Movie Review #8: The Switch

By Eva Rinaldi (Jason Bateman)
 [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

Who WOULDN'T want Jennifer Aniston as their longtime best friend? 

Seriously.

It's a pretty good question, right? 

Apparently, Jason Bateman was a little blind at the fact that he had JENNIFER ANISTON AS HIS BEST FRIEND and refused to acknowledge the sheer awesomeness of the situation. But it's okay because it's only a movie and he wouldn't do something like that in real life...We can only hope that he hasn't....

ACTING

Jennifer Aniston = automatic Oscar boost. She's just so glamourous. 

Jason Bateman = awkward guy you have a crush on even though you have no idea why. Automatic Oscar boost.

Plus Thomas Robinson (the little tyke) was just so nerdy I almost adopted him from Jen A. 

It was just so freaking FUNNY. I couldn't stop laughing at how...ungraceful the whole thing was. The whole story line was rather tangled, yet was entertaining at the same time. That's how good the duo was!

Total Oscars: 3.5 

SET/COSTUMES & MAKEUP

By Vennyschull (Own work)
 [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

WELL, it was shot live in NYC (pretty cool...and common). It was pretty modern day, but I have to admit that the decorating for the fertility party was rather hilarious. It's purely indescribable (mostly because I just CAN'T describe the doodads without making it seem entirely disgusting). 

Total Oscars: 3.5

STORY LINE

Kassie (Jennifer Aniston) wants to have a baby before her lady parts run out so she decides to do insemination. She throws a party and lets her donor, Roland, do his business, but her jealous best friend, Wally (Jason Bateman), sabotages the whole thing. Kassie gets preggers then moves away to raise her kid, Sebastian. She and her kid come back a few years later to NYC. Wally screws everything up, Roland is entirely charming and obnoxious, and Sebastian ends up admiring Wally. 

Total Oscars: 3.5

OSCAR SUM: 10. 5

I honestly couldn't stop laughing throughout the whole thing. It's one of those films you watch once and never do it again but tell all your friends about anyways. 

Movie Critique # 6: North Country

College has some perks to it.

Besides the fact that I am getting a head start on my education, some of the classes are pretty interesting. One of the ones that I am signed up for is a women's studies class. I figured it would be a worthwhile elective to take because I am going to be in an industry all about people after all.

One of the MAJOR perks is that I get to watch movies for homework. Now that I can deal with.
This particular film is called North Country. 

Although I would recommend not watching it on Valentine's Day because it's a movie about severe sexual harassment.

Don't do what I did. It makes you feel alone.

ACTING
Charlize Theron is a cray cray lady. Not because she was standing up for herself, but because she was melodramatic about everything. It was seriously frightening. I thought she was way too skinny and her teeth were too white to be working in a mine, but that's just me.
Total Oscars: 3 (the teeth and the perfect shag of her hair in every scene bugged me)

SET/MAKEUP
While there was a lot of soot and smear paint involved in the movie, I felt as if some things were too clean to be there. The counters were too clean in the kitchens and the clothes too perfectly clinging to the women's bodies. I did like how they built the dispensary belts and the towers of the mill. That was pretty cool! I give them props for that.
Total Oscars: 3

STORY LINE
Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron) has to leave her abusive husband to save her and her children's lives. She ends up getting a job at the tactonite mill that her father has worked for most of his life. She's one of the handful of women selected to work at the mill, but she goes through unbearable ridicule and scrutiny from her male colleagues. She ends up filing a lawsuit against the mill because she was not being respected by anyone (not even her father), and her rights as a woman were not being protected. The movie is about her journey of taking the complaint to court.
Total Oscars: 3 (it was a lot to take in)

Oscar Sum: 9

The movie was wayyyyy too repulsive in my opinion. Did I like it? Yes, but it was really depressing to watch and I felt uncomfortable watching these women be tortured as they were. I suppose that was the whole point, but it still makes you paranoid after.

I wouldn't recommend watching this if you are around children or live with much older individuals. The language and sexual content is going to get people riled up. Be careful.

Movie Critique # 4: Argo

By Gene Bromberg (benaffleck7-2-1)
[CC-BY-SA-2.0
 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)],
 via Wikimedia Commons

I never thought Ben Affleck could do it. I never took him super seriously as an actor because he just had average roles in average movies, and he never really did anything out of his safety zone.

Boy, was I wrong.

Argo was effing AMAZING.


ACTING
Ben Affleck was the bomb.com. I cannot even explain how amazing he was. He gets an Oscar for growing out his hair.
All of the other people in it were pretty impressive too. Alan Arkin and John Goodman were highly entertaining (*cough Alan Arkin created the greatest one liner EVER cough* You'll know when you see it yourself!).
The actors playing the fugitives were mind blowing as well. I hope none of them were "method" actors because they will NOT be the same after this movie.
Total Oscars: 4

SET DESIGN/MAKEUP

By CIA [Public domain or Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

I liked how retro everything was. The hair for the women was fabulous and I have never seen so many men successfully rock thick 'staches. Seriously awesome! They shot a bunch of stuff on location in some country somewhere (it would be pretty hard to build an entire embassy, so I'm guessing they found a building they could use somewhere). Just looking at some of the places they were in gave you chills down your spine because you thought you were gonna die too!
Total Oscars: 4

STORY LINE
Basically, Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) is a super legit CIA agent that manages to come up with a way to get these Americans out of a hostile Iran. The problem is that the U.S. govt. doesn't really want to go and get them because it would be a very sticky political situation, so Tony Mendez creates a fake film company, makes all of the U.S. fugitives pretend like they are scouting for a location for shooting the film, and has to make them pass Iranian security without tipping anyone off that they are Americans impersonating Canadian filmmakers.
Total Oscars: 5

Oscar Sum: 13

I am not even kidding about the "feel like you're gonna die while watching this." I was in suspense the entire length of the film and that is saying something!
If not, just go and see it for Alan Arkin. He's glorious.

Movie Critique #1: Les Mis

By Photo: Andreas Praefcke (Self-photographed) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I'll admit it: I cried when I watched it. There were tears streaming down my face, I let the emotions get the best of me, and Anne Hathaway was absolutely breathtaking.

I saw Les Miserables on opening day. Now most of the time, that is a HUGE mistake. Almost every seat was taken and there are often emotionally unstable female counterparts that get riled up or start bawling whenever there is a plot twist.

But this time, I am glad I went on opening day. There were no interruptions, the audience was silent the ENTIRE TIME (which is completely rare considering there are a lot of small children where I live), and all of the audience members were completely drawn to this film.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a WINNER!!!!

But before I begin on the judging, let's create a system of awards, shall we?

The movies will be judged in OSCARS (fitting, no?). I will be judging three aspects of the films: acting, set/costumes & makeup, and story line. There will be a total of 5 Oscars in each category and the maximum score is 15 Oscars. Simple enough, right? Well then, LET'S BEGIN!

ACTING
Having Hugh Jackman in the film automatically gives it an Oscar. He's talented, got the voice of an angel, and he's nice to look at. Anne Hathaway made me bawl, so that deserves some credit! The rest of the cast I was impressed with, except for Amanda Seyfreid. I love her, I do I do, but her part was WAY too high for her register. She sounded shrill in some areas, and that's not good when she's been cast in a main role.
Total Oscars: 3.5 (it would have been a 4, but I can't get over A.S.'s shrilling)

SET/COSTUMES:
Sheer genius, the set designer is.
I was blown away by the details put into the set. There was shredded wood on the floors from explosions, blood staining the set floor, even the hospital looked like a good place to die in. I mean, really?! How is that even possible?!
Total Oscars: 4

STORY LINE
It's quite simple, despite people's belief. I'll lay it out for you: Jean ValJean is an escaped prisoner who manages to become the mayor of a town. Fantine is trying to make money to pay people to take care of her little girl, Cosette. Fantine loses her job and ends up becoming a prostitute and she catches a nasty bug and dies. Her dying wish was for Cosette to be taken care of. So Jean ValJean does. Cosette grows up to be uber pretty and falls in love with Marius, a rebel of the French Revolution. But Cosette and Jean have to move around a lot because his old enemy, JaVer, is out for his hide. Then the rest of the story is about the Revolution and how Marius and Cosette find a way to get back together.

Voila, the story.
Total Oscars: 4 (would have been 5, but the film was wayyyyyyy too long)

Oscar Sum: 11.5 Oscars

Go out and see it if you can! It is a GREAT film, but for the love of holy cheese, buy a coke or something because you will need caffeine to keep you awake! It's almost three hours long!

Au revoir!

Katie

Little Golden Man

I was almost going to quit blogging. School has started up again and my schedule leaves little time for me to blog, letalone eat. I don't eat dinner with my family anymore and I have no social life beyond my classmates. I just do NOT have time to do anything!

I was sooooo close to shutting this puppy down, but then I realized something.

I'm going to need to take a break from studying every once in a while. So why don't I do it by blogging about something I know about?

Why don't I blog about movies?

I saw a lot of films over winter break and my mother got me this set of "100 best family movies" a Christmas or two ago. The DVDs have just been sitting in the family reservoir of digital novelties untouched! Plus award shows are coming up and it would be cool to hopefully watch a few before everything goes underway. .

I'll try and get one done a week, starting this weekend (hopefully). Let's hope I can get this show rolling (get it?).  

Hasta Luego!


Photo credit: MacKay, Harvey. "Academy-Awards-Oscar-201011." Image. harveymackay.com 15 Nov. 2011. 10 Jan. 2013.< http://www.harveymackay.com/better-humble-than-stumble/academy-awards-oscar-201011/>

Movie Magic

Just recently I went to the theatre here to see a movie called "Life of Pi." All that I can say is just WOW. It is purely amazing! It is absolutely stunning.

There was this one scene where Pi (the boy) and the tiger (Richard Parker) were in the middle of the ocean at night and there were jellyfish everywhere! The water was glowing.

SERIOUSLY GLOWING.

And then on top of that this whale comes out of nowhere! It almost looked as if the whale jumped out of that liquid that is found in glow sticks. I was mesmerized. Especially since I have a fascination with bright objects....

Another movie I am dying to see is called "Silver Linings Playbook." It has three of my favorite Hollywood performers in it, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and Robert DeNiro. I think the whole concept of that movie is ingenious. The plot just seems so real life and perverse at the same time.

I suppose I'll have to persuade my family to let the movie mogul take over next time we go! :)