Ya whatever weekend..

So I  ended up not seeing anything new this weekend, I saw 21 Jumpstreet again which was still incredible and you should defiantly go see it.
But if your looking for something new.... eh. 
Battle Royale finally came out officially in the States. Just go pick up a DVD of that. Its better than the Hunger Games. 

It's a classic ya'll got to check it out, 

If not just enjoy the following puppy:

Look at his widdle face! 

21 Jumpstreet (2012)

 

   Ahhh yes. A comedy. Comedies are tricky. Especially really really great ones like this. Ya see while i can explain the plot and mention a few vaguely good things about the movie, if i get to specific i'll  ruin some of the best jokes. For example i can tell you that there are a lot of jokes about how much highscool stereotypes have changed, but if i tell you how the film approaches is it i ruin the joke and you  won't enjoy the movie as much. 


   And that's not something i'm willing  to do, becuase this movie is absolutely hilarious. The title comes from the 1980's television show, and this movie poses itself as a sequel to that show. 21 Jumpstreet is an address where a new breed of undercover cops is being formed, younger cops who look like highschool students. They go undercover in, you guessed it, highschools to try and stop crimes that would be difficult for people who can't get in close. Such is the case in  this movie, only a few short years out of graduating highschool themselves Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill graduate police academy in hope of glory for doing the right thing, and upon making their first real arrest one of them fails too catch a crook, while the other fails to read out the Miranda Rights. I'll let you guess whose who. Since the two are still rookies the chief decides they'd be perfect for the Jumpstreet program, which requires them to look and act like highschool students. They report to their new captain played by Ice Cube and are sent to track down the suppliers of a new synthetic drug that has rather lethal side effects if mis- used.


   And that's pretty much it, the movie is funny as all hell. And for a comedy like this it has some really out there jokes that seem like extreme risks but totally work. I attribute a lot of this to the two leads, carrying every scene with grace, and Jonah Hill's hand behind the writing elevates the often groan worthy jokes to genuine moments of comedic genius.


Beyond that i can't say much just go see it, it doesn't rely heavily on the original but  fans will see a few jokes spiced in here or there. A-. 

Silent House (2012)

 
   Ugh.. this is kind of a tough one. Silent House does so many cool things, and for once has a pretty original gimmick. Good acting and a little good writing too. The problem with it is that the plot works  up until the last four or five minutes of the movie, and if you hadn't already guessed what was to happen you still won't be very surprised. However it does so much right it might still be worth watching.


   Let's back up; Silent House is a low budget horror movie starring Elizabeth Olsen, younger sister to the Olsen twins, and revolves around two central gimmicks which can be described as 'real fear in real time' and 'one perspective'. The first is quiet clever (I mean this is a remake so NONE of it's clever but in general i mean, it's a cool idea) the movie doesn't ever change scene or cut away from whatever is happening, the movie is about 85 minutes long, and the events that take place in the movie happen in exactly that time. The camera is always rolling and displays all the events in real time. That's where the other gimmick comes in, the camera is always on Elizabeth Olsen and isn't mounted on anything to keep it steady making a shaky cam effect without the tie of having to make the person holding the camera a character. The way the movie is shot follows how Olsen moves and feels, adjusting focus to thing around her that she isn't focused on, shaking as if strained while shes running, and even looking around the room every time she looks around the room. 


   Those alone are reason enough to see the movie, they're cool and creative and kind of scary you've probably never seen before. In fact i recommend you stop reading this right now and just go see it. If your not a horror buff you'll enjoy it just fine. Go on. Go. Buy a ticket and enjoy. Right now.


   Okay are you all gone? Good. NOW here's the movies biggest problem. Ya see the movie uses it gimmicks really well, and it since it sticks with the main characters the whole time it has a lot of twists and turns that maybe make you question her sanity and you start to wonder if maybe her mind is playing tricks on her, which while not very original is nice enough. However *SPOILER ALERT * they completely squander it by the end and i felt like the movie had been walking the line so well up until the last four or five minutes when the whole plot falls apart and your left with a rather unsatisfying ending. 


   It's not a bad movie, and it does enough right to warrant a look,  but i can't promise you'll enjoy it.


Its a  C. 

John Carter (2012)

   

   When i first saw teaser and concept images for this version of John Carter i was weary at best. Disney has reliable track record of making things like this well, but never glorious or epic. They rely heavily on  CG and old school Kung Fu movie wire work, which was also kind of a red flag becuase movies like this often turn out looking a little dull and a lot hard to buy into. Logically since I was so excited that a classic sci-fi novel over a hundred years old was finally getting it's shot at a movie, i read the first book that this movie is loosely based on ; A Princess of Mars. And let me tell you two things right off the bat, that book is  amazing and R rated. It plays out differently from the PG-13 adaptation i saw on screen. 

   But it still turned out as an epic sci-fi adventure. 

   So let's give a brief run of the plot and some of the changed made from the book; an ex solider in a post civil war america is completely down on his luck and spends half his time avoiding the law and half his time searching for a legendary cave of gold that no one believes exists. So of course whilst one day avoiding said law he stumbles into said magical cave. Sadly when someone appears out of no where Carter gets startled, which is normal when someone appears out of nowhere, and shoots him. Turns out he some sorta alien guy and his dying breathes send Carter through a portal to Barsoom, also known as Mars and is dropped into a war between two different factions of humans humanoid martians as immediately sides with the pretty girl and her scientific people who are being oppressed. Now it's worth noting that the main alien looking species are the Tharks, who are tall and green with four arms, who want nothing to do with this war but occasionally get dragged in when the fighting hits to close to their cities. They have a much bigger role in the book with their own internal conflict but the movie can only be so long. 

  That's basically it, since John Carter is from earth his physiology (Sciencey stuff I know) makes him able to jump great distances and gives him effective super strength becuase the gravity is so lessened. Which is really cool, they end up using a lot of very practical effects to make him and his jumping very real and really adds to the cool factor. If they had green screened all his jumps it would've ruined the movie. 

   The movie ends up working, but not without a few bumps; As far as heroes go John Carter is as bland as they come with no long term motivation for anything, but the movie insisted on wasting a solid fifteen minutes of an already two and a half hour long movie crow baring in a terrible back story about his family dying while he was fighting in the war. It's out of place ans useless but it doesn't linger through the second half. I guess to make it a blockbuster writers also jammed in villainous characters from later books that are like guardian gods of making sure everything happens how it's supposed to. Like in the Adjustment Bureau, but while that was the whole plot of that movie, they aren't really apart of the book and i feel like they could have made the main villain better if they had focused less on trying to have both, even though both characters are acted superbly. The fact of the matter is all the acting is great, even the voices and faces of the CGI Tharks who look as good as the blue creatures from Avatar, except more interesting. The real stand out in the cast is Lynn Collins as the Princess Dejah Thoris, who is the best character in the book, so it makes sense that she'd have the strongest on screen presence. Taylor Kitsch isn't bad as John Carter, in fact he fits the character quiet well. But i didn't always buy into him being as selfish as he was supposed to be. IN the first half of the story he doesn't want anything to do with the conflict he just wants to get home but i never really see that on Kitsch's face. 

   These however are all little complaints, the movie is a sci-fi epic like few others and i hope they continue the series into the later books. It has an interesting twist that clearly leads into more stories so why couldn't they? 

It gets an A- from me, definitely go and see it and love it. 

See it now before it's in theaters mini reviews ATM (2012)- The Hunter (2012)

   First things first, to watch these movies right now you have to pay roughly 8 to 10 dollars (like the price of a movie ticket) and stream them or download them through some digital internet means. The long and the short of it is that ATM probably isn't worth 10 bucks unless your lookin for a fun night at home with a few good friends. The Hunter on the other hand is more than worth it. Here's why;

   ATM is a smaller budget horror movie that seems to have pinned its hopes on making all the money back on this little pre-release. To the film's credit it's kind of original: After leaving an office Christmas party two best friends and a girl that one of them really likes have to stop at an ATM. In a spectacular showing of their collective genius they stop at a small ATM machine building, (you may never have seen one but you swipe your card to get into a little glass room with two ATMs in it and usually a table to write checks. ) and are immediately approached by a mysterious hooded man who shows his dominance by beating a hobo to death. 


   From then on it's pretty much that "Saw-like" plot of crazy mystery murderer man torturing these three young whipper snappers as they slowly freeze to death trying to find a way out and to get help. Some of what it does is original and kinda interesting, and even has some decent cheap acting by none other than Josh Peck of Drake & Josh fame. All and all it's not a bad cheap thriller, but an ambiguous ending and a lack of any non-standard characters growth make this, in my professional opinion, not  worth ten bucks. 


Probably a D+ and a frowny face :( 

   The Hunter, starring Willam Defoe, on the other hand isn't a cheap and lifeless thriller.  Plot summery-a-go-go; Willam Defoe is a hunter who's specializes in tracking rare animals for well playing clients. Is it legal? 
...maaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyybe. He gets a job to hunt an animal called the Tasmanian Tiger which most people believe is extinct but a few people have claimed to have seen very recently in a rural part of what I think is Australia (but who knows?) and begins a journey that will emotionally affect him and his family forever!
How sweet is that? ....wait, wait, wait i'm sorry that's not what happens, i must be mistaken. He spends a lot of time alone in the woods setting traps and ripping animals guts out trying to set lure in the tiger. And then he goes back to his house?

   Oh ya! That's what i was talking about before, ya ya now i got it. For some reason his living arrangements find him in the house of a researcher and his family. Sadly the researcher has been missing for sometime after he went off looking for the same mystery tiger. He and the family have a few moments and he spends a lot of time bonding with the kids and helping the mother readjust, and that's all well and good and dandy. Come to think of it this film does an excellent job of shifting the tone between Defoe with the kids and Defoe alone in the woods. It makes the scenes with the family more affecting and real, while the scenes of him tracking a myth in the woods very tense and serious.


   It's a cool effin movie and you probably won't see anything this original or realistic for a while. Defoe is a massive talent and shines in this role as a semi- legal poacher that's supremely focused on his work almost to a fault. Shots of the beautiful landscape aboslutely astonish your eyeballs, and the movie keeps twisting and twisting till it needs a breaking point. 


I hope you enjoy it as much as i do, B+