This Weekend's Movies

[GeorgeDubya]

Seriously, Hollywood is being cruel to me this weekend. There are three movies opening that I want to watch - Brave, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

I have some friends starting to plan out a group date for a movie this weekend, and knowing these ladies, I'll have to choose which movie we're going to see. I'm utterly torn though, which one should I drag them to?

Brave - It's Pixar, so I'm confident it will be good.
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter - I've read and enjoyed the book. I'm not sure if that's a positive or negative as it means I know the story...
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World - Steve Carell and Keira Knightely in a movie whose storyline seems similar to one of my favorite short films ever? Yes please. (The short film I was referring to - http://foreversnotsolong.com/)

I need advice people. Where shall I drag my friends to?

[Navarre]

I will go with Brave. It is the least likely to disappoint, based on one's hopes for the movie in question.

[CatHalo]

I will go with Brave. It is the least likely to disappoint, based on one's hopes for the movie in question.

I'm inclined to agree. Pixar are less likely to drop the ball on this. Abe could be fun, and Seeking is a very intriguing story, but always bet on Pixar.
Abe opens here on Wed, so I can tell you Thurs if it's worth a look.

[GeorgeDubya]

Yeah, I am leaning towards Brave. That was the first of the three movies that one of my friends mentioned. I'll probably end up going to watch one of the other two at some point during the weekend as well. I'll let people know how things are.

[Alisha Mynx]

I will go with Brave. It is the least likely to disappoint, based on one's hopes for the movie in question.

I dunno, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter' looks fun almost any way you slice it.  Even if the writing is bad, it is just a bit of "leave your sense of reality at the door" that is fun once in a while.  But I'm perhaps a bit biased as I enjoy cheesy B-movies and really bad movies for this reason.

However Brave does look great all over, from writing to voice actors to animation design and so on.  I can't think of one thing I know about it so far that I dislike.  I even forgive that it isn't filled with asian girls (yes, I'm kidding about that). 

[GeorgeDubya]

I think I'm going to take the GF to Abraham Lincoln on Friday and then the two of us will join the rest of our friends on Saturday to watch Brave.

[GeorgeDubya]

So, I ended up going to see two of the three films that came out this weekend and intrigued me. I was pleased with one and utterly disappointed with the other. I've posted my short reviews in both of the Talk Back posts on the site, but figured I'd share them here as well.

On Saturday I went and saw Brave at a drive-in with friends. Things went kind of like this -

Opening scene
George – This is going to happen.
It happens.
George – I’m awesome.

Ten minutes later
George – This is going to happen.
It happens.
George – Still awesome.

Rinse and repeat through the movie. (Called what was going to happen to mom, called the twist about Mordu, called what was going to happen to the boys, etc. etc. etc.)

Overall verdict – Pixar delivers on the amazing visuals and engaging characters, and while the story was a bit predictable with elements of of The Little Mermaid, Mulan, and Freaky Friday, I still found myself enjoying the whole thing. I’d give it 3.5 out of 5 wing dang doodles.





On Sunday, the girlfriend and I went to watch Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. As someone who read (and enjoyed) the book and also knows the history of Abraham Lincoln (which the book stuck to admirably), I was very annoyed with the movie. Despite the author doing the adaptation from novel to screenplay, he changed a lot of details, added superfluous characters and plot lines, and completely ignored the history that he had woven the story into originally.

By two minutes into the movie, I was already prepared to throw out everything I had read in the book, because it was already completely different, but I couldn’t disconnect from the history of things.

Also, Alan Tudyk was criminally underused. I'd give the movie 1.5 out of 5 wing dang doodles.

[sliksham]

I had free tickets to see Snow White & the Huntsman, and I still think I didn't get my moneys' worth.

Going into it I was quite optimisitic, Charlize Theron is beautiful and I could just watch her all day, the story is well loved and can't be that hard to screw up, even Twilight bint couldn't be that bad could she, could she?
Well, goddamn it was a pile of steaming doo-dah. Poor script, hammy over acting from Theron, no acting at all from most of the other cast. 'Twists' on the story that were less twisty and more duh! I think the only saving grace was that it was very 'pretty' to look at, although some of the cgi effects were awfully done.
Even the little things, like Snow White as a child, skin as white as snow, check, lips as red a blood, erm, ok, maybe, hair as black as ebony.. that's not really a mousy brown colour is it?
Coupled with the now seemingly obligatory 'stuff in the trailer that's not in the film' it was a big annoyance
Overall I wish I had waited to see it for free at home rather than paying for snacks and drinks at the cinema.
2 out of 5 well thumbed literary classics, and I'm being generous.

[Alisha Mynx]

I had free tickets to see Snow White & the Huntsman, and I still think I didn't get my moneys' worth.

That actually made me laugh because a friend of mine had said she got to see it free after a friend bought her dinner and she felt like she didn't get her money's worth.

I'm sad that the movie turned out so badly when the premise really had me excited.  I had been hoping to see this one, but after so many negative responses to it I'm just gonna pass until it is on DVD or maybe even until it is on FX.

[GeorgeDubya]

I haven't seen Snow White and the Huntsman, and I don't plan to. Here's my main gripe with the movie as I described it in a Facebook status a couple months ago - It isn't that I've yet to see Kristen Stewart actually act well. It isn't that they're trying to make an age old fairytale into an epic about a warrior princess (I'm fine with epics about warrior princesses, but don't take a classic story just to cash in on the name). No, my main gripe is that they're claiming that Kristen Stewart is or will be fairer than Charlize Theron. C'mon! Really?

[CatHalo]

It isn't that I've yet to see Kristen Stewart actually act well

She was actually really good in Panic Room. Admittedly, that was about 10yrs ago, and she hasn't been particularly good in anything since, but I suspect she can act...she just hasn't.

[Gaumer]

I thought she was pretty good in Runaways...

And some folks seem to adore her enough to make her a big money maker

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2012/06/19/kristen-stewart-tops-our-list-of-highest-paid-actresses/

I honestly don't see how this happens but...oh well.

[GeorgeDubya]

I thought she was pretty good in Runaways...

And some folks seem to adore her enough to make her a big money maker

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2012/06/19/kristen-stewart-tops-our-list-of-highest-paid-actresses/

I honestly don't see how this happens but...oh well.

See, that just illustrates that actors/actresses are paid almost solely based on their box office success and failure. Because the Twilight franchise is huge, Kristen Stewart gets extra money.

[Navarre]

Then Scarlett Johansson should be seeing a significant increase in her take-home pay. But at least she's a good actress.

[Gaumer]

I thought she was pretty good in Runaways...

And some folks seem to adore her enough to make her a big money maker

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2012/06/19/kristen-stewart-tops-our-list-of-highest-paid-actresses/

I honestly don't see how this happens but...oh well.

See, that just illustrates that actors/actresses are paid almost solely based on their box office success and failure.

I know right? How dare these companies want to make as much money as possible?