Female-Bromance, Bunch of Whedon, White House takeover blueprints... again, and a couple forgein movies

Another busy week. Some pretty good ones, and one piece of filth. Also, had a mini marathon for Firefly so I could watch Serenity... my geek has been coming out more and more the last couple of years. These are basically the last week of June. Let's start it off with the filth.

• Searching for Sugar Man - Already made mentioned of this one... but I'll say it again, great! I'm not the guy to ask questions on documentaries... but as far as my knowledge goes, I totally get why it won best doc at the Oscars. Again, highly suggest seeing this one.

• The Heat -  Went opening night at a Houston Alamo Drafthouse. It was weird seeing a movie in a non-Austin Drafthouse. It was still really familiar, but just not right. It was like cheating on your girlfriend with her sister. Ok, that's just a guess... I have to date a girl before I could cheat on her with her sister... not that I would.

Alright, for the movie. Really really funny. Directed by Paul Feig, who directed Bridesmaids... had a lot of the Bridesmaid vibe, strong female leads. Bullock and McCarthy were great together. Bullock's character was almost too much like her Miss Congeniality character. One of the things that was annoying was that the trailers did give away some fun parts... not enough that it ruined it though.

Since the Drafthouse is awesome, they gave away full prints of this Mondo 70's/80's inspired action poster on opening night. Not sure if it's worthy of going up in the living room, but give it time it might be (but not framed).

• The Fairy - Every time I start to think the French are making great movies, I see this and it reaffirms that the French are weird. This movie... weird. Good'ish, but a little too weird fore me. It did remind me of those old clips of silent movies. The background, the musical sequences, the characters and the like. The movie premise is nice enough, a lonely hotel desk clerk meets a girl who claims to be a Fairy and grants him 3 wishes. Not sure if anyone I know would genuinely like this. Watch at your own risk.
 

• Monsters University - So Pixar delivers, not surprising. Even though I would trade this one in for an Incredibles 2, I'm not mad they made it (read: screw off Cars 2 and Toy Story 3... more so Cars 2). The new characters, the frat brothers, are great... especially Art, who is voiced by Charlie Day. Voice acting can be big for movies, because even as a cartoon character the actor's personality can come through. This was true with Day, I was cracking up at all his scenes. You can just picture him doing the gags in real life. Overall, it was right on track with the original Monsters Inc.

• Headhunters - This one kept popping up on almost every page of Netflix. I figured this did pretty well over sees, that's why they had a big push over here. BoxOfficeMojo only has it making 14 million, which is nothing compared to The Intouchables that made 416 million overseas. Netflix (and Amazon Prime from what I've seen) push certain forgein movies for them to gain some traction hoping they're the next Girl With A Dragon Tattoo. If they invested a lot of money in this push... my conclusion is they shouldn't have.  It was just an okay movie, nothing really special. The main character was a bit annoying... maybe could have been better if it was cast differently. The story was good, with a bit more tweaking, could have been a touch better. Watch if you're into Norwegian movies. I guess I will say this one has the potential of getting picked up and remade her in the US.          

Found this pic online, and it fits perfectly

• White House Down (mild spoilers)- For just an action movie... fine, it was ok. But once I start looking at it closer, the less I like it. The biggest problem, just like the a lot of reviews are saying, a rip off of Die Hard. Not just the dirty white wife beater, but the characters/situations... cop out of place, nerdy-tech villain, annoying TV reporter, separated/ex-wife, villains finds out family connection, villain mad about his brother/friend murdered, villain putting someone on the walkie to talk the hero down, cop on the other end of the phone, ok... enough. It was annoying how they were trying to make Jamie Foxx out to be the cool president... a lot of stupid stupid jokes... just keep it action, get rid of the crap comic relief. Wasn't really surprising. What was surprising was Leonard Maltin called this original. Original?! Olympus Has Fallen just came out a few months ago... basically the same movie. Original? I don't have anything against Tatum, but I was glad this tanked.

•  Much Ado About Nothing - Never really got into Shakespeare back in the day. After rewatching some old movies, and some newer ones, I think I appreciate him more. As far as this one specifically, the black and white did give it something, but if it was in color I don't see myself saying, "Ya know? This would have been a whole let better in black and white". As far as Shakespeare modern setting movies, this was probably the easiest to follow. Romeo + Juliet... too stylized, took away a bit from the story. Hamlet (with Hawk, not Gibson)... too whiny and Kyle MacLachlan is one of those guys I can't stand looking at. Much Ado was straight to it. Story first... maybe the black and white was to make it even more simple. It was very good... makes me want to watch the version we saw in high school.

• Serenity / Firefly (TV show)- I've been wanting to watch Firefly for sometime now. I think I've put it off knowing that it was cancelled before the first season was over... something about that makes sad. Everything I knew about the premise, it sounded like something I would like. And I did. The 14 episodes were very entertaining. Mal, Walsh, and Jane were my favorite characters. Pretty neutral on Shepherd and Inara... probably like everyone else, wish I got more back story on Shepherd. Kaylee was cute/fun, but sometimes kind of annoying. I get Simon and River (especially River) were important parts, but I got really sick of the both of them... River's gibberish just got old. Looking into it, I kind of understand why it was cancelled. I think Firefly unfortunately was just on the wrong station at the wrong time/year. I would imagine on a SyFy, with a more specific audience, Firefly would have been around for at least a few seasons... especially if it came out a few years later. 

As far as the movie (and still the TV show I guess), it was good. You could tell Whedon tried to get in as much info to wrap up the story line. Some of the aspect just happened far quicker than you'd like, but again, time constraints. Like River. You have at least a full complete season of finding out all the stuff that happened to her and what she is capable of... but in this movie, it just happens. And it has to. Not enough time to get into it. Also Shepherd. How did he know those things? Who was he? Obviously being the lead, you'd want more about Mal. Zoe, nothing there I want to explore. Walsh was great and could use more. I liked Kaylee, but I guess there's
          nothing there either that I'd want to know more. Jane, of course you want more, he's great. Simon, he
          can just be there with no more back story. i know there are a couple of comics out there that may
          answer some of my questions... but I haven't reached that level of geekdom. If they started up with
          novels (like Star Wars did), I would be all about that. But you are left wanting more that will never
          come. That's f------ annoying.
          

• ATM - Filth, garbage, crap. I hate hate hate Josh Peck... this, Red Dawn, What Goes Up... he is just an awful actor.... All the actors reactions to the horror situation were ridiculous... they were like robots. There is a killer out there, and they are worried about the little things... both guys need to grow a backbone... they could have gotten away almost immediately... so many problems with this. Might be why I hate the genre... it's just too ridiculous. It seems like it would be a good premise for movie, just was executed horribly. This was a random pick on my Netflix queue... I think I need to stop leaving my movie watching to fate.

• The Paperboy - Wasn't really sure what I was going to be getting into when I started this one. I remember when it came out, really didn't do much but it was more that it was Lee Daniels directorial followup to Precious (which I haven't seen). Nicole Kidman got nominated for a Golden Globe, not sure why... not that it mattered, Anne Hathaway had that one in the bag. Zac Efron was whatever... I don't think I'll be able to take him seriously no matter what. John Cusack was just too weird to comment on. McConaughey was good... even though he's a big name, I still think he's underrated. At the very least, I think he has an Oscar nomination in him, if not a win... keep an eye on him in The Wolf of Wall Street.

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In the works: possibly Best of... Pixar, The Lone Ranger, Despicable Me 2, another Christopher Walken flick, Doug Benson comes to Austin for a 3 movie lineup