Men In Black 3

Jemaine Clement and Josh Brolin were both pretty good in this. There were fun bits here and there, but nothing too memorable.

Sixteen Candles (1984)

I took Heather across the street to the Readings Town Square 14 to see tonight because she had not seen since she was 12. The movie was introduced by two Asian teenagers who were trying very hard to lead the crowd in a fun game of movie trivia, but it was made increasingly difficult by a row of women who were probably in their late 30's/early 40's but all acted much younger and much more immature. Plus, they all looked like they should be a Rollergirl team. I digress, the presentation itself was among the worst I've ever seen; a dvd blown up, stretched out, and so so so dark.  A movie should have presence on the big screen, should it not?

Roadgames (1981)

Re-watch. Love this movie and love showing it to people. Showed it to my friend Carthy tonight. He thoroughly enjoyed it.

Monsers, Inc. (2001)

Waited 11 years to watch it & I loved it. Very funny and sweet.

Rear Window (1954)

I liked it, although I thought it was a bit long. Also, it's one of those movies that even though I had never actually sat down to watch it, I still felt like I had seen it. If you've never seen "Roadgames," which is essentially an Australian remake of this, you should check it out.

Possession (1981)

Bizarre, passionate, and vibrant. Wicked wtf ending.

Ted (2012)

Meh...all I was hoping for was that it would be funny and it wasn't.

Take This Waltz (2012)

A very very astute film about the perils of a long-term relationship. And full-frontal nudity to boot!

Summer School (1987)

Late night re-watch in honor of Fright-Rags new "Summer School" t-shirt.

Deathdream (1974)

Re-watch:  Showing some new friends, they "liked it a lot."

To Rome With Love (2012)

Better than I expected, though not great.  2 1/2 stars. 

The Hidden (1987)

Re-watch.  One of the benefits of moving to a new town is making new friends, though it's been a slow process.  One of the rewards though is being able to share your favorite things with new people.  This went over well.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

This was fun and fairly well-made.  Reminded me a little of "Happy Accidents," in a good way.  Also, admitted I have a crush on Aubrey Plaza.

Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World (2012)

One of my all time favorite movies is Don McKellar's 1998(9) Canadian Apocalyptic Comic-Drama, "Last Night."  When I first saw the trailer for Lorene Scafaria's "Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World," I couldn't help but note the strange similarities between scenes in the trailer and McKellar's film.  The opening scene of the trailer features a Radio DJ uttering the line "We'll be bringing you our countdown to the end of days along with all your Classic Rock favorites," which instantly made me think of the DJ in "Last Night" opening the movie with "Coming up on the last night on the planet and you're listening to CKRT, the Top 500 Songs of All Time, with you right until the end."

The next scene in the trailer is of Steve Carell walking into a semi-abandoned office building, pointlessly going to work, which made me think of David Cronenberg's fate in McKellar's film.  Cut to the scene in the trailer with the celebratory friendly gathering, in which the charming, but depressed leading man is being pressured by his friends to "hook-up" and avoid "dying alone."  Then there's a distraught girl directly outside our lead's apartment, she needs help.  Together, the two set of on a journey trying to help one another (in Mckellar's film, the lead only wants to help her).  This stuff was all in the trailer.  To be fair to the movie though, there are plenty of differences between the films, foremost among them being the fact this movie is much more of a "road movie" than "Last Night" is.   

So going into the movie, you have to believe me when I say that I tried very very hard to remain objective while viewing "Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World."  And to it's credit, for much of the movie, I was enjoying myself, for the most part.   Keira Knightly was pretty bad in the movie, especially when she cried.  Usually when people cry in real life, they're either in pain or trying to manipulate someone.  When she cried in the movie I didn't believe she was in pain, nor did I find her convincing enough to be manipulated by her.

I was really hoping to like this movie more, if for no other reason than that I like Steve Carell and want him to make good movies.  That being said, I liked him in it, but overall I thought the movie was a 2 1/2 star effort.

As far as remaining objective went, I felt like I was doing a pretty good job until the last 15 minutes or so.  The ending of the movie, while not the exact same, bore enough of a similarity to send me fuming from the theater as the credits rolled.

On a side note, how much do I love "Last Night?"  When I was programming for the Austin film series, Cinema41, the first movie I chose was "Last Night," and we even finagled Don Mckellar himself and Cinematographer Doug Koch for a Skype Q&A.  Here is the Q&A in it's entirety.

 

The Usual Suspects (1996)

Re-watched this in the hotel room in Vegas, while waiting for Heather to wake-up.

Hard Eight (1996)

Re-watch:  Just as great as ever.

Lookin' to Get Out (1982)

Directed by Hal Ashby and written by/starring Jon Voight, "Lookin' to Get Out" has all the makings of a forgotten gem, but in this case, there's a reason it's forgotten.  In some cases, when a movie has a deeply flawed character with few, if any, redeeming qualities, it is still possible to overcome the problem of having an unlikely lead.  In this movie though, it's just too hard.  Possibly due to the pacing which starts of cracklin' but quickly loses steam.  It's a catch-22, making a movie about a flawed character, but still investing the audience in that character. 

Positives:  cool opening credits, Burt Young, and the nice Vegas scenery.

Honeymoon In Vegas (1992)

We're getting ready to go to Vegas this weekend for our 4 year anniversary, so this week we've been watching movies set in Vegas.  I haven't watched this in about a decade.  Good stuff.

The Silent Partner (1978)

Re-watch:  Showed this to some new friends, it's easily in my Top 10 Favorite movies.  I could watch it once a week and never tire of it. 

The Color of Money (1986)

Watching this the other day for the first time on a double feature with "The Hustler" boded well for this one considering how ready I was for something a little more fast-paced at that point.  I'm as much of a Scorsese fan as anyone else.  This film, like "The Hustler," had it's moments and it fun seeing familiar faces pop-up like Forrest Whitaker and Iggy Pop.  Newman is very good in it, particularly in the 3rd act.  Cruise on the other hand just doesn't gel with Scorsese in my opinion, maybe it's the hair which is out of control.

 

Overall, I kind of felt the same about "The Color of Money" as I did the "The Hustler," solid, but nothing I'd watch again anytime soon.  In the realm of Scorsese, it felt particularly disappointing.