Movie Reviews: Crazy Captain Pooh with Benefits

Winnie the Pooh, image property of Disney.
Friends with Benefits, image property of Screen Gems.
Captain America: The First Avenger, image property of Paramount and Marvel.
Crazy, Stupid, Love, image property of Warner Brothers.

by Jack Garcia

Sometimes I see a lot more movies than I have time to write about!  It’s a problem I’m sure many of you are familiar with.  Or not.  I read somewhere that the average person only goes to a movie theater three times a year.  That’s so little!  I’ve seen three this week alone!  Did you know that including the four I’m about to review now, I’ve seen forty movies this year?

Winnie the Pooh ADMIRABLE

There’s something about simplicity that can be so magical.  Based on the A.A. Milne books, Disney’s Winnie the Pooh is as charming and uncluttered as you can get.  The storyline is fairly shallow on plot, but it’s brimming with happiness—even if Eeyore is characteristically glum.  Pooh is hungry, Piglet is scared, Tigger is energetic, Owl is full of himself and Rabbit is as bossy as ever.  The story loosely revolves around Eeyore’s lost tail and a creature called a “Backson” that may or may not have captured Christopher Robin.  I particularly enjoyed a segment of animation done in a chalkboard style and the music which features actress/singer Zooey Deschanel.

Friends with Benefits AWESOME!

I was incredibly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie!  Mila Kunis plays Jamie, a headhunter from New York City who convinces Dylan (Justin Timberlake) to leave the website he works for and take an art director job for GQ Magazine.  The two become friends and swear that they can have sex together without it becoming complicated.  This leads to some sexy, funny love scenes between the two, and if you were not in love with Justin Timberlake before, you will be after.  SO HOT!  The movie playfully makes fun of all the rom-com clichés while following the formulaic rules anyway.  However, it does it with some really funny dialogue and a chemistry between the two leads that cannot be denied.

Captain America: The First Avenger ADMIRABLE

In many ways Marvel’s Captain America is the best superhero movie to come out this year.  Chris Evans plays our hero, Steve Rogers, who begins as a short, scrawny kid from Brooklyn.  He wants nothing more than to join the army, but he can’t.  He meets Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who gets him into the army where he meets Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) who quickly becomes the pin-up girl of his dreams.  Dr. Erskine recognizes Steve’s courage, and with the power of science turns him into the tall and hunky Captain America!  Hugo Weaving plays the villain Red Skull, who is unfortunately more goofy-looking than menacing.  I enjoyed this movie for its 1940’s nostalgia and action, but only wish there was more to Peggy and Steve’s relationship.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. AWESOME!

I have a feeling that a lot of people won’t like this movie as much as I did, but I loved it.  It wasn’t quite the comedy that the trailers made it out to be, but for me, the movie had a lot of heart and feeling and wasn’t afraid to explore all the messiness of love—even unconventional love like the kind a teenage girl secretly harbors for the father of the kids she babysits.  It covers a lot of ground while staying quirky, screwball, and optimistically hopeful that soul mates exist and that love is worth fighting for.  Steve Carell stars as Cal, who’s wife (Julianne Moore) announces she’s slept with someone and she wants a divorce.  Rejected and depressed, he goes to a trendy bar where he meets the ladies’ man Jacob (Ryan Gosling) who shows him a few tricks of the trade… that is until he meets Hannah (Emma Stone) who is a “game changer.”  Carell, Gosling, Moore and Stone deliver some remarkable performances and Marissa Tomei is always a delight to see onscreen, even in her small role here.

Movie Review: The Bosses May be Horrible... But it Sure is Funny!

Horrible Bosses movie poster, image property of Warner Bros.

by Jack Garcia

Horrible Bosses ADMIRABLE

With the exception of Bridesmaids—which I have seen three times because I love it so much—I have been disappointed with comedies this year.  Hangover II and Bad Teacher were really quite forgettable, each causing me to laugh more in the 3-minute trailer than I ever did in the 2-hour movie.  But Horrible Bosses surprised me because it was a comedy that was, well, funny.

Yes.  It’s funny.  Crazy, huh?

Jason Bateman stars as Nick Hendriks who is working overtime as a middle manager hoping for a big promotion.  His psycho boss Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) dangles the job in front of him making him jump through bizarre hoops and essentially tormenting him unceasingly, only to screw him in the end.  Nick is so angry that he wants to kill the guy.  Metaphorically speaking, that is.  Or is it?

His best friends, Dale Arbus (Charlie Day) and Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis), also hate their bosses.  Dale works as a dental assistant to a dentist named Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston) who is a sexual deviant.  She is blackmailing him to have sex with her, and does everything in her power to make him feel uncomfortable.   She could care less that he’s engaged.   Then there is Kurt, who works at a chemical manufacturing company and whose terrific boss has just died.  Now the former boss’s crazy tool of a son, Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell) is in charge of the company, having wild parties in his office, doing drugs, and running the company into the ground.

One night they decide to kill their bosses and find an ex-con named MF Jones (Jamie Foxx) to do it for them.  He takes their money but doesn’t do the dirty work.  Instead he convinces them to do it Strangers on a Train-style, each one killing the other’s boss and not his own.

I mean, I wouldn’t mind seeing my boss deader than a doornail… but I know I could never actually commit murder.  Could you?  And I bet you are wondering if Nick, Dale and Kurt do.  But you’ll just have to watch it to find out.

What really made this movie work were the quick pacing, clever writing, and terrific casting.  Really, the stars of this movie knew how to milk each line or each situation for all it was worth.  Jennifer Aniston hasn’t been this funny in a long time, and I was really blown away by just how perverted she could be.  Kevin Spacey is a brilliant actor, of course, and in this movie you want nothing more than to gouge his eyes out with a spoon!  And our three frazzled employees are each separately funny, but even better when together.  They have a really great comedic chemistry, and had me laughing gleefully all throughout the movie.

I mean, what could be funnier than attempted murder?

Movie Review: End of an Era

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 movie poster, image property of Warner Bros.

by Jack Garcia

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 AWESOME!

Sometime towards the end of 1999 I found myself looking at books that were being sold at the Book Fair in the school library.  I was 13 years old and in eighth grade.  For my first hour class I would go and help out in a second grade classroom at the nearby elementary school.  We had taken the kids to look at the books, and that’s when I spotted J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the first time.  I bought it.  I read it.  I loved it.

To this day I’m not really sure what made me buy it in the first place.  It wasn’t exactly my proper reading level.  And where did I get the money?  I guess I’ll never know.  But for some reason I did, and I’ve been a huge Harry Potter fan ever since.  I loved the blending of fantasy with reality.  I loved the quirky characters, strange locales, and the mystery of it all.  I loved the surprise twist at the end of every book!  I was sure Snape was the bad guy, I never dreamed that Ginny would have opened the Chamber of Secrets, and who wasn’t thoroughly convinced Sirius was a murderer?

For the past ten years we’ve been treated to a new Harry Potter film almost annually.  Ten years is a long time.  When the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone first came out in November of 2001, I was fifteen years old.  I was a sophomore in high school.  I saw Prisoner of Azkaban the summer after I graduated, the fourth and fifth installments were released while I was on a mission in Chile, and just last night I found myself in my mid-twenties—with a job and a fiancé—watching the final half of the final film.   I marvel at just how much of my lifespan has been experienced with Harry by my side.

But after the much-anticipated movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was over and the credits were rolling, I was left with a very odd feeling.  Why wasn’t I beaming with sheer joy??  Why wasn’t I screaming my excitement from the rooftops??  I have been obsessing over the movie for a full week on this blog, and yet there I was, riding home from the theater in Salt Lake City, filled with such a melancholy that I feared that perhaps I hated the movie. 

But in reality it was a very good movie.  I just wanted more somehow.

The movie was over all too quickly, partly because it was the shortest Potter film yet (only 130 minutes) and partly because it had a very quick pace.  It also didn’t feel like a complete movie, which I had to remind myself was because it isn’t a complete movie.  Part 2 is the exciting climax that Part 1 was leading up to.  I feel like if I had seen both parts all together, as one cohesive story, I would have left the theater feeling more fulfilled.

However, looking back on it, I feel like the movie got a lot of things right.  The Battle of Hogwarts was done very well, with spells both beautiful and terrifying.  People were dying, heroes were made, and the stakes definitely felt at their highest.  While war was raging all around them, the trio had to find and destroy the last of the horcruxes.  Then Harry ultimately had to confront his fate.

Daniel Radcliffe was on the top of his game as far as acting is concerned.  I thought Harry’s decision to die was handled very well, as was the otherworldly scene in King’s Cross.  The only thing that bothered me a little was his final battle with Voldemort.  I just felt like it was a bit anticlimactic.  Some details were changed from the book, but I’m not necessarily mad at that.  I just don’t understand how simply disarming Voldemort caused him to crumble away like he did.

Alan Rickman’s performance as Snape was hands down the best he’s ever done.  Snape’s death was tragic to see, and I really thought there was a good connection between him and Harry during those final moments of life.  Even before seeing the memories in the Pensieve, I felt like Snape and Harry came to an understanding.  The flashbacks that showed us the full complexity of Snape—his love for Harry’s mother and his true allegiance to Dumbledore—were very moving and in my opinion, artfully done.  Seeing Snape weep over Lily’s dead body was one of the saddest things I have seen onscreen in a long time.

The score by Alexandre Desplat was very good, and I was grateful that he used so much of John Williams’ original score.  Since this movie was like the final bow for all of the characters we’ve come to love, it was very nostalgic to hear bits of “Hedwig’s Theme” and even “Harry’s Theme” which we haven’t heard in a Potter film for many, many years. 

I also thoroughly enjoyed the epilogue, where we were able to see that peace and order has been restored to the wizarding world.  The now grown-up Harry giving words of comfort to his own son was lovely, and I was impressed with the makeup and costuming.  They really did look nineteen years older.

Now, back to the odd numbness I felt after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ended:  It wasn’t about the movie necessarily.  The movie was everything it could have been and more.  I guess I just expected the end of an era to feel more earth-shattering or life-altering or important.  But in the end, it was just me sitting in a dark movie theater.  It was just the close of a book.

Movie Review: A Little Boy's Dream Transformed

Transformers: Dark of the Moon movie poster, image property of Paramount Pictures.

by Jack Garcia

Transformers:  Dark of the Moon AVERAGE

Every little boy playing with his Transformers action figures grew up fantasizing about fast cars and fighting robots and big explosions.  For hours he would orchestrate epic battles in his head, giving his favorite toys cheesy one-liners as they came out victorious.  As that boy entered puberty, the only other thing that preoccupied his mind was a hot girl in stiletto heels and a short skirt.  And now that boy can pay out the nose for a movie ticket to see those two things combined in glorious 3D on the big screen!

Unfortunately, I was never a little boy.  Well, at least not that little boy.  My childhood was spent coloring in my coloring book, watching Disney movies and playing with stuffed animals or dolls.  Quite the opposite of a Michael Bay movie.  That being said, I was surprised that I did not hate Transformers:  Dark of the Moon.  In fact, not only did I “not hate” it, but I actually kind of liked it.  I guess somewhere deep within my psyche there is in fact a little boy who likes big toys that go boom! 

Shia LaBeouf stars as Sam Witwicky, the young man who is on friendly terms with the Autobots and has helped save the world a couple of times already.  He even got a medal from President Obama!  All his achievements still can’t land him a job, but he sure manages to get pretty girlfriends.  Megan Fox is missing from this movie and instead his new girlfriend is played by model Rosie Huntington-Whitely.  The new girl’s name is Carly, and apparently they met at the White House when he was getting his award from the president.  Or something.  Who knows?  They are in love now, okay?

The Decepticons are up to something despicable—they are bad guys, you know—and the government, along with the Autobots, have to stop them.  I don’t want to give the plot away, partly because it’s unimportant in a movie like this and partly because I’m not sure I understood it all anyway.  Just know that it involves the U.S. moon landing in 1969, pillars to a space bridge that can rebuild Cybertron, and an hour long battle in Chicago to save mankind.  Where Transformers really shines is in the special effects.  They are really, really good.  Like really good.  So freaking good.

I thought the action in this movie was a lot of fun to watch; delightfully cheeky at times and sometimes really thrilling.  I don’t normally like these sorts of things, but for a moment I could see the appeal.  Sometimes it’s nice to not have to think at all.  However, I do feel that the movie could have been trimmed down a bit.  With an almost three hour running time, watching so much shooting and yelling and destruction can kind of wear a person out.

The movie’s characters were all underdeveloped, but I find that it’s more excusable in a movie based off a Hasbro toy.  I still managed to like the characters played by Frances McDormand, Patrick Dempsey, John Turturro, and John Malkovich a lot.  They are just really talented actors that can really turn a pile of crap into gold.  I’m also a fan of Shia LaBeouf, who is really good at playing the everyman.  And he’s cute.  He’s probably a big reason why I enjoyed this movie as much as I did.  Because like I said at the beginning, I wasn’t your typical little boy (wink, wink).

Movie Reviews: Crowned in Monte Carlo

Larry Crowne movie poster, image property of Universal Pictures.
Monte Carlo movie poster, image property of Fox 2000 Pictures.

by Jack Garcia

After a morning sanding the deck outside in our cut-off shorts and grubby t-shirts, we decided to take a break and see a movie or two.  All of the male testosterone involved with such manual labor lent itself perfectly to an afternoon of chick flicks, wouldn’t you agree?  Well, we thought so.  We showered and dressed and went to see Larry Crowne and Monte Carlo, leaving Transformers for another day.  Unfortunately, neither movie was particularly phenomenal…

Larry Crowne AVERAGE

Although Larry Crowne looked so promising in the trailer, it turned out to be a bit of a let-down.  It’s a superficial feel-good movie which instead of developing its characters decided to feature ample scooter-riding montages.  A shame since it was co-written, produced, and directed by Tom Hanks himself.

Tom Hanks stars as Larry Crowne, a middle-aged man working at a large department store called U-Mart.  Although he is often Employee-of-the-Month, Crowne is fired because he didn’t go to college.  Recently divorced and now without a job, his finances are in ruins.  He begins to sell all of his things, go into foreclosure, and enroll in the local community college.

There he meets a random group of students, one of which is Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who takes it upon herself to reinvent Larry.  She renames him Lance Corona, initiates him into her scooter gang—who for some reason snap  their fingers as if they are about to rumble with the Sharks and the Jets from West Side Story—and gives him a makeover from head to toe.  There’s nothing romantic between Larry and Talia though, in fact Larry instantly has a crush on his Public Speaking teacher Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts) who has lost her passion for teaching and is in a horrible marriage.

Although Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts are both very enjoyable to watch and often have really funny moments, the problem with Larry Crowne is that the two are hardly on screen at the same time.  From the trailers you see Larry give her a ride on his scooter and you see them share a kiss on her porch and you think to yourself that they obviously must have a lot of interactions leading up to that lovely moment.  Well, they don’t.  That is their entire relationship.  That’s it.  Apart from him sitting in her classroom, that is the only time they ever do anything together.  It just doesn’t make sense.

Also, the movie ends with Larry saying that Ms. Tainot’s class changed his life, but truth is, we never actually saw that either!  Just like the two characters fall for each other without falling for each other, Larry’s life is changed by this miraculous teacher without her ever being a miraculous teacher.  In fact, none of the big changes in his life—like getting a new job at the diner—have anything to do with his Public Speaking class.

Monte Carlo AVERAGE

Disney darling Selena Gomez stars as a recent high school graduate named Grace.  She and her friend Emma (Katie Cassidy) have been saving up money to go on a trip to Paris.  Her parents think it would be a great idea if her stepsister Meg (Leighton Meester) went along, so Grace and Emma begrudgingly bring her with them.  Needless to say by movie’s end the three of them are the best of friends.  Saw that one coming.

While in Paris, Grace is mistaken for a famous heiress named Cordelia Winthrop Scott because there is an uncanny resemblance.  Perhaps because Cordelia is also played by Selena Gomez.  Just a guess.  Anyway, the three girls are now being whisked away to Monte Carlo to enjoy a week of fancy parties, charity auctions and polo-playing.  Not to mention a beautiful hotel suite filled with all of Cordelia’s couture gowns, shoes and jewels.  Film critic Roger Ebert compared this movie to Sex and the City without all the sex.  And with the high fashion and multiple romances that ensue, I can see where he gets that idea.

Grace of course falls for a gorgeous French guy named Theo (Pierre Boulanger), but—oh no!—he thinks she’s Cordelia.  Her biggest drama in the movie is not knowing how to tell him who she really is.  We’ve seen that a hundred times before.  Anybody remember Hilary Duff’s The Lizzie McGuire movie?  Same thing.  Just swap out France for Italy.

However, the other two girls’ storylines were a bit more interesting.  Meg is struggling with the recent death of her mother, and the Australian named Riley (Luke Bracey) who she meets is able to bring her out of her shell to enjoy life again.  Meanwhile Emma is dining with princes on private yachts, but soon realizes that those things aren’t for her.  She comes to appreciate her small town boyfriend Owen (Cory Monteith) who she fought with before leaving on the trip.

For a movie targeted at tween girls, I thought Monte Carlo was decent and at times pretty funny.  I think if they had eliminated the whole mistaken identity aspect of the movie and instead made it about three girls simply enjoying a European vacation, it would have been loads better.