Review: Green Lantern

Grade: C+

Hal Jordan is one of the best test pilots around. One day he quits though after a near death experience after taking on two unmanned A.I. jets. At the same time, an alien known as Abin-Sur, the member of an intergalactic peace squadron, is attacked by a deadly force. He manages to escape and fly to Earth, with his final breaths, he uses his power ring to find a replacement for himself. The ring finds Hal Jordan, giving him the powers of the Green Lantern. The ring takes him to a distant planet that he discovers that the Green Lantern Corps use as their base of operation. There he learns how to use the power of the green lantern to fight evil. Unsure of himself, Hal returns to Earth where he discovers that the great evil that killed Abin-Sur is heading towards Earth to destroy the planet.

Green Lantern is based on the DC comic series of the same name. I wanted so badly for this to be good but unfortunately DC has proved to me once again that the only good movies they make are Batman. This movie really seems to rush things, so much that I feel that you barely get to know any of the characters, and that includes Hal. There are bits of his past that they push out there right away that I feel would have been more effective if they waited until later in the movie to reveal. They also have many characters pop up and they don’t explain their relationship with Hal. While other characters just simply aren’t in it long enough to really know anything about them. On top of that, they maybe should have spent a little bit longer on some of the special effects because some of the characters looked extremely fake. The story itself was ok and somewhat enjoyable but I was still hoping for more. This movie felt like a big advertisement for a possible sequel.

Ryan Reynolds (Buried, The Proposal) plays the lead character of Hal Jordan, who becomes the Green Lantern. I usually really like Ryan Reynolds but in this movie they didn’t really let him be Ryan Reynolds. He looks the part for sure but I like Reynolds because of his great sense of humor, which they didn’t really let out much in this movie. Blake Lively (The Town, Accepted) plays the role of Carol Ferris, the love interest. I like her and she did a good job with the role that she had but again, I don’t feel like they showed enough of their history to make you care. Peter Sarsgaard (Knight and Day, An Education) plays Hector Hammond. While Sarsgaard did a good job with the role, the role itself was weird because he was supposed to be a bad guy but he didn’t really do anything. The movie also features Mark Strong, Tim Robbins and more.

Green Lantern is a decent attempt at a superhero movie but I really feel like it fell short in many places. I can’t really recommend seeing this in theaters, it’s a good one to wait for DVD to rent. Hopefully the sequel they set this movie up for is better. It does have some pretty good moments but not enough for me.

Great quote: “You think that just because I won’t know who you are because I can’t see your cheek bones!?”

Review: Mr. Popper's Penguins

Grade: B

Thomas Popper is great at his job and his job is buying real estate for a firm in New York City. His bosses have a challenge for him that if he completes it, they will make him a partner at the company. Mr. Popper needs to convince the owner of a building in the middle of central park to sell the property to his company. However, Mr. Popper’s life is thrown upside down when he receives a package from his distant father shortly after his death. In the package are six penguins that begin to take over his apartment. At first he tries to find a way to get rid of them but when the penguins begin to act as a way for him to reconnect with his kids who don’t seem to like him too much, Mr. Popper begins to turn his place into an arctic wonderland so the penguins can stay there comfortably. This, of course, begins to cause conflict with his work but allows him to reconnect with his ex-wife as well.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins was a great children’s book that they managed to turn into a very fun kid’s movie. This movie is very kid friendly and does tend to follow many clichés of kids movie i.e. distant father, crazy thing allows him to reconnect with his kids, risks his job for crazy thing etc… However, it still manages to be a lot of fun to watch. The jokes are great and constant and managed to keep me laughing through most of the movie. There are many great gags like the fact they keep the alliteration of the title going throughout the movie via the character of Pippi, Mr. Popper’s assistant. She says as many p words as possible throughout the movie and it is actually pretty consistently funny. The penguins themselves are very entertaining and all have funny little characteristics separating themselves from each other.

Jim Carrey (I Love You, Phillip Morris, Yes Man) plays the titular character of Mr. Popper. I have always been a big fan of Jim Carrey and he is the main reason I was looking forward to this movie. He was great in it and was just as funny as he always is. He really kept me laughing through the whole movie, he managed to be Jim Carrey and also be a very kid friendly character, just great and very enjoyable. Carla Gugino (Sucker Punch, Race to Witch Mountain) plays the role of Amanda, Mr. Popper’s ex-wife. She was pretty enjoyable as well in the movie and made it pretty enjoyable. The movie also features Angela Lansbury, Ophelia Lovibond, Clark Gregg, David Krumholtz, Phillip Baker Hall and more.

Mr. Popper’s Penguin’s is a great kid’s movie that the adults can enjoy as well. So if you’ve got kids or are just looking for a light hearted comedy, I would recommend checking out this movie. It can easily be enjoyed by people of all ages.

Podcast: Episode 7

Oops, forgot to post this Monday. Episode 7 of Shut Up! The Movie's Starting is available for your listening pleasure here.

In episode 7, Michael and Russell discuss the new movie Super 8 (in theaters now) (without spoilers), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (on the Netflix Instant Queue), Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, Jurassic Park, World War Z, It’s Kind of A Funny Story (On DVD), Midnight in Paris (In theaters), Simon Pegg, Danny Glover, Justin Timberlake, remakes and so much more! Please take a listen.

Review: Super 8

Grade: A+

In the summer of 1979, a group of middle school friends are all working together to help make a zombie movie in a small town in Ohio. One night, while shooting at an abandoned train station, the group witnesses a massive train crash and barely escape with their lives. The Air Force shows up immediately to pick up their mysterious cargo and help clean up the wreckage. The next day, strange things begin to happen all around town. First, all the animals seem to have run off in every direction, then people start disappearing and the Air Force begins to act weirder and weirder about what’s going on. The group of kids accidently stumble upon some information and begin their own investigation as to what is truly happening in their town.

Super 8 is the latest movie written and directed by J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Mission Impossible III) and it is amazing. If nothing else, Abrams is the master of marketing; he released a teaser for this movie over a year ago and had me interested immediately. The movie is produced by Steven Spielberg (War of the Worlds, Jurassic Park) and he and Abrams seemed to work brilliantly together in creating this movie. In fact, Abrams clearly is inspired by Spielberg because this movie draws a lot from movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws and E.T. Now, despite that this movie is clearly inspired by those movies, it is an incredibly original movie, and is possibly the most original movie in years. It is just great.

The story is fascinating as well. From the first scene I was completely hooked and couldn’t wait to see how it plays out. The movie really keeps you on the edge of your seat because you never really know what is going on and you are just as curious and suspicious as the kids are. They also don’t show the creature until very late in the movie, which is great. Throughout the movie, you keep seeing flashes and possible glimpses of the creature but you really don’t get a good view of it until somewhat close to the end of the movie. Really, the only complaint that I have about the movie, and it is a minor complaint that I can ignore, and that’s that Abrams really likes lens flares, I knew that before, but there were some scenes with lens flares where they were kind of out of place and unnecessary.

The characters and actors in the movie were great as well. In my opinion, it is extremely hard and very rare that filmmakers find good child actors. Somehow, they found six amazing kids to be in this movie. Every one of the kids in this movie were amazing and you really grow to love all of their characters. Just amazing. The kids, who are the main stars of the movie, are played by Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Ryan Lee, Riley Griffiths, Zach Mills and Gabriel Basso. The rest of the cast was great too and included Kyle Chandler, Noah Emmerich, Jessica Tuck, Joel McKinnon Miller and more.

Super 8 is an amazing movie and a spectacular sci-fi/suspense movie. I would have to say that it is currently my favorite movie of this year and one of the best movies to come out in the last couple movies. I cannot recommend this movie enough. It can play to almost any audience. Everything about this movie is just amazing and I haven’t enjoyed a movie watching experience this much since Scott Pilgrim last year. Seriously, go see this movie, now!

Great quote: “I’m telling you this as your friend; your obsession with fireworks concerns me… and my mom.”

Review: Midnight in Paris

Grade: B+

Gil is on vacation in Paris, France with his fiancée, Inez, and her parents, who are there for business. Gil was a screenwriter who is now trying to write a novel. He instantly falls in love with the city of lights and begins to talk about moving there, much to the chagrin of Inez. One night, slightly frustrated, Gil decides to take a walk around the city before heading back to the hotel. However, he gets lost and winds up in a part of Paris he is not familiar with. At midnight, while he is trying to find a way back to the hotel, a mysterious car pulls up and the people inside insist that he join them for a night of fun. He hesitantly agrees to join them, next he finds himself at a party where he meets F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso and more. He comes to find out that he has somehow wound up in the 1920s. It is there that he meets Adriana, a beautiful woman and mistress of Picasso’s. He decides to go back every night where he continues his odd affair as he also begins to question his relationship with Inez.

Midnight in Paris is the latest movie written and directed by Woody Allen (Whatever Works, Vicky Cristina Barcelona). I have to say, I didn’t used to care much for his movies, except for a few of his older ones, but over the last couple of years, he has really been winning me over. This movie is definitely one of his better movies of the last several years. It tells a very interesting story and is loaded with great characters. Gil forms a close relationship with a robust Hemingway and encounters many other great writers and artists of the late 19th and early 20th century. I found the whole time travel aspect of this movie very interesting. It shows Gil living in a time and place that he considers ideal. The whole story is very entertaining and funny at times but I wouldn’t really call this a comedy, it’s just a very lighthearted movie.

Owen Wilson (Hall Pass, How Do You Know) plays the role of Gil, a writer struggling to finish his first novel. I haven’t really like many of Wilson’s roles/performances for the last couple years but he did a great job and was excellent casting for this movie. He is of course playing the part that Woody Allen himself would play if he were younger and he manages to play it very well. Rachel McAdams plays the role of Inez, Gil’s fiancée. She was pretty good in this role and really managed to portray the character very well. Marion Cotillard (Inception, Public Enemies) plays the role of Adriana, Picasso’s lover. The movie has an amazing supporting cast that includes Kathy Bates, Kurt Fuller, Michael Sheen, Alison Pill, Tom Hiddleston, Corey Stoll, Adrian Brody and more.

Midnight in Paris is a very fun movie and one of Woody Allen’s better movie’s, in my opinion. It is a lot of fun to see all these great writers and painters interacting with the main character. It is a very charming movie and is definitely worth watching if you are a fan of Woody Allen at all. It’s a little bizarre at first but I quickly grew to love its quirkyness.

Review: X-Men: First Class

Grade: A+

In 1944 in Poland, a young Erik Lehnsherr is forced to use his mysterious powers in order to move a coin by a Nazi officer who then kills his mother. At the same time in Westchester, New York a young Charles Xavier encounters a mysterious blue girl named Raven with the ability to change her appearance. 18 years later, the CIA is investigating possible communist activity when agent Moira MacTaggert witnesses a woman turn into diamonds and a man teleport hundreds of miles in an instant. She decides to track down Charles Xavier, who is now a genetics expert, and asks for his help. At a meeting with top government agents, Charles and Raven out themselves as mutants then help them track a man by the name of Sebastian Shaw, who is attempting to start World War III. It is there that Charles and Erik meet for the first time and decide to work together in order to find other mutants and to stop Shaw.

X-Men: First Class is a great addition to the X-Men franchise. It manages to allude to the other X-Men movies while creating a whole new story and movie experience. I was worried about this movie at first because I kept hearing about how Fox was rushing this movie into production, which is rarely a good thing. However, they hired director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, Stardust) and it seems as though he managed to pull together a great movie. In this movie we find out how Charles Xavier, aka Professor X, and Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto, first meet and become friends. You can’t think of this movie as a prequel to the other X-Men movies because while some parts of the movie play right into those films they also change just as much in order to create a new series of movies. The movie brings back many of our favorite mutants from previous movies and introduces some new ones. It is a great movie and I love how it plays with the history of the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis.

James McAvoy (The Conspirator, Wanted) plays the role of Charles Xavier. I have always like McAvoy but I have to say, he is excellent in this movie, it might be my favorite role of his thus far. He plays a young Professor X perfectly by being a great leader for the rest of the mutants, teaching them how to master their powers, while also being very intelligent and insightful. Michael Fassbender (Centurion, 300) plays the role of Erik Lehnsherr. I haven’t seen much of his work but he is spectacular in this movie, extremely enjoyable. The scenes where he is training to better control and use his powers are really great stuff. Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) plays the role of Raven, a young Mystique. She is relatively new to acting in movie, but she is quickly on her way to being one of the greatest actresses of her generation. She is amazing in this movie and really manages to pull the role off extremely well. Kevin Bacon (Super, Death Sentence) plays the role of Sebastian Shaw. He has been making a bit of a comeback lately and I wholeheartedly support it. He is great as Shaw, truly evil and devious. The movie also features performances by Rose Byrne, Oliver Platt, January Jones, Jason Flemyng, Zoe Kravitz, Nicholas Hoult, Lucas Till and more including some awesome cameos.

X-Men: First Class is an excellent and extremely enjoyable movie. You don’t have to have seen the other films in order to understand it either. I would have to say that this movie is right on par with the first X-Men but isn’t quite as good as X2, in my opinion. I for one can’t wait to see more X-Men movies and stories like this one, which won’t be too far off as they have mentioned that they want this to be the start of a new trilogy.

Great quote: “I have found that true focus lies between anger and serenity.”

Don't forget to listen to Shut Up! The Movie's Starting, the official podcast of Cucu for Movies.

Podcast: Episode 6

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

In this episode, Michael and Russell discuss X-Men First Class, Wet Hot American Summer, the trailers for Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Starship Troopers (we are 6 for 6 on this movie), Smurfing, Kevin Bacon, Film on the Rocks, the awesomeness that is Michael Ironside and more!!!

Review: Kung Fu Panda 2

Grade: B

Po the Panda, also known as the Dragon Warrior, is happy with his new role in life as a kung fu master. He has been training with the Furious Five, Tigress, Monkey, Mantis, Crane and Viper, in the Valley of Peace since they defeated the evil Tai Lung. However, lately there have been a number of incidents of bandits raiding villages and stealing all the metal they can find. It turns out they all work for Shen, a peacock who was banished from his family and palace when he started using gunpowder for evil doings, who has been devising a plan to reclaim his family home and rule over the city. Po and the Furious five must team up with some new kung fu allies in order to defeat Shen and his powerful weapons that seem to destroy anything and anyone it their path.

Kung Fu Panda is the sequel to the awesome Dreamworks Animation movie, Kung Fu Panda. The original movie was excellent and very well done so I was actually pretty excited for this sequel. This movie is actually a very good continuation of the story from the first movie. This one keeps the action going and is loaded with plenty of jokes. It is very entertaining but it’s not quite as good as the first, close though. One of the things I really liked about the story for this movie was that they finally showed where Po came from and showed his “origin story” if you will. They finally explained how a goose could have a Panda for a son.

It was great to see all those great characters back. Jack Black (Orange County, The Holiday) does the voice of Po the Panda. He is perfect for this role because if Jack Black was an animal, it’d probably be a panda. He does a great job with this voice and you can really tell he gets into this character. Sadly, I felt like everybody else in the movie was hardly there, the movie was mostly Po and Shen with other people chiming in every once in a while with something. Gary Oldman (Harry Potter, The Dark Knight) does the voice of Shen. If anybody could make a peacock sound evil, it’s Gary Oldman. The movie also features the voices of Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogan, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Dustin Hoffman, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Danny McBride, Michelle Yeoh, James Hong and more.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is a very well made sequel and is definitely worth watching if you are a fan of the first one. It really manages to hold up to the first movie. I am, however, worried about the rumor I heard that Dreamworks wants to make five more. I do have to say, the 3D is not worth it, just go see the 2D version, save some money.

Podcast: Episode 5

Head over to http://sutmspod.wordpress.com/ to listen to the latest episode of Shut Up! The Movie's Starting, the official podcast of Cucu For Movies. In this episode Michael and Russell talk about Bridesmaids, Kung Fu Panda 2, The Hangover Part II, Ben Affleck and They Live!

Review: The Hangover Part II

Grade: D+

Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug are back and it’s been a couple years after Doug’s infamous bachelor party in Las Vegas. Now Stu is getting ready to get married to his new fiancée, Lauren, in Thailand, where most of her family lives. Stu has every intention of keeping this event as low key and calm as possible, so much so that he has reduced his “bachelor party” down to a brunch with Phil and Doug and he has not invited Alan to the wedding. However, Doug’s wife convinces Stu to allow Alan to come along. However, a couple nights before the wedding, the four guys, along with Lauren’s younger brother, Teddy, decide to have a drink on the beach next to a bonfire. Phil, Stu and Alan wake up the next morning in a mysterious, grungy hotel room somewhere in Bangkok and Teddy has gone missing. The gang must retrace their steps in order to find Teddy before the wedding and hope that Lauren’s father doesn’t find out.

The Hangover Part II is, of course, the sequel to the original, great and hilarious Hangover a couple years back. They announced this sequel shortly after The Hangover hit theaters and exploded at the box office. I wanted so bad for this movie to be just as good, or at least nearly as good. I went into this theater with hope that it would be decent. I was let down. Sadly, if you have seen The Hangover, you have seen Part II already. This movie hits ALL of the exact same notes that the first one did. It seems as though writer/director Todd Phillips simply took the script from the first movie and changed the location to Thailand. Both movies start with Phil calling Doug’s wife to explain they won’t make it to the wedding, both have the night start out with the group making a toast, both have them wake up in a hotel room with an odd animal that is integral to the story and what happened the night before, both include Stu being disfigured in some way, both have Stu singing a song, both involve Phil going to the hospital, basically, both movies are the same movie. Because of this, Part II is extremely predictable and the jokes are tired because we’ve seen them before. The only thing new that Part II brings to the table is some stereotypical (and borderline racist at times) Thailand joke.

The movie stars Bradley Cooper (The A-Team, Limitless) as Phil, the “cool” one of the group. I really like Cooper and he is pretty consistently funny and I would like to say that he was funny in this, but sadly as I mentioned before, he was just recycling old jokes. Ed Helms (Cedar Rapids, TVs The Office) plays the role of Stu, the straight laced one who is now getting married. Ed Helms managed to be pretty funny in this movie, his over the top reactions can really be hilarious. Zack Galifianakis (Due Date, It’s Kind of a Funny Story) plays the role of Alan, the dumb one. Galifianakis is absolutely hilarious but in this movie, it was almost too much. His character worked in the first one because he was essentially just tagging along and would randomly pipe in and say or do something funny, in Part II I feel they tried to make him more of a leading man and his character really only works in those small doses. Justin Bartha (National Treasure, Holly Rollers) plays the role of Dough, the one left out. I really like Bartha and think that he can be absolutely hilarious given the right opportunity and it makes me sad that, once again, he was not given that opportunity in this movie. In the first movie, he is the one that is lost the whole time and in Part II, he is fine and back at the resort with everyone else. The movie also features Ken Jeong, Jeffrey Tambor, Mason Lee, Jamie Chung, Sasha Barrese, Nick Cassavetes and more including an awesome cameo which I don’t want to spoil because it was one of the more thoroughly enjoyable parts of the movie.

The Hangover Part II is sadly mostly recycled jokes from the first movie and it really just feels like and excuse for Todd Phillips and crew to go on vacation in Thailand for a month or so. There was nothing original in this movie and because of that, none of the jokes were really all that funny. They tried to push the envelope in a couple areas but really just ended up creating some awkward and just plain gross moments. Prediction: they will be announcing a third one soon that will take place in Amsterdam.

Great quote: “Are you serious Phil? Even back in the U.S.?”