watching movies one cup at a time

I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this movie but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s good movie with a genuine feel for the Star Wars fan community. The story is centered around a group of 5 hardcare Star Wars fans in 1998 who go on a cross-country road trip to break into Skywalker Ranch to watch the rough cut of Episode 1 because their friend Linus has cancer and is not expected to live long enough to see it in the theaters.

As expected, the movie is filled with Star Wars-related humor and jokes aimed at the hardcore fan. But it never panders or makes fun of the fans. It’s done with respect, and the cast pulls it off flawlessly. Plus the film has a ton of really great cameos from Billy D. Williams, Carrie Fisher, William Shatner, Kevin Smith and several brilliant characters played by Seth Rogen. You get the sense that everyone just wanted to make something fun about a subject they love and grew up with.

One interesting point is that the film is set before the prequel series came out. Many of the hardcore fans were very disappointed by those films and some argue they diminished the whole Star Wars genre, especially the first one in all of it’s Jar-Jar, little kid Darth Vader goodness. And the movie ends with the question, “Dude, what if the movie sucks?” So in a sense, 1998 may have been the last time hardcore faithful could revel in “classic” Star Wars without the stigma of Episodes 1-3.

You don’t have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy this movie but it would definitely help. Overall it’s a good flick!

Yea, this kinda sucked. I think we all knew that going in. When Spider-man made $50 bazillion at the box office, it was only a matter of time before a horde of superhero flicks showed up, passed out by an all too eager Marvel Comics looking for some cash. So we get two Fantastic Four movies as they make a weak attempt at establishing a franchise.

The first FF wasn’t good and this one is actually worse. The story is paper-thin and so are the characters. Jessica Alba looks like a robot the whole time and any hint at drama from the first film is stripped away in favor of clich

Forget this movie. It wasn’t so much that it was bad, it was actually better than I expected. It just wasn’t very funny. There were a few good jokes in there but overall I was pretty bored. And it could have been about an hour shorter considering it’s a pretty thin plot. I think since 40 Year Old Virgin was successful we’ve had this onslaught of these Aptow side projects that are really not as great as they are hyped up to be. Kind of like what happened to the Farelly Brothers after Something About Mary. One hit unleashes piles of “lesser than” projects all trying to recapture that comedy gold. Yawn.

Bottom Line: it’s not bad and there are a few laughs, but overall it’s pretty blah.

This is a rather enjoyable and well done holiday movie, ranking up there with Elf as one of the better contemporary holiday comedy flicks. Vince Vaughn of course just basically plays himself but it works fine for this role as the deadbeat, black sheep brother of Santa Claus. And Paul Giamatti is right-on-the-mark in his portrayal of Santa as an overstressed guy who just wants everyone to be happy and get along.

The movie tries to humanize Santa by giving him a “normal” family that everyone can relate too as well as the everyday problems people face. But instead of falling completely into cliche and mediocre jokes like Tim Allen’s “The Santa Clause” movies, “Fred Claus” keeps it fresh due to the quick wit of Vaughn and Giamatti. Vince Vaughn is the black sheep but he’s never one-dimensional to the point where you can no longer root for him to win. And Giamatti never reduces Santa to a one-note “Ho Ho Ho” moron.

Add to that a message about how there aren’t really naughty kids in the world, just misunderstood & misguided children, and you’ve got a nice, funny holiday movie.

In 2009, in regards to the horror genre, one has to ask if Jason is really up to speed with today’s current level of slasher villain. Back in 1980 when he was first introduced, the mainstream slasher film was in the early days of cheap blood and guts special effects. A knife in the head was still a shocking image. But now in 2009 when computer-generated gore has people exploding and getting ripped in half very realistically and effortlessly, is some big guy with an axe the scariest thing in the world? We have movies like Hostel, Saw, High Tension, Grindhouse, and Rob Zombie’s flicks that have redefined the evil psychopath for a jaded culture that is not shocked any more by a guy in a hockey mask with mommy issues.

Now, having said that, this isn’t such a terrible movie. It’s miles above the previous 5 or 6 Jason movies at least and it’s good to see a franchise like this shake off the Z-grade stigma it had built up with “Jason takes Manhattan” and other such crap, in a very similar way that Rob Zombie reinvented the Halloween film for a more twisted and ugly world. If you like these kind of slasher flicks, or just want some nostalgia for your misbegotten youth, this is worth a look.

I give a lot of movies a 3 cup (out of 5) review because a lot of movies are just okay. Not great, not bad, just okay. Funny People follows in that tradition. It’s just okay. Judd Apatow is everywhere these days, mostly writing. And he has been known mostly for raunchy, “guy” humor. Funny People is his third turn at directing and he turns toward more dramatic territory than the more comedic 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. And the jokes are noticeably a lot less raunchy and “guy” oriented. There is still a lot of “guy” humor, just not as much. And while this movie has heart, it’s not really enough to make it a winner.

Adam Sandler does a good job basically playing himself as a burnt-out comedian, but he never warms up and becomes anyone you’re sympathetic for. Seth Rogen is good as his assistant but I didn’t think the connection between the two characters was very natural. it felt rather forced. The stand up routines were basically good but nothing outrageous. A much better film along similar lines is the Tom Hanks movie Punchline with Sally Field. And a much better Apatow film is still 40 Year Old Virgin.