Archive | December 2011
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Beginners
Plot Beginners, huh? What are they beginning? The movie sure doesn’t seem to want to tell us. Mostly the characters wander around without doing much, and it drags on a little too long and feels very repetitive. Even so, we’re supposed to care about the characters, but it’s hard to care about “regular people doing [...]
Thor
Plot Watch as the “hero” of this film gets hit by a car, stuck with a tranquilizer, and hit by the same car again, all within the first 40 minutes! Then, be amazed as he learns to cook breakfast and helps lead citizens to safety while his friends do all the work towards the end [...]
Super 8
Plot Super 8 seems like one of those movies where they came up with a great idea but didn’t quite know how to finish it. It also feels like it should be named The Goonies Meet the Cloverfield Monster. It’s supposed to be set in the late ’70′s, early ’80′s…I think. It took me almost [...]
How to Train Your Dragon
Plot I feel kind of bad for scoring this so low. The whole “Be yourself” message the film puts across is a positive one, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s the other parts I have trouble with. The main plot of the film revolves around Hiccup trying to show everyone else that killing dragons [...]
Henry’s Crime
Plot While the whole “wrongfully accused decides to do it anyway” premise is good, Henry’s Crime suffers from too many characters and a disappointing ending. The weirdest problem I had with this film is the prison scenes. I’ve never seen another prison movie where everyone gets along and is as friendly as the prisoners in [...]
Arthur
Plot Going into this movie, I had really very little idea what it was about. NOTE: In fact, I had forgotten it was a remake until I started researching for this post. Oops. At its heart, it’s the same old story of an out-of-touch guy in a terrible relationship who finds someone new that changes [...]
The Smurfs
Plot They chose to go the “characters out of their element” approach with the feature film adaptation of The Smurfs, and, as you probably already know, it just didn’t work. There was a strange self-awareness about the whole film. The movie wanted us to believe that the Smurfs are real and live in another realm, [...]
The Beaver
Plot The Beaver is, quite possibly, the world’s first romantic horror dramedy thriller. Or, at least it’s the first one I’ve ever seen. While each one of those descriptors isn’t a major focus of the film, each one is touched on a bit, so it counts. It’s a very unique story, and they do a [...]
Yogi Bear
Plot Pop quiz: If you were going to make a movie about Yogi Bear, what would it be about? Answer: Someone trying to close down Jellystone Park and sell it to loggers, right? You know why that answer came to your head? Because it’s the only possible plot for a Yogi Bear movie. And that’s [...]
Julie & Julia
Plot Can I please divide this movie into two pieces and review each one separately? No? Okay, then. Julie & Julia is, at its core, the story of how one woman turned her hobby into an almost scary obsession with someone who had actual talents and skills, and somehow got her 15 minutes of fame [...]