Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Happy Birthday Melissa McCarthy!


On the occasion of Melissa McCarthy's birthday, I thought I would post some pictures from a recent adventure Heidi and I had in Hollywood.  I had read that Melissa McCarthy would be getting her handprints in cement at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and hoped it would fit into our family vacation schedule, because Heidi and I are huge Melissa McCarthy fans (Heidi from Gilmore Girls and me from that and her SNL performances and general versatility).  Well, it did and here are the results!


Heidi at the World Famous TCL Chinese Theatre


Heidi waiting patiently and adorably in line


Susan Sarandon's introduction of Melissa McCarthy.


During her speech.  She was gracious, funny and adorable.  Much more like her Gilmore Girls character than her recent hit movies.
The Big Moment, standing barefoot in wet cement.


Melissa with her husband and director of Tammy.
 
Love this pic of Susan laughing with Melissa

Oscar winning screenwriter and co-star in Tammy, Nat Faxon.

O...M...G...here she comes!

Susan: "YOU haven't seen this movie, have you?!" LOL

Such an honor to meet Susan Sarandon.  Heidi didn't know her as well, but I just about died!

Melissa's husband Ben Falcone and director of Tammy.  Heidi knew him as an extra on Gilmore Girls :).

Sarah Baker, co-star in Tammy.

Look how impossibly adorable the two of them are!

Very successful autograph session :).

For the record, I did not at that time plan to take Heidi to see that particular movie because it was rated R and the previews made it look like a cheap knockoff of the worst of Bridesmaids, but I broke down and took Heidi last month and just reviewed it the other day.  Read it here (http://simoniesmovies.blogspot.com/2014/08/catching-up-2-to-see-this-weekend-and-2.html).


Saturday, August 23, 2014

Catching Up: 2 to See This Weekend and 2 to Miss

I know I am woefully behind due to vacation and moving house, so I'm going to put my most recent reviews into one here.  Luckily, two of them don't warrant much attention anyway ;).

 
Diane Keaton's schtick has finally gotten old and tired and Michael Douglas has simply gotten old and tired.   The story of an grumpy old man forced to evolve by having a young cherub thrust upon him is an overused gimic. Combine that with poor dialog and a total lack of direction and you get this movie. It's like "How Do You Know - the Golden Years". Skip it.
 
2 out of 5 stars
 
 
 
 
Tammy was actually a pleasant surprise from what I expected, but still didn't qualify as "good".  This is a case of mis-marketing.  The commercials made it seem like a crude spin off of Bridesmaids, capitalizing on what some think is Melissa McCarthy's only appeal to audiences: being bawdy.  (Here is where I insert my objection to movies being rated R just for language again, probably done in this case just to attract the Bridesmaids crowd as well). However, it turns out that her character is the most sympathetic and Susan Sarandon as her grandmother is the somewhat repulsive secondary character. It's a bit of a madcap road movie (much of it in the midwest and Missouri in particular) with colorful characters and circumstances thrown in along the way, but the acting is far too real to allow it to be funny in most cases. This movie had heart and a good cast - see it for that...or don't see it all.
 
2.5 out of 5 stars
 
 

 
The Hundred Foot Journey must have looked tremendous on paper to get the likes of Helen Mirren, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg involved, and it almost is, but that doesn't count in movie making.  It's a pleasant story combining cultures, generations and palates, the third subject being my favorite part, which includes a sequence of competitive chopping and beautiful cinematography, but it never quite achieves the right chemistry of the three genres together. There are a few moments of humanity that pull at the heart strings, but the only greatness is Helen Mirren who is wonderful as a starched French restaurant owner. The rest of the cast cannot rise to her level and those mismatched feeling lingers throughout the film.  The leads are very appealing and could do better on their own, so a spinoff might be called for.
 
3 out of 5 stars
 
 
 
 
Boyhood is a fairly bold experiment in movie-making.  Filmed for a week or two each of 12 consecutive years, we actually see the actors age and evolve almost in real time - the most pronounced being the young boy who we see turn into a man.  The barely scripted improvisational style of the film also lends to this heightened reality.  It's not a reality show or a documentary, but at times feels that way.  (Also, in reality, people curse, even children, so this is how even this movie attains the R rating). My favorite aspect of this approach is that when they made current pop culture references to ground the film, they actually WERE current.  They didn't need to look in the archives and go figure out what would have been popular at the time - it simply was.  However, with such an open minded approach to making this story of a boy growing up, the (very long) movie at almost 3 hours doesn't end up having a story arch or even a climax.  At the end there is no lesson behind the plot, or even a plot.  So again, I applaud new ways of evolving the cinematic experience, but I would think most audiences would not appreciate that aspect alone enough to consider it one of the best films of the year.  Perhaps the Oscars should add a category for "Most Innovative Filmmaking Endeavor".  I would definitely sign up to see all of them.
 
3.25 out of 5 stars

 

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Planes: Fire & Rescue S'Movie Review




Full disclosure: I did not see the first Planes movie.  I was miraculously able to pawn that task off on another family member.  That said, I kind of really enjoyed this second movie.  It had a great story, with the heart and subtle humor of the first Cars movie, which it’s loosely based on.  Cars was so well written, I never expected much from sequels or spin offs, but somehow they managed to make another quality film.   
I’m a fan of puns and this movie was full of flying related humor that most children would miss, but is a prerequisite tongue-in-cheek aspect of these anthropomorphic animated films.  The fire fighting aspects of the plot (these planes are essentially fire jumpers) are actually pretty intense and with the current forest fires in the Northwest, I worried that even my 11 year old would be a little scared by it.  The soundtrack lends a hand to the enjoyment of the movie as well, in particular with the use strategic use of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”. 
Overall, it’s no 3D Dragon, but  I almost regret not seeing the first Planes movie…almost.
 
3.25 out of 5 stars