Philomena Searching for our Hearts

            I came across Philomena while watching another movie. I’m a big fan of watching the previews before movies even when it’s just a movie at home. Philomena looked interesting, especially since the story being told actually happened. I love true stories and since I hardly watch the news or read the paper it’s always a surprise to me how it ends.

            Philomena, Judy Dench, is an aging Irish woman with a big secret. When she was young she had a son who was taken away from her at a young age. Now 50 years later she is on the hunt to find him and with the help of Martin (Steve Coogan), a former English reporter, she just might have some luck.

            To someone who has never heard the story of Philomena this movie was beautiful. The portrayal of the aging Philomena by Dench I can only imagine is spot on because in what I saw of the real Philomena she only had positive things to say about the movie. However, if I didn’t know this and just watched the movie I might have been worried that at times they were making fun of Philomena in her old age and just making her a stereotypical old lady. The story to this movie takes many twists and turns and if it weren’t for it being true then you’d think the writers were just trying to get as much strange things into the movie as possible. But the story is beautiful and it brings tears to the viewers’ eyes as they watch it. There is a strange question that was raised by a friend as I watched it this time though. She asked, “Why does the movie open on Martin when it’s about Philomena?” I hadn’t really thought of that until she asked. But really why would the movie open on the secondary character? Philomena is introduced about four minutes in though and it immediately goes into her back story which is done in a very nice way. The use of fade in and out and the moments where you just see present day Philomena and hear the voices of the past is all a nice touch. To watch this journey is a roller coaster of hope. The biggest hope is that she will find her son and reconnect. Hope is a great thing and that is why I highly recommend you see this movie if you haven’t already and if you have seen it, isn’t it about time to watch it again?

Seeking a good feeling for your night? Start with the preview and go from there.
Don't forget to come back next time for my review on 30 Minutes or Less.

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This Means War at war with Themselves

            When I saw previews for This Means War I was excited for it to come out. When it did I rushed to the theater as soon as I could to see it and I loved it. I saw it at least once more while it was still in theaters and then when it came out on DVD I couldn’t wait to buy it. It was great. It had spies, romance, comedy, and action. It seemed like one I would love forever, but then I put it in to do this review and I saw its true colors.

            Two top CIA operatives are not just partners, they are also best friends. That is until they realize that they are both dating the same girl. Now the rules have been set and lines have been drawn. But what will happen when one of them goes too far?

            While this movie is certainly funny and has some nice eye candy for everyone to enjoy it doesn’t have much else. This movie feels like it was written using a how to book. Or actually it was more like a checklist they went down while writing the screen play. Strange device that must be recovered in the beginning but never mentioned again, check. Black woman boss who is perpetually pissed, check. Bad guy seeking vengeance against the heroes, check. Visit to a strip club, check. Russian bad guy wearing running pants (or whatever they’re called), check. Random vehicles exploding at the slightest tap, check. Oh wait let’s not forget the big one. Happy ending for all, double check. I mean it’s good the first couple times you see it, but if you put it away for a while and watch other movies like it and then come back to it you see just how generic it really is. Then, I guess, they thought they could make up for the lack of originality by throwing big names in the movie. But they all seemed to be having an off day or something while this was being shot. It all feels very over acted through the whole movie. Lines were forced or said too stiffly. The common thought that comes to mind as I watched this was 'too much'. Then if you are lucky enough to own a copy of the extended movie you get to see possibly one of the dumbest scenes in movie history. As Tuck, Tom Hardy, tries to win the girl he hires a fake family to impress her. Then FDR, Chris Pine, immediately replaces the perfect family with a bunch of people who pretend to be what can only be described as a red neck British family. It’s not a long scene but it is definitely one that should have been left out of the movie forever. Lastly, I wish to pose a question to the females that read my reviews. If you were dating two guys at the same time how can you possibly have the nerve to be upset if you find out the two guys happen to know each other? Any way this movie is good for a laugh and a slight action fix. It really doesn’t stand the test of time though, so if you’re planning on seeing it hurry up and watch it before it’s too late.

Curious about this fading gem? Hurry and check out the preview.
Come back next time to see my review on a movie based on actual events, Philomena.

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Safety not Guaranteed Guarantees a good Time

            Safety not Guaranteed was introduced to me by a friend. She used to be very closed minded about movies and wasn’t really into independent films. But she saw this preview and she told me she really wanted to see it. I had to break it to her that because it was an independent film we wouldn’t get it in our theater and because of that I don’t think she has ever seen it. Let me tell you though, she is missing out. This is a fun film with a lot of depth and a fun story.

Darius is a young intern at a Seattle-based magazine and jumps at the chance to investigate the author of a classified ad seeking someone to travel back in time with. Along with Jeff, the staff writer, and Arnau, a fellow intern, the three go on a road trip to a coastal town. While Jeff just wants to chase after his high school crush and Arnau wants some kind of life experience, Darius spends her time with Kenneth, a man who believes that he has built a time machine. The closer they become and the more they understand about each other, the less clear it becomes if Kenneth is just crazy or if he actually is going to successfully travel back in time. Written by napierslogs IMDb

This was a low budget independent film that grossed more than three times what they spent to make it. That alone should say that they did something right. Through the course of this film you get to watch not just Darius, Aubrey Plaza, grow as a character but also pretty much the whole cast. Normally I would say that that is too much for such a short movie and it would just feel like one life lesson after another, but really they couldn’t have done it any other way. If one of these characters was going to grow the rest had to follow. This movie had a lot of first timers in it. For Karan Soni, the intern Arnau, this was his first role outside of tv and shorts. For Derek Conolly, the writer, this was his second time writing and first time writing for a movie. Then there’s the director, Colin Trevorrow, who for this film is directing his very first movie. That’s three important people involved in this film that are new to the industry. You would think that would be the makings for a cheesy film that’s been done before, but while time travel has been done before the story is quite unique. Actually the time travel aspect of this film is very small and the film is more about the characters in the end.  There are some odd parts to this film that sort of get glanced over and the ending seems a little cheesy, but it’s definitely a happy feel good film. Due to the rating I can’t really call it a family film, but really I think the R rating it received would have been better suited as a PG-13. So I would say that most of the family can sit back and enjoy. This is a funny and intense film at times that you should definitely carve out 86 minutes of your life to watch.

Did I peek your interest on this film? Well then take it to the next step and check out the trailer here.
Come back next time and check out a movie you might know This Means War.

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Frozen not as Ground Breaking as they Thought

            I went to see Frozen because I wanted to know what the movie was about. The previews I saw told me nothing about the story. All I ever saw was Olaf chasing his nose. It didn’t make sense to me till I saw the movie. The directors and writers didn’t even seem to know what this movie was going to be about.

            When Elsa, Idina Menzel, freezes the whole kingdom her sister Anna, Kristen Bell, sets out to save the day. But who is going to save her when she needs help?

            This whole review is going to pretty much be one big spoiler alert. But then if you haven’t seen this movie you either live under a rock or are a guy with on kids and no girlfriend. Any way here it goes. I would like to start by asking just how far is the North Mountain from the palace? When you see the view of it from the court yard it looks to be a couple days journey away, but then Elsa makes it there in one night. Then it takes Anna and Kristoff, Jonathan Groff, a little over a day to get there. Then it takes Hans, Santino Fontana, and the other people from the castle less than a day to get there and back. So are all these people traveling really fast or is the mountain actually closer than the view makes it look? Also I have to ask about the ice. At the ice palace Anna slips once and Sven can’t walk on the ice at all. I don’t know about the rest of you, but in the winter when there’s ice on the ground I see people slipping and sliding and that’s just small patches. Meanwhile a whole castle is made of ice and people can run in it with no problem at all. Then there is what the ice does to things. I Understand it is magical but there still has to be some rules for it. Elsa at the end makes the dungeon wall so cold it bursts open, but then as Anna and Olaf are trying to get out of the palace and it’s so cold that spikes of ice are forming on the walls. This makes no sense at all. We’ve had some very cold winters where I am, we even got the arctic blast last year, but we didn’t get any ice spikes forming on things. That would take a different combination of weather than just really cold. But hey, magic. Now comes a big problem. Let’s play who’s the bad guy. In the beginning it looks like it is going to be the Duke of Weselton, with his evil scheming and probing for information. Then when Elsa freezes everything it seems like she is the bad guy. But then we find out that she didn’t know that she did it. The Duke comes back in the running when he tells his guys to kill the queen. But then comes the supposed great reveal of Hans being the bad guy. Do you know how long it takes them to reveal the real bad guy of this movie? It takes 75 minutes to make this reveal. This movie is only about 102 minutes long people. That is just terrible writing. People spend the whole movie wondering just where it’s going to go next because it seems to have no direction. Let’s also take a minute to realize there was no reason to make Hans the bad guy. The Duke could have stayed the bad guy, Anna could have stayed in love with Hans, and Elsa could have paired up with the ice loving Kristoff. But everyone loves having those surprise reveals and the strange love triangle type deals. Also I would like to take a look at this “Frozen is the first Disney movie to show you don’t need a man to save you” thing. Did the people that said that not see Pocahontas? No? Well how about Mulan? You say they missed that one too? Well then I know they’ve seen Brave. I mean that just came out in 2012. But I guess you’re going to tell me they missed that one too. Oh well, I tried. Any way the real romantic message that Frozen has is the first guy isn’t always the right guy. Not a bad message if you think about. Any way I’d tell you to watch this one just so you’re up on your Disney movies, but I bet you’ve all already seen this.

Haven't seen this movie for some strange reason? Check out this terrible preview that gives you all the wrong ideas about the movie, but it's the official trailer.
Now check out this little honest trailer I found for Frozen.
Then because I love this channel, remember there is some swearing in these clips, check out Everything Wrong with Frozen.
Come back next time for a look at Safety not Guaranteed.

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Seeking a Friend for the end of the World Making you feel better about the end of Days

            I saw the preview for Seeking a Friend for the end of the World while watching another independent film. It looked interesting and with how it showed it starts in the preview I was really curious to see how this movie would end. My curiosity paid off with the full package of a good movie with a great ending.

            Dodge, Steve Carell, is all alone after his wife ran from him and now he is all set to die in three weeks with everyone else on the planet by himself. But when he finds a letter from his high school sweetheart he finds a new reason to live, and so he begins his journey to find the one that got away.

            I have a morbid curiosity when it comes to end of the world movies. My question for this movie was how will it end? I don’t like spoilers so for my random viewers you won’t fully know what I mean when I hint at the ending here, but friends reading this will know exactly how the movie ends. I will just say this about the ending; it was beautiful. Just the perfect blend of everything and it brings definite closure to the film. With that out of the way there are some other things now that need to be said. It was interesting how the director, Lorene Scafaria, got so many different reactions to the end of the world in this short 101 minute film. There’s everything from the person that can’t stop crying to the person that can’t stop drinking. There are even some deaths that have aren't caused by the apocalypse. It’s all very clever. All of it except some of the comedy. Yes it’s funny to see the cop pull them over and arrest them, but some of the early comedy before the road trip starts is over the top and downright vulgar. I realize the movie is rated R, but some of the reasons for this rating are just for cheap laughs. This movie also suffers from the problem of being a comedy with a brief serious moment. At about 77 minutes into the movie the director decided to go for a serious moment that she probably thought no one saw coming. Well, I saw it coming from the moment it was hinted at earlier in the movie. Then to top it off, because it suddenly gets so heavy you all of the sudden take notice of how long you’ve been sitting and how much longer is left to go. These bad marks aside you are left with a semi new idea and definitely a different angle to view it all from. Definitely check this one out for yourself. Although you may want to rent it first just in case.

Wanna better look at the end of the world? Check out the preview here.
Come back next time for a movie you may have heard of. Come back and check out Frozen.

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