Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Short Review: Wanderlust

Grade: B+

After a couple lose their jobs and apartment in New York they decide to try living in an intentional community where free love rules.

Much funnier than I thought. A pretty good movie with a decent story and message.

Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux, Alan Alda, Malin Akerman, and many more.

Attention span must last 1 hour 38 minutes to enjoy.

Short Review: Act of Valor

Grade: C+

A Navy SEALs team embark on a covert mission to stop a terrorist plot.

The action and combat scenes are great. Some obnoxious camera work. Horrible acting.

Stars active duty Navy SEALs and more.

Attention span must last 1 hour 51 minutes to enjoy.

Podcast: Episode 43

Head over to sutmspod.wordpress.com to hear the latest episode of Shut Up! The Movie's Starting, the official podcast of Cucu for Movies.

In this episode Michael and Russell discuss the movies Wanderlust (in theaters now), Act of Valor (in theaters now) and Toy Story 3. They also talk, at length, about the 84th Academy Awards, The Rock, Moneyball, Midnight in Paris, The Artist, the rest of the best picture nominees, their love/hate relationship with the Oscars, how uninteresting the ceremony was, they need to pick a better host, the few funny/entertaining moments of the ceremony and so very much more.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Short Review: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Grade: B-

The Ghost Rider is back to protect a young boy and his mother from the devil.

The action scenes are great. Slow at times and too much exposition. Would be better rated R. Neveldine and Taylor do great directing, if only they had more creative control. Cage is awesome and has some great "freak out" moments.

Nicolas Cage, Idris Elba, Violante Placido, CiarĂ¡n Hinds and more.

Attention span must last 1 hour 35 minutes to enjoy.

Short Review: This Means War

Grade: B

Two best friends (and spies) date the same woman and compete for her affection.

Pine and Hardy are very funny. Pretty entertaining. More rom-com-y than I would have liked. Not as much action as the trailer implies.

Tom Hardy, Chris Pine Reese Witherspoon, Chelsea Handler and more.

Attention span must last 1 hour 38 minutes to enjoy.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Podcast: Episode 42

Head over to sutmspod.wordpress.com to hear the latest episode of Shut Up! The Movie's Starting, the official podcast of Cucu for Movies.

In this episode Michael and Russell discuss the movies This Means War (in theaters now), Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (in theaters now), The African Queen (available on Netflix Streaming) and Up. The two also talk about Star Trek (2009), Colombiana, High Fidelity, Tree of Life, Bad planned sequels, Bad trailers, Trailers that lie, Zoe Saldana is awesome and so very much more.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Short Review: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

Grade: A

Sean receives a coded message from his grandfather saying that the mysterious island from Jules Verne's book is real.

Surprisingly fun. Very funny. Extremely entertaining. Anything that encourages kids to pick up a book is good in my world.

Josh Hutcherson, Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Vanessa Hudgens, Luis Guzman and more.

Attention span must last 1 hour 34 minutes to enjoy.

Short Review: Safehouse

Grade: B-

A young CIA agent must look after a rogue agent while people from all sides are trying to kill him for the information he is secretly holding.

Fun action movies with a decent plot. Nothing really new or too exciting with this one.

Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleeson and more.

Attention span must last 1 hour 55 minutes to enjoy.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Podcast: Episode 41

Head over to sutmspod.wordpress.com to hear the latest episode of Shut Up! The Movie's Starting, the official podcast of Cucu for Movies.

In this episode Michael and Russell discuss the movies Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (in theaters), Safe House (in theaters), The Double (available on Netflix Streaming) and more. They also talk about Real Steel, Bunny and the Bull, Grandma’s Boy, The Trailers for The Bourne Legacy, Cold Light of Day and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, surprising comedies/movies, Machete Kills news, Candyland: The Movie, Ken Marino (Can’t remember his name on the podcast), Horrible Ideas for Remakes and so much more.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Short Review: Chronicle

Grade: B+

Essentially a "found footage" superhero origin story.

Surprisingly well put together. Entertaining and fun. Good story with decent writing.

Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan and more.

Attention span must last 1 hour 24 minutes to enjoy.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Podcast: Episode 40

Head over to sutmspod.wordpress.com to hear the latest episode of Shut Up! The Movie's Starting, the official podcast of Cucu for Movies.

The Movie’s Starting. In this episode Michael and Russell discuss Chronicle (in theaters) and Smiley Face (Netflix Streaming) as well as Ratatouille and A Knight’s Tale. They also discuss Ferris Bueller, Stardust, Easy A, Say Anything…, Watchmen, Another Earth, This Means War will be a guilty pleasure, Movies that don’t explain everything and that’s ok, Star Wars Uncut, A serial killer who kills puppets movie, vomit-cam movies, How teenagers would use super powers, movies that consider girls with ponytails ugly and so very much more.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

5 Reasons a Sequel to Ferris Bueller's Day Off Won't Work

With the release of Honda's new super bowl ad, featuring Matthew Broderick reprising his role as Ferris Bueller, the talk of a Ferris Bueller's Day Off sequel has started up once again. While I list Ferris Bueller as one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time, I really do not want to see a sequel to this classic comedy. On top of that, there are a number of reasons a sequel simply won't work.

1) This one is really just for fun but, cracked.com and I agree, the events and character of Ferris Bueller are entirely a piece of Cameron's imagination. Cameron lives in a loveless and abusive family and as a coping mechanism created Ferris in his mind. Ferris is everything Cameron in not; has a loving family, beloved by his entire school, outgoing, ambitious and to top it all off, is dating the hottest girl in school. Ferris is to Cameron as Tyler Durden is to Edward Norton in Fight Club. It is my belief that there is a scene missing showing Cameron doing all the things Ferris did.

2) Fun conspiracy theories aside, My biggest problem with the idea of a Ferris Bueller sequel is that would mean Ferris is working a job that he doesn't like and wants to skip out on. If we learned anything from the original it is that Ferris should be running the world. Ok, not literally. I believe that Ferris grows up to be Richard Branson by way of Steve Jobs/Bill Gates. We learn that he is good with computers and I like to think that he creates some sort of program or computer that revolutionizes the industry. He makes billions and now uses his money to do crazy things all over the world whenever and wherever he wants. On any given day Ferris could be sky diving over his private island only to hop on a jet ski with a topless model (or Sloane, I'll discuss that next) then buying a Ferrari because he can. Does this sound like the sort of existence that Ferris needs a day off from?

3) Ferris is madly in love with Sloane and says he is going to marry her. I don't doubt this but one of two things will happen. a) He will be too wild for Sloane to handle and they won't stay married long or b) he and Sloane will live happily ever after but with no children as that will only slow them down. A studio will of course want him to have kids and I don't think Ferris is the parental type as I described in #2. I, however, do personally like to think that they stay married and jet around the world together crazy in love.

4) Cameron also should have a job that he enjoys and a loving family, in other words, a life he also doesn't want a day off from. I view Cameron to grow up and be a business executive, most likely for Ferris' technology company, and that he actually really loves that life. He and Ferris work together and hang out/go on vacations all the time together and, again, therefore never need a "day off."

5) Ferris Bueller's Day Off is about being in high school and being so consumed with trying to finish that and figure out what to do with the rest of your life that you don't take time to just enjoy life. It's a great movie and you could make a version of this with adults (and to a point they do all the time) just not with these characters. If they make a sequel where Ferris and Cameron have desk jobs they hate where they sit in a cubicle all day, I believe that ruins everything they built in the first movie for these characters.