The Adjustment Bureau

Movie: The Adjustment Bureau

Genre: thriller

Synopsis: David Norris (Matt Damon) is the youngest man ever elected to Congress.  He represents a New York City district and is now running for a Senate Seat – and has a healthy lead.  Then an embarrassing picture from his past is released and his election chances plummet.  Minutes before his concession speech, he runs into Elise (Emily Blunt).  She was a wedding crasher being chased by security and was hiding out in the men’s room.  There is an instant connection between them – but then she runs off (chased by security).

Behind the scenes is The Adjustment Bureau.  These guys all wear hats that allow them to move instantly from place to place.  The head of the team monitoring David is Richardson (John Slattery).  Without wanting to give too much away . . . the rest of the movie consists of The Adjustment Bureau doing everything in their power to keep David and Elise from ever meeting again vs. David doing everything he can to find Elise.  This becomes much more interesting when The Adjustment Bureau make David aware of the Bureau and what it does.

My two cents: This was a great movie.  It had a lot of action while giving you a lot to think about.  Matt Damon and Emily Blunt were great, as always.  I enjoyed this movie much more than I thought I would.  Definitely worth seeing - especially if you can suspend your skepticism and just accept the Adjustment Bureau and their mission.

[57]

Rango

Movie: Rango

Genre: animated western

Synopsis: Rango (Johnny Depp) is a chameleon without much going for him other than a wild imagination.  When an accident strands him in the Nevada desert, he manages to make it to the town of Dirt.  Dirt is mysteriously running out of water.  The town is run by a crooked mayor.  After Rango makes up a few tall stories about his shooting skills and the citizens believe him.  He ends up becoming the sheriff.  Now he starts trying to solve the mystery of where the water has disappeared to.  This involves fighting a huge family of gopher-like critters, going up against the mayor’s gang, a rattlesnake who works for the mayor and even having a conversation with “the spirit of the west”.  Some of the other actors voices: Ned Beatty, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Stephen Root and Timothy Olyphant.

My two cents: A very entertaining movie.  It seemed to me that this movie was almost aimed for more of an adult audience than kids.  I was not expecting such an all-star cast of voices.  The movie was a bit long for an animated film . . . but I really enjoyed it.

[56]

Beasty

Movie: Beasty

Genre: romantic fantasy

Synopsis: Kyle (Alex Pettyfer) is handsome, rich and the Alpha male of his prestigious private school in Manhattan.  He is running for a student office on the premise that he will do nothing  . . . but is rich and handsome.  He is intrigued by a very earnest student, Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens), who seems to be immune to his charms.  Kyle manages to really anger Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen).  Kendra is a witch and puts a curse on Kyle.  He is transformed into a bald, hard-to-look-at person covered with tattoos and strange lines and deformities.  To break the curse, he has one year to find someone that will tell him she loves him.  Kyle’s father (Peter Krause) moves Kyle and the housekeeper, Zola (Lisa Gay Hamilton) to a remote apartment where he will live in seclusion.  His father, even shallower than Kyle, chooses to keep living in the city.  Kyle even get’s his own tutor, Will (Neil Patrick Harris).  Will is blind, but manages to be a great dart thrower.

Kyle becomes obsessed with Lindy.  After witnessing a murder, Lindy winds moving into Kyle’s apartment to until the killer is caught.  The  movie follows the development of the relationship between Kyle and Lindy  . . . and the maturing of Kyle and his view of the world.

My two cents: This movie had a lot that I liked: Vanessa Hudgens and the awkward building of a romance between Kyle and Lindy.  The two that I thought stole the film were Lisa Gay Hamilton and Neil Patrick Harris.  Her character was such an inherently good and decent person that it made me smile whenever she was in a scene.  And the tutor was just plain funny.  The movie had a lot that I did not go for: Kyle was just a bit too openly shallow in the beginning of the movie, the witch was just a little too unbelievable, the acceptance of Kyle’s “condition” by everyone was just a bit too easy.

Bottom line: nothing to go out of your way to see.

[55]

Take Me Home Tonight

Movie: Take Me Home Tonight

Genre: Romantic comedy

Synopsis: In the 1980’s, Matt Franklin (Topher Grace) is a recent M.I.T. graduate.  Much to the frustration of his father, Matt cannot decide what he wants to do with his engineering degree and is content to work in a video rental store until he figures things out.  One day Tori Frederking (Teresa Palmer) walks in to the store.  Matt has been in love with her since middle school, but never had the courage to ask her out.  On the spur of the moment, to impress her, Matt tells her he works for Goldman Saks. The boyfriend of Matt’s twin sister,Wendy (Anna Faris) is throwing his annual labor day party.  Matt decides to go to the party when he finds that Tori is going.  So, Matt, his best friend, Barry (Dan Fogler) and his sister all go to the party together. The rest of the movie follows the exploits of Matt and Barry as Matt tries to finally start a relationship with his long-time crush and ends up having the best night of his life.

My two cents: I am a sucker for romantic comedies and I really enjoyed this movie.  I am a big fan of Topher Grace and Anna Faris – and they did not disappoint. What I thought set this apart from other movies if its type is that it never descended into the realms of gross-out humor.  It had a lot of funny scenes, but never anything that made me cringe.  The awkwardness of Matt was easy to identify with and Topher Grace made him seem awfully likable.  And . . . there was some great 80's music.

[54]

Drive Angry

Movie: Drive Angry

Genre: thriller, supernatural

Synopsis: Milton (Nicolas Cage) was bad person, but a loving father)  – who died and went to hell, leaving behind his daughter.  His daughter falls in with a cult, has a baby and is then brutally murdered by the cult leader, Jonah King (Billy Burke) who wants to – literally - sacrifice the baby.  So Milton breaks out of hell and is after King to save his grandchild and avenge the murder of his daughter.  He is helped in the chase by a girl, Piper (Amber Heard), that he rescued and by an old friend, Webster (David Morse).  And to complicate matters, Milton is being hunted by The Accountant (William Fitchner).  The Accountant’s job is to take Milton back to hell.

My two cents: I loved this movie.  Nicolas Cage plays a total bad ass who has the advantage of already being dead.  Lots of chases, lots of fights and lots of bad guys being killed in various and sundry ways.  I thought William Fitchner really stole the movie.  He is revels in being the invincible bad guy with an outrageous sense of humor.  I have seen Fitchner in a lot of movies and TV shows and have always liked him . . . but I don’t think I have ever enjoyed him more than in this movie.  He has great lines.  His car goes off a bridge and lands upside down.  Two young men come across him as he calmly steps out of the mangled wreckage.  He looks at one and says that he won’t see him again for a long time”.  Then he smiles at the other and says “I’ll see you in three months”.

If you are any kind of Nicolas Cage fan you will like this.  If you just like seeing bad guys get beaten up and killed, you should like it too.  The 3D did not really add much, in my opinion.

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