Short Podcast: Ep 10

Available here.

Larry Crowne, TF3, Special, Mallrats, PotA (1968)

Short Review: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Grade: A

A young man struggles to find a job during a time of war.

Lots of big shiny robots blowing stuff up. Fun action movie. What do you want? It's a movie based on an 80's cartoon that's sole purpose was to sell the toy it was based on.

Directed by Michael Bay. Stars Shia LaBeouf, a Victoria's Secret model and many awesome random actors and some great voice talent.

Your attention span must last 2 hours 40 minutes to enjoy.

Podcast: Episode 10

Episode 10 of Shut Up! The Movie's Starting is available to listen to by clicking here.

In this episode, Michael and Russell discuss the movies Larry Crowne and Transformers: Dark of the Moon that are currently playing in theaters now. They also discuss Special, which is available on Netflix Instant Watch. The two also talk about Mallrats and Beneath the Planet of the Apes as well as some news in regards to Red State, Writer/Director Kevin Smith’s latest movie coming soon, Shakespeare movies, Leonardo DiCaprio and more!

Short Review: Larry Crowne

Grade: A-

Tom Hanks plays Larry Crowne, a middle aged man who goes back to school.

Fun, light-hearted comedy good for all ages.

Also stars Julia Roberts, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, George Takei, Wilmer Valderrama, Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, Pam Grier, Bryan Cranston and more.

Must have attention span lasting 1hr 39min to enjoy

Full Review: Larry Crowne

Grade: A-

Larry Crowne is a middle-aged Navy veteran who has been working at a retail store for years. One day, he is let go because management feels that since he never went to college, there is no reason to keep him there. After failing to find a job anywhere else, Larry decides to enroll in speech and economics classes at a local community college. There he meets Talia, a girl with a bit of a free spirit who invites him to join her scooter “gang” and begins to change his style and outlook on life. He also meets Mercedes Tainot, who teaches the speech class he’s in and begins to form a relationship with.

Larry Crowne is a fun and light-hearted comedy about dealing with being middle aged, in a way. I was surprised to see so many people don’t like this movie because I found it very entertaining and really funny too. The movie is co-written, directed and stars Tom Hanks (The Da Vinci Code, Charlie Wilson’s War) who did a great job on all counts. The movie’s writing is fun and full of wit that will keep you laughing and interested throughout the whole movie. The movie has a great summery look to it that is fun to watch. Hanks’ portrayal of the titular character is great and full of charisma. Larry Crowne is hopelessly optimistic and full of charm. The man seems to be able to befriend anybody.

The movie also stars Julia Roberts (Eat Pray Love, Duplicity) as Mercedes Tainot, who teaches the speech class at the community college. I usually don’t like Roberts, but I found her to be really good and very entertaining in this movie. Gugu Mbatha-Raw (TV’s Undercovers) plays the role of Talia, a very spirited girl who teaches Larry to be a little more hip. She was great in this movie, really fun to watch and just full of energy. I loved her character and I loved her acting in this movie, I really hope to see more from her soon. The movie also features George Takei, Wilmer Valderrama, Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, Pam Grier, Bryan Cranston and so many more.

Larry Crowne is a great light-hearted summer comedy that, even though it is aimed at the middle-aged crowd, I believe it can be enjoyed by people of all ages. This movie really surprised me and turned out to be a lot of fun.

Great Quote: “They are called smart phones but only dummies use them in my class.”

The Twitter Generation

So I’ve been writing my reviews and whatnot for 2 and a half years at this point and Russell and I have been doing the podcast for 2 months. I feel like I keep my reviews brief and I give a grade at the top to indicate right away what I thought of the movie. Yet I can’t seem to get many people to care. Russell and I have fun on that podcast and try to make it entertaining, yet we can’t seem to get more than 2 or 3 people to listen to them. I’ve been having an ongoing discussion with people about it and I’ve come to a tragic conclusion:

Thanks to smart phones, texting, twitter, facebook and social media in general, people, specifically the next generation, have absolutely NO attention span. I keep being told that people don’t have 2 minutes to read a review, so they keep asking me (then I spend 2 minutes just repeating my review), this is why I started the podcast, that way you can put it on your iPod and listen wherever you are, but still I’m told people have no time. This is probably why I meet more and more people all the time who say “I don’t read.” That is a depressing statement but social media and texting have made it so more and more people are losing interest in anything with more than 140 characters in it, so a book seems like trying to jump to the moon to these people. It really is no wonder that print is dead.

Well, I would like to try to make this little venture of mine somewhat successful and if I could make money off of it I would be extremely happy. So unfortunately this means that I have to stop raging against the darkness apparently give in. So, starting now I will offer two options in terms of the reviews and possibly consider doing the same for the podcast. I will now post both a full movie review as well as a attention span deficient review that will be much shorter, only give very short bullet points and hopefully can get more people to “read” them. I am also considering cutting a short version of the podcast, sadly this means it will be devoid of jokes, details and everything that makes it worth listening to in my opinion. So I’m going to give this a try and see if I can drive more people my way. Funny thing is, I doubt many people have the attention span to even read this whole article… makes me weep for future generations.

Review: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Grade: A

It’s been a couple years since the Autobots defeated The Fallen and chased the Decepticons off of Earth. In that time, the Autobots have been working with the government on covert assignments and making sure that the Decepticons do not return. When they learn of an Autobot spacecraft that crashed on the moon in the early 60’s, launching the space race, Optimus Prime and the others race to the moon to retrieve its contents and the ship’s captain, and former Autobot leader, Sentinel Prime. They quickly learn that the Decepticons have been hiding out on Earth and are trying to obtain the mysterious cargo from the ship that will allow them to destroy Earth once and for all as well as rebuild their home planet.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the latest chapter in the Transformer franchise. I will start out by saying that it is definitely better than the second movie, Revenge of the Fallen, but not quite as good as the first. This one actually has a pretty decent story and the action is great. I am thankful that, while it does still have some funny moments, they didn’t try to load this one with tons of stupid humor like they did with the second one. Director Michael Bay (The Rock, Armageddon) actually managed to put together an interesting story and you really feel for a lot of the characters. He loaded it with tons of great action and you spend the last hour of the movie hanging on to the edge of your seat. It is definitely the most intense movie of the series and the third act is actually kind of emotional at times. My only complaint is that they could have trimmed up a couple scenes, but nothing major. It is a long movie but it keeps you interested the whole time so you don’t really mind.

The movie stars Shia LaBeouf (Eagle Eye, Disturbia) plays the role of Sam Witwicky, a close friend of the Autobots since they first arrived on Earth. LaBouf is his usual tolerable self who manages to play terrified very well. He has some decent moments in the movie but overall I just don’t care for him that much. New comers Rosie Huntington-Whitely plays the role of Carly, Sam’s new girlfriend. She is Megan Fox’s replacement after being kicked off the movie and is really just there for eye-candy, and in that sense, she succeeds. Josh Duhamel (Life as We Know It, When in Rome) is back as Lennox. He has a decent part in this movie and manages to be pretty good in it. John Turturro (Secret Window, Barton Fink) is back as Simmons, a Transformer expert. Turturro is always enjoyable and is pretty good and funny in this movie. The movie also features Tyrese Gibson, Frances McDormand, Patrick Dempsey, John Malkovich, Kevin Dunn, Julie White, Alan Tudyk, Ken Jeong and more and it features the voices of Peter Cullen, Hugo Weaving, Leonard Nemoy, James Remar and more.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a very enjoyable movie and is a lot of fun to watch. It is also a great ending to these movies. If you have enjoyed the first two… or at least the first one, then you should really head out and check this movie out. I will say, even though I’m not a fan of 3D, it is pretty good in this movie and seeing this movie in IMAX 3D is well worth it and is the way I recommend seeing it.

Podcast: Episode 9

Episode 9 of Shut Up! The Movie's Starting, the official podcast of Cucu for Movies, is now available by clicking here!

In this episode, Michael and Russell discuss the movie Bad Teacher, playing in theaters now, and from the Netflix Instant Queue they discuss the movie Big Nothing. Also, the two talk about Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes, Clerks, Percy Jackson, The badassness of Sean Bean, the atrocious Footloose remake trailer, Michael’s adoration for writer/director Kevin Smith, movies available on Netflix Instant Watch and more! So enjoy!

Review: Bad Teacher

Grade: C-

Elizabeth is a teacher at John Adams Middle School and she really doesn’t care about her job. She planned on marrying her fiancé, who is very wealthy, and living easy off his money after that. However, when he figures out her plans, he dumps her forcing her to take her job back at the school. She wants to try to find another wealthy man and to do so she feels that she needs to raise money to get a boob job. She doesn’t care about teaching and does horrible things to get money. Then, when she finds out that whichever teacher’s students score the highest on the state test, that teacher gets a large bonus, She kicks things into high gear in order to get that bonus and to try to land the new substitute teacher, Scott Delacorte.

Bad Teacher is a raunchy R-rated comedy that falls short in so many different areas. While it does have some pretty funny parts, the writing is pretty bad and there aren’t as many as there should be and many of the moments are just so stupid that you can’t help but laugh. The main character of Elizabeth is a horrible person so you never sympathize with her. While (slight spoilers ahead) the movie does have a happy ending, of sorts, she never faces any repercussions for the many horrible and immoral things that she does. In fact, any repercussions that do happen, she manages to push off on to another person, thus making her an even worse person. It astounds me that anybody would want to be with her at the end of the movie because of how she acts and treats people throughout.

Cameron Diaz (Green Hornet, Knight and Day) plays the lead role of Elizabeth, a horrible person who I have to wonder how she ever got a job as a teacher in the first place much less kept her job. Diaz was hired mostly because she is hot and looks the part of what they wanted. She had a couple funny lines but again, her character is such a horrible person you never really find what she’s doing all that funny. Justin Timberlake (Social Network, Southland Tales) plays the role of Scott, a substitute teacher with rich parents who Elizabeth is desperate to marry or whatever. Timberlake was alright in this movie but he has definitely been better and more enjoyable. Jason Segel (I Love You Man, Knocked Up) plays Russell, a gym teacher who, for some reason, really wants to start a relationship with Elizabeth. I normally don’t like Jason Segel much but he was really the only funny part of this movie. He had a bunch of great one-liners and his sarcastic demeanor through the movie was great. Lucy Punch (Take Me Home Tonight, Diner for Schmucks) plays Amy, a rival teacher who begins to go insane trying to prove Elizabeth is a bad person. She was pretty entertaining and really funny at times in this movie. The movie also features Phyllis Smith, John Michael Higgins and more.

Bad Teacher got it half right, it is a bad movie. I really can’t recommend seeing this movie anytime soon. I would suggest waiting for DVD then renting it. It has its moments, but overall it in poorly written, has a lose premise and an extremely unlikable main character who never learns her lesson.

Great quote: “Don’t throw it at her, through it THROUGH her.”

Podcast: Episdode 8

Click here to listen to episode 8 of Shut Up! The Movie's Starting!

In Episode 8 of Shut Up! The Movie’s Starting Michael and Russell discuss the movies Mr. Popper’s Penguins and Green Lantern, that are in theaters now. They also discuss the revenge thriller Harry Brown that is currently available on the Netflix instant queue. In addition they talk about their Film on the Rocks experience with Scott Pilgrim vs The World, The Walking Dead, Nurse Jackie, Poolhall Junkies, the movies of Kevin Smith, Planet of the Apes, a Hawkman movie and so much more, take a listen.