Bridesmaids

Movie: Bridesmaids

Genre: comedy

Synopsis: This is kind of a women’s version of Road Trip. Annie (Kristen Wiig) and Lillian (Maya Rudolph) have been best friends their entire lives.  Annie is in a bit of a slump after her bakery went under.  Lillian is newly engaged and asks Lillian to be her maid of honor.  The problems starts when Annie meets Lillies new friend, Helen (Rose Byrne).  Annie and Helen take an immediate dislike to each other and become obsessed with out-doing the each other.  Annie’s life continues to spiral down.  The effortless success of Helen in everything she does just makes things worse for Annie.  Things come to a head with a major meltdown by Annie.  The question is whether or not she will be able to climb out of her black hole of depression and make up with Lillian.

My two cents:  I loved this movie.  Kristen Wiig may just be my new comedic actress (well, number two – after Jennifer Anniston).  She and Maya Rudolph make a great team.  Rose Byrne was perfect as the beautiful sweet friend who is stabbing you in the back while flashing that charming smile.  Melissa McCarthy played the groom’s sister, a bride’s maid only because of her brother.  Melissa absolutely stole every scene she was in.  She needs to get into some more movies.  She has come a long way since Sookie St. James on Gilmore Girls.

I also liked the subplot of Annie’s budding romance with a cop.  It was really sweet to see her trying to break out of her habit of dating complete asses.  I found that the depths of the depression Annie sank into made me a little uncomfortable.  Although this is most assuredly a comedy, there are some serious issues and some serious lessons to be learned.

One sad note . . . Jill Clayburgh played Annie’s mother.  It was the last movie she made before she died.  It was sad to watch her, knowing it was her last performance.

I was one of only two men in the theatre with about 30 women.  It is too bad if men are staying away from this movie because it is being labeled a “chick flick”, they are missing a great comedy.

[91]

Jumping the Broom

Movie: Jumping the Broom

Genre: comedy

Synopsis: Sabrina (Paula Patton) and Jason (Laz Alonso) are happily engaged.  Standing between them and a happy wedding are Jason’s mother, Mrs. Taylor (Loretta Devine) and Paula’s parents, Mrs. Watson (Angela Bassett) and Mr. Watson (Brian Stokes Mitchell).  His mother is strictly blue-collar, living in Brooklyn and proud of it.  Her parents are fabulously wealthy and live in a huge compound on Martha’s Vineyard.  Jason is a momma’s boy, both mothers resent to hell out of each other – and both proceed to do their best to break up the engasgement.  Predictably, things turn to crap, the wedding is off, then on-again and . . . well, you get the idea.

My two cents: First thing – Brian Mitchell.  I had the pleasure of seeing Brian Mitchell sing the lead in Oklahoma when he was still in high school – he had an incredible voice even at so young an age..  I enjoyed seeing him both in Trapper John and in Frasier.  I have found mildly depressing to see how his characters keep getting older and older. . . and I keep waiting in vain for him to break out in song . . . but he never does.

This movie had a lot of unlikeable characters.  Mrs. Watson was wealthy her whole life and acted it.  A really arrogant snob who enjoyed putting people in their place.  Her unlikeability (probably not a word) was surpassed by that of Mrs, Taylor.  She not only liked putting people down and being disagreeable – she took actual joy in causing strife and heart-ache.  She was a thoroughly despicable character.  And her son . . . he let his mother walk all over his fiancé.  His only response was to try to get his fiancé to keep quiet. Of the immediate family, the bride and her father were the only ones I liked.

The movie had a lot of laughs, but I was often uncomfortable by the viciousness of the attacks of the two mothers.  What I did like about the movie is that it did not rely on what I think of as stereotypical ethnic humor.  While both families in the movie are black, very few script changes would be needed to switch the families to Mexican, Jewish, Italian, or just about any other group you could choose.

[90]

Priest 3D

Movie: Priest 3D

Genre: horror

Synopsis: This movie takes place in the future.  Mankind had nearly been overrun by vampires.  They were saved by Warrior Priests - priests who were trained to be something like ninjas.  These priests managed to drive the surviving vampires into guarded prisons.  Most of mankind now lives in walled cities that are run by the Church.  The area outside the cities is considered to be wasteland.

“Priest” (Paul Bettany) is one of the few surviving Warrior Priests.  When his niece is kidnapped by vampires, the Church refuses to acknowledge that vampires are still a danger.  Priest is forced to go rogue and leave the city in search of his niece.  The Church retaliates by sending other Warrior Priests out to terminate “Priest”.

My two cents: A pretty good vampire movie.  Some really great fights, some decently creepy vampires, a satisfying evil Church hierarchy, Paul Bettany’s character was a great hero, Maggie Q played a sexy but deadly Priestess . . .  and there was a fabulous climactic train chase. I left the theater thoroughly satisfied.

[88]

There Be Dragons

Movie: There Be Dragons

Genre: period drama

Synopsis: Josemaria (Charlie Cox) was a Spanish priest.  The church wants to canonize Father Josemaria and has hired Robert (Dougray Scott), a journalist, to investigate his background.  During his investigation, Robert is surprised to learn that his father, Manolo, grew up with Josemaria.  Robert has been estranged from his father for many years.  His father is now on his deathbed. Robert tries to get his father to talk about his past with Josemaria, especially what happened during the years of the Spanish Civil War.  What Robert ultimately learns from his father about Josemaria and him is quite a shocker.

My two cents: It took a while to get into it, but it was a pretty interesting movie.  Most of the movie focused on what happened to Josemaria and Manolo leading up to and during the Spanish Civil War and their respective roles in the role.  The movie is definitely worth seeing, but I would probably have been satisfied if I had waited until it hit the small screen.

[86]

Thor

Movie: Thor (IMAX 3D)

Genre: super-hero

Synopsis: Thor (Chris Hemsworth) gets carried away in trying to provoke a war and is stripped of his powers and banished to Earth by his father, King Odin (Anthony Hopkins).   This gives his evil borther the chance to try and take control of Asgard.  When he lands on Earth, Thor is found by Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), a physicist.  His missing hammer is found and ‘captured’ by a government unit headed by Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg).  You may remember Agent Coulson from Iron Man and Iron Man 2.  Jane and her sister and her partner eventually believe in Thor and help him try to reclaim his Hammer and b ecome the man (god?) that his father was hoping for.

My two cents: Wow!  I saw this in IMAX 3D – totally worth it.  Chris Hemsworth is a natural as Thor.  He has a natural cockiness and brashness that is great fun to watch.  There are some really great battles.  When Thor gets wound up, it is a real blast to watch.  I felt it was a toss-up as to whether or not 3D was necessary for  this movie -  but if you get a chance to see it in IMAX,  definitely do it.  I hope to see a lot more of Thor.

[85]

Water for Elephants

Movie: Water for Elephants

Genre: drama

Synopsis: Jacob (Robert Pattinson) is a test away from getting his veterinary degree from Cornell in the middle of the Great Depression.  Then tragedy hits and he flees school and joins a circus – the Benzini Brothers.  He gets a job with them taking care of the animals.  The circus is run by the charismatic and sadistic August (Christopher Waltz).  August’s wife, Marlena (Reese Witherspoon) is the star attraction of the circus.  When Jacob falls in love with Marlena, August quickly becomes suspicious.  Jacob must walk a fine line between caring for the animals, placating August and not revealing his love of Marlena.  When August buys an elephant (Rosie) for the circus, Jacob is the key to training the elephant for her a act.

My two cents:  I might have liked the movie a lot more had I not read the book.  I was appalled and disappointed at how much was left out of the movie.  It was interesting to see how a circus was run in the 30’s.  Christopher Waltz was great as August.  Robert Pattinson actually managed to make me forget the annoying Edward Cullen for a while.  They followed the book enough to make it a good  movie,  but left out too much for it to be great.

[84]

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil

Movie: Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (3D)

Genre: animated comedy

Synopsis: This is a sequel to the 2005 “Hoodwinked” animated film about the real story of Little Red Riding Hood.  It follows Red Riding Hood (Hayden Panettiere), The Big Bad Wolf (Patrick Warbirton) and Twitchy (Cory Edwards) as they try to rescue Granny Puckette (Glenn Close) from the clutches of the evil Verushka the Witch (Joan Cusack).

My two cents: Well, I was a big fan of Hoodwinked! And went into this movie with high hopes.  Alas, I don’t think it lived up to the original.  There were a lot of good lines and a lot of pretty funny gags, but I was still kind of disappointed.

[83]