dog is named Dug and he bonds with Carl and Russell quickly.

Russell names the bird Kevin and it turns out it is the very bird that Charles Muntz has been hunting all these years.

Carl gets to meet Charles Muntz and it turns out he is not the hero of his youth any more. Originally they were planning on the eggs of the bird be youth serum for Muntz but it was taking up too much of the plot so they decided to leave the Muntz/Carl plothole feeling audiences would forgive them one such problem and for the most part they do. I certainly do! Plus, our villain Charles Muntz is voiced by the great Christopher Plummer so I can’t complain about that.

The key is through all of these adventures Carl never looses his purpose of honoring Ellie. He talks to her throughout and is even willing to abandon Russell in order to get the house to the Falls for his beloved. I just love that.

Again, you can feel the weight of his grief melting as he goes on this adventure. And then he looks at the Adventure book and see’s for the first time a note from his wife.

Here’s the scene in French but you get the idea. “Thanks for the adventure. Now go have a new one”. Make my heart melt.

In that moment Carl knows he did keep his promise to his Ellie and to me that is just as moving as the opening section. I cry every time (like literally I just watched it again and cried). He forgives himself and has a whole new energy to go and save Russell from Muntz. It’s a perfect scene in my book.

To me Up is a perfect movie. The emotional journey Pete Docter takes you on should be something anyone who has lost a loved one can relate too. I certainly do. Every time I watch it I feel like I get a hug from my Grandpa who I miss everyday of my life. He was my hero and I hope he is proud of me and my little life adventure.

It’s not only incredibly moving but also funny and sweet. We get a lot of humor from the dogs, Russell and Kevin. The relationship between Russell and Carl is sweet and grows organically through the story in a believable way.

The voice performances from Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson and others are first rate (how has Ed Asner managed to play the grumpy old man for the last 40 years!). And the music by Michael Giacchino is one of my favorites in all of movies. It is literally pitch perfect.

It is obviously not the most realistic stories. For instance, it would take much more than one night to blow up all those balloons but if you can just go with it you are in for something special. The script is the typically witty dialogue of a Pixar movie. It is funny and sweet and will take you on a journey if you will let it.

Ever since Inside Out I’ve been thinking about Up and how both movies are about memories. How we deal with those memories and not have them become debilitating is a challenge whether you are 11 or 71 (or however old Carl is!). And I just love how we learn in Up the adventure of life is the greatest tribute we can give those who have past on. We never forget but we keep on living and embracing whatever comes our way! It’s the spirit of adventure!

It’s so rare a movie will teach you something about life and be a true moment of clarity. Those films are more than just entertainment. They are practically scripture in my life. Up is such a movie. It teaches me about loss, love, marriage, grief, adventure, life and everything else.

So yes Up is my favorite movie. It is a movie I could watch every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of. It’s just that kind of movie to me. Something that comes around a couple times in a person’s life and is a true inspiration.

Thanks to the entire Pixar team for making such a beloved movie!

Overall Grade- A+

Jurassic World Review

June 13, 2015June 13, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

So I just got the chance to see one of the big movies from the summer, Jurassic World. It is the 3rd sequel to the 1993 classic- a movie I saw in the theater 6 times because it hung around my town theaters forever. It’s interesting because I don’t normally like scary movies but I’ve always had a nostalgia for the original.

Jurassic Park 2 was a disappointment with the scenes in San Diego feeling more like a Godzilla movie than Jurassic Park. Jeff Goldblum as the skeptic makes 2 watchable along with Steven Spielberg’s direction. 3 is just plain silly with Tea Leoni shrieking her way through every scene.

After all that we get Jurassic World and they acknowledge all of the previous films. There are little hints, easter eggs for all 3 throughout the movie (something I did enjoy).

That said it makes for a premise that to me was hard to get on board. It’s supposed to be 20 years after the original movie. That means how many years since San Diego and the island in the 3rd? It takes a long time to build a park like they show in Jurassic World and yet they not only built it, contained the dinosaurs, and convinced 20k people to come all the way to Coasta Rica on a regular basis after what happened in San Diego? No way. (And like I said the previous movies actually come into play so it is not a moot point).

I went into the movie hoping they would convince me that such a park could really exist and I was not convinced.

But let’s accept that it does and move on. Surprisingly I didn’t hate this movie. In fact, if you want a popcorn movie it is entertaining on that level.

Basically they have the park up and running and Bryce Dallas Howard is the corporate non-kid friendly woman in heels we’ve seen in a million other movies. She was such a weak uninteresting character. And there is a scene where she literally outruns a t-rex in heels!

She makes such idiotic choices again and again. It’s the equivalent of a person in a horror movie who decides to keep going back into the house of the crazy person. Evacuate the island! (Laura Dern is sorely missing in this one, or even Julianne Moore).

Chris Pratt plays an animal trainer who has managed to train 4 raptors who he has given names. I really liked his character and just as in Guardians of the Galaxy, he is funny and sarcastic and very confident.

There are also other solid side characters like Irrfan Khan as the CEO of Jurassic World who is a little more sensible than Howard’s Claire. BD Wong also makes an appearance (another wink to original movie).

(How does he look exactly the same from 1993?)

We also get Claire’s nephews played kind of blandly by Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins. I heard an interview with them and they asked what they would do differently than their characters in the movie? The little boy said “I would be smarter than they were” Yep, they aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed.

The key that makes this movie watchable and entertaining is the cat and mouse chase between the dinosaurs and the people. Claire and the park has created a new creation called Indominous Rex. Evidently people have gotten bored with a regular T-rex.
Funny because nobody has gotten tired of Shamu? Circus’ still draw crowds with their elephants. I think people would be plenty excited for a t-rex!
The new Rex is unpredictable and breaks out killing dinosaurs and causing mass panic. It was pretty scary but not too scary.

This part of the movie worked as spectacle and I was entertained by it (and it is a lot of the movie so that is saying something). Because it is a new dinosaur we haven’t seen in 1-3 it was a little unpredictable but my friend and I kept whispering to each other ‘ah she’s a goner’. It was so easy to predict who was dinosaur fare and who wasn’t.

Vincent D’Onofrio plays a black hawk type security guy who wants to take the dinosaurs and use them for warfare. This whole plotline even for a stupid popcorn movie was so ridiculous. I couldn’t wait for him to get off screen and get back to the dinosaurs. The idea after San Diego of controlling the indominus rex or even the raptors is so absurd.

I’m making it sound like I didn’t like it very much but that isn’t the case. It is stupid and dopey but some good scares and Pratt is charismatic so I was entertained. I think the average moviegoer will go and enjoy themselves.

It could have been much better and the ending is too dark. I couldn’t tell what was doing what. And I though the iconic music was way underused. I guess they didn’t get John Williams to do any new variations on his themes? It wasn’t grand enough for this kind of popcorn movie.

Like I said if you want to go to the movies and see kid-friendly scares and laugh at the dopey characters and story than you’ll enjoy it. If you can’t dive into an imperfect movie than give it a pass.

Any of you seen it? What did you think? What do you think of all the winks to the other movies?

As far as content there are lots of kills but minimal blood and some scares but nothing a kid old enough to see the Harry Potter movies can’t handle. There’s a very silly scene where a woman rolls up her sleeves and unbuttons her shirt to show she’s tough…groan but that’s about all the skin you get. Minimal language.

Overall Grade- C Content Grade- B+

Also even with inflation how did this cost 50 million more than the original. A few of the special effects looked really green screened and cheesy? Hollywood needs to get the budgets under control.

Love and Mercy Review

June 6, 2015June 7, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Sometimes I see a movie that leaves me completely at a loss. I walk away not knowing if I like it or not. Love and Mercy was that kind of film. On one hand it is brilliant but on the other it is muddled and confused and a little frustrating. At the very least they could have done a classic bland biopic and tried to do something different. I respect that.

Love and Mercy is the story of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. What makes it unique is it flips between two versions of Brian- Paul Dano is a young version and John Cusack is an older 80s version.

The scenes with Dano battling voices in his head to make an unconventional sound are brilliant. I love the Beach Boys and their greatest hits album is one of the first I remember listening too. My Dad had a tape and we danced to all the songs. The entire creation of Pet Sounds is in the movie and it is amazing to see them bring in animals and strange instruments and build layers of sound. It felt like it might be close to the way it actually happened.

A side of me wishes we could have stayed with young Wilson but then it would have been more of a standard biopic, so I’m torn. But we do miss a big gap of Wilson’s life. We hear that he stayed in bed for 3 years after a breakdown but we don’t see the actual complete meltdown. This left some to the imagination but I could have seen more.

Meanwhile in the 80’s John Cusack is dating Elizabeth Banks who works at a car dealership. All the while he is closely monitored by his “doctor” played very creepily by Paul Giamatti.

I didn’t think Banks and Cusack had great chemistry but the tension between Giamatti and Banks builds in a believable way. It feels like such a different movie than the music part with Dano. One is like a standard biopic of troubled musician and the other is a creepy thriller. It’s a very weird combination. There are moments when you believe Dano and Cusack are playing the same person and you do get hints of both lives in each other’s performances (they never met in shooting which is kind of amazing) but there are other times when it feels like such different movies it doesn’t really gel.

But there are scenes that work so well in both stories. Like when Dano’s Wilson puts the pieces together for Good Vibrations. It is so exciting to see and hear all the parts of the song build to this great track we all know and love. It made you want to cheer to see such a troubled person make something so great. We also don’t get the expected drug montages like in a standard biopic. Dano’s Wilson definitely is an addict but he does it in unusually staged shots, a lot involving water that reminded me a bit of The Graduate.

Another great scene is when Giamatti flips out at Banks at her car dealership. I was scared for her. It is incredibly convincing. Like I said the two of them are very good together.

There were a lot of moments in Love and Mercy that worked and it did surprise me. It is strange and different and not something you can put your finger on after one watch and there’s something to be said for that.

One thing I hate is we got those annoying paragraphs at the end of the movie. To me that is the directors way of telling us he couldn’t finish the story. It’s a movie cop out and especially in this case because there is a lot of story of both plots we missed out on. For instance, we don’t get to see the downfall of Dano or the revenge of Cusack. Reading about it is so lame!! I’d rather have it just be left to wonder what happened than get the paragraphs.

But it’s at least an ambitious movie. It could have played it safe but it tries things and when it works I loved it. When it doesn’t I was still intrigued. I think it may take seeing it a few times for me to come up with a solid conclusion on my thoughts. I guess that says something pretty good about the movie!

Any of you see it? What did you think? A side of me just wishes it was 2 movies instead of 2 in 1. It kind of reminds me of that Bob Dylan movie I’m Not There with all the different actors playing him.

I really don’t know what grade to give it but I will go with a B-

As far as content there is some language, sexuality mostly off screen, some drug abuse sequences and one very creepy dude. Mental illness is dealt with but in an interesting visceral way that shouldn’t offend anyone. Content Grade- B

San Andreas Review

May 29, 2015May 29, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

I guess some spoilers below if you care about that kind of thing.

I’ve been trying to go out of my comfort zone in the last few months. Movies like Mad Max: Fury Road, Ex-Machina, and Furious 7 are outside of my wheelhouse and all 3 of those I enjoyed or was at least entertained by.

So today I had the choice to see Aloha or the new disaster film San Andreas and normally I would go right for the romance but it had such horrible reviews and I like Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson so I decided to give San Andreas a shot. Unfortunately even as an absurd dopey action movie it didn’t work for me. To put it in perspective it is more Armageddon than it is Deep Impact. It is more 2012 than Independence Day. There is a way to do these types of movies and make them work. The first is the cast has to be charismatic and large. If you think about movies like the Poseidon Adventure or Airport from the 70s they had huge casts and all of those people got time spent with their characters.

In Independence Day we spend the majority of the time with three huge talents of Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman. In San Andreas The Rock is very charismatic but he needed two or three stars of that caliber to carry the film. That is one thing that Michael Bay gets right is he does stack the Transformers movies with a lot of charismatic talent.

Which brings me to the next thing that needs to happen. There needs to be a sense of a superhero to the leads. The Rock does that but it is nearly always in the service of his family only. There is one scene where he gathers a bunch of San Francisco citizens on the safe side of the stadium and they all thank him for saving the day.

That was a good scene but it is one of the only one’s that is not exclusively The Rock saving his daughter or wife. We really needed a Vin Diesel or a Kiefer Sutherland to round out the cast and co-save the day. As it is San Andreas ends up feeling like the Sylvester Stallone turkey Daylight than a great disaster flick. Another thing is the special effects need to give us something new or forget it. When we saw the white house blow up in Independence Day none of us had ever seen something like that before. When a tornado races through Twister none of us had seen that before. All of the effects in San Andreas we’ve seen before and especially on the 4th or 5th building that topples over it feels more like Transformers 3 than a quality movie.

I thought the scenes on the ground in San Andreas were much better than anything we saw aerial. The real howler is a scene on a boat where the rock out races a giant tsunami with a little medical coast guard boat. It’s so absurd. (At least there is no comic relief like Michael Bay would have had. That is the worst!). A movie like Deep Impact or Independence Day stick pretty close to the disaster going on whereas movies like Armageddon venture off into stupid romance and really bad dialogue. (When I was in high school I remember watching Armageddon with my friends and looking mystified they were enjoying the garbage. My least favorite movie for many years). San Andreas isn’t that bad but the little asides are pretty groan inducing. We get The Rock and his wife Carla Gugino arguing about their divorce and her new squeeze Ioan Gruffudd who we are supposed to instantly dislike because he is rich and has his own plane. No The Rock is the helicopter guy. That’s legit! Ha. There is an absoloutely ludicrous scene where The Rock rescues Gugino from off of a skyscraper in the middle of a 9.3 earthquake. (and again back to main problem where we are only concerned about rescuing one person). There’s also his beautiful daughter Blake played by Alexandra Daddario who I guess is the Liv Tyler of this movie and she’s ok but there is little to no chemistry with her rescuer Ben played by Hugo Johnston-Burt. Let’s just say you can see why Ben is highly motivated to help rescue Blake because it’s definitely the only shot he has of getting a girl like her! The last group is Paul Giamatti as an earthquake expert who laughably discovers how to predict earthquakes literally about 2 minutes before the first giant earthquake that destroys the Hoover Dam. And then later he is upset because nobody listened to him. When were they supposed to listen? I guess because nobody bought his book but according to the movie they hadn’t been able to predict anything so why should they have listened to him? It’s kind of a joke when Giamatti has to get students to hack into the local media and warn the people in San Francisco to evacuate after the first earthquake. I don’t think any hacking would be required to have an expert on the 24 hour news cycle and I think people were evacuating after a 9.3 earthquake already! Plus, the half a day notice he gives them is hardly the lifesaver that the narration claims at the end.

It had me howling with laughter and the rest of my theater as well. I so wish I could have tweeted Giamatti’s line when asked, ‘who do we need to call?’ . ‘Call everyone…”. Ha.

On a certain level you know what you are getting into with San Andreas but even with those limited expectations it fails. On the wikipedia page it only has 13 listed in the cast. Only 8 get any major screen time. That’s just not enough for a movie like this and like I said the spectacle isn’t new. It feels stale and the sideplots aren’t very engaging. I can see if people think it is a dopey good time but I feel there are many movies where dopier is done much better.

Are you guys going to see San Andreas? Let me know what you think when you do. What disaster movie do you like?

Overall Grade- D I’m sorry. It’s bad folks. Rent Twister, Independence Day or Deep Impact and skip this.

Movies I Think are Boring

May 25, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Since I started doing this blog I have noticed a lot of my favorite movies others will claim are boring and yet movies they love I will find boring. In fact, I have moved away from using the word boring in my reviews (I call it the B word) because I find it doesn’t tell you that much. It’s kind of like calling something nice, a bland adjective.

So what do I mean by boring? Well, basically a movie that puts me to sleep, that I found tedious and slow. A movie like Boyhood which others found to be boring to me was extremely compelling because its about real life. I could have watched that for days. Boyhood knows what it is trying to be so it is very compelling.

A lot of people find Fantasia to be boring but I do not because it is so different and it continually surprises me with music and visual delight. I think if the sequences were longer I might have more of an issue but each one is just enough to dazzle me.

Some also find Tale of Princess Kaguya to be boring but it is kind of like Boyhood in the sense that it was trying to be the story of young girl growing up and it executes that world and story so well I was engrossed.

Tree of Life, Where the Wild Things Are, Bambi, are all movies others find boring but for me they have a heart that drew me in, visuals that surprised me and enough happens to keep me engaged. They all know what they are trying to be and execute it well.

Unfortunately some movies fail to achieve their vision. Recently Woman in Gold was boring because it was trying to be a drama but everything was so predictable and flat that I fell asleep in the theater. If I nod off in your movie it is probably a bad sign…

Another example is Treasure Planet. It’s not a bad movie and in many ways it is very ambitious; however, despite a unique visual style it fails to create new or compelling characters. The world building is beautiful but because it is so new a lot of the scenes that should be tense weren’t. I know what is going to happen to a ship in a storm with water. I do not know in an air storm; therefore, it becomes boring when it should be exciting. It also doesn’t help that Treasure Island is one of the most famous and thereby predictable stories in all of literature. Made me fall asleep.

There are a lot of bad movies I find boring. Again because they fail to do what they want to do so it becomes a slog to sit through. On the surface you would think a movie like Transformers 4 would be exciting with all the action but because I don’t care about any of the characters or where the action is taking place it becomes very repetitive and boring.

The Last Airbender definitely lands on my boring list. It fails so spectacularly at being what it is trying to be which is a mythical action adventure. Instead we get long passages of exposition and terrible special effects that are good only for insomnia.

The Star Wars prequels have the same problem. We want to see an exciting adventure and instead we get lots of discussion about trade and land rights mixed in with terrible special effects and bad acting. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I know many like Man of Steel but I thought it was awful. It takes it self far too seriously with reverential and annoying music. It has a confused lead character that is bland and uninteresting and supporting characters I didn’t care about. The flashback structure doesn’t work, the special effects I’ve seen before and the romance has no chemistry. I found the product placement obnoxious and the ending gratuitous. Another good one for my insomnia.

Lone Ranger another movie that should have been good but instead is a tedious series of action pieces with unlikable characters I didn’t care about. It’s handsomely mounted but that’s about all you can say for it. Rarely have I been so restless in my seat in a theater .

I know a lot of people love it but I found Life of Pi to be very boring. We know what is going to happen because the boy on the raft is narrating the story to a newsman. This takes away tension and left me on a boat with a tiger for 2 hours. I watched Cast Away about a man on an island and was riveted. Life of Pi just didn’t do it for me.

Romances can be incredibly dull too. The drama The Lucky One with the chemistry-free couple of Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling is a good example. The dialogue is terrible. The story is ridiculous and full of tropes (like you know the liar reveal is coming a mile away…). The filming looks like a million other dewy filled romance movies. It all becomes very tedious and slow.

A movie that is on my Movies I Hate list is Contact. It’s so preachy about the foolishness of religion and the grandeur of science. All of the religious characters are nefarious and suspect in some way. But even put that aside it’s so slow moving in its story and I remember seeing it in the theater and praying someone would pull the fire alarm so I could leave. It’s the first movie I had that response too.

Whenever they try to split a book into multiple movies it always makes for at least one boring movie. In the case of the Hobbit movies it made 2. In the second movie it takes 2 hours to get to Smaug!! 2 hours of filler. Ugh. The third is a bunch of battles with a few fun moments for fans thrown in. They are watchable but definitely on the boring side because the story is stretched out.

I know some people love it but I find the 7th pt 1 Harry Potter movie to be very tedious. It’s basically our threesome going around getting clues that will all become exciting for the great final movie. I remember looking at my watch again and again at the theater. Not a good sign for a girl that loves the Harry Potter movies.

You could put almost any M Night Shyamalan movie on this list but The Village certainly belongs. It fails to give us one compelling character. Instead we get a tedious fairytale with an obnoxious twist. It’s a slogfest.

Magnolia is an extremely polarizing movie but at over 3 hours I lose patience with its pretentiousness. The acting is good but Paul Thomas Anderson forgets to give all these great actors a compelling story. Instead its a lot of dramatic speeches that don’t mean anything which makes it very hard to sit through. It’s on a lot of people’s best ever list but I found it insufferable and very hard to sit through.

Comedies can certainly be boring and one of the worst I’ve seen is How Do You Know. This movie had huge potential with James L Brooks directing and a great cast but man is it a tough sit-through. A bad comedy will have jokes that don’t work but this doesn’t even tell any jokes. It is like they just made it up every day at set. The story is non-existent, characters just talk a lot without anything behind it and it isn’t remotely funny. It’s very boring. I honestly think watching these 4 actors eating lunch would be more interesting.

I love the Wizard of Oz. I think it is one of the best examples of storytelling ever put to film. I love the music, cinematography, story, villain everything. That said I’ve hated any time we’ve gone back to Oz. Return to Oz was one of the worst experiences I had at the cinema as a little girl and recent Legends of Oz was dreadful. However, they at least tried to do something visually interesting. Disney’s Oz the Great and Powerful is so bland it barely resembles the Oz I know and love . James Franco is completely flat as Oz, all the female actors are shrill and annoying (such a waste of great actresses) and the land of Oz looks like a CGI world we’ve seen a million times. Boring!

Everyone knows how much I love period pieces. Howard’s End is one of my favorite movies of all time and I love anything with Dickens, Austen or Downton Abbey in the title. Brideshead Revisited, however, I was not a fan of. Great actors can not save the melodrama of Charles and Sebastian’s bromance. I didn’t like any of the people so I didn’t really care what happened to them, making the life-long back and forth a tough watch. Even Emma Thompson can’t make this movie interesting for me…

I know there are a bunch of other boring movies I could list off but I think this gives you some idea. Basically a movie is boring when it fails to execute its vision. It might try to be a great action adventure and instead it is just a series of stunts without any character or story to go along with it and that will bore me. If the story doesn’t work and it doesn’t keep moving in interesting ways it is going to bore me. It can be slow and leisurely paced but it has to have something to engage me- a character I like, a message I respond too, an artistry that is new and different. And the artistry can only carry you so long. After about 15 minutes if you don’t have other layers (like Fantasia has the music and the segments are short) then you could still lose me.

In the end it is all subjective and what I like you might not and vice versa. So don’t get offended if I said your movie is boring. If you like it that is awesome.

Now that I have this out I will continue try to not use the B word in my reviews and give you more context as to why a movie felt boring.