Mr Poppers Penguin (2011)

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Mr Popper's Penguins

6/10

Starring
Jim Carrey

Directed by Mark Waters


Distributed by 20th Century Fox

Carrey... well, wasn't extraordinary in this movie as you will expect, as he plays a role not requiring a lot of skills, skills he is blessed with. As a fan (which i am) i have seen all his movies from 1994 till now (i.e 2011 Mr Poppers Penguin) (except simon birch).

After the wonderful and extraordinary performance he displayed in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events I guess he got tired of being good at what he does and decides to settle for less. We all know Carrey had a good run till Fun with dick and Jane in 2005, a movie whose plot is as lame as the title itself. Then he dove lower with Number 23which has a rating of 8% in Rotten Tomatoe and was nominated for worse actor in the Razzies. His voice acting was exquisite in Horton hears a Who. We get a feel of who Jim Carrey really is in Yes Man (2008), although the script was a little like Liar Liar but in a can't say no way.
But then I didn't Fancy his acting gay in I Love You Phillip Morris but he was able to prove in the movie that he can venture away from his stereotype role. The Jim Carrey we know and love seems to be gone with the wind. His next movie after that A Christmas Carol where he was the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge, didn't go well either, his voice acting was magnificent but the movie wasn't.

Back to the Mr. Popper: The Movie itself is a family movie, one you can go to watch with your kids.

If you can come to terms with the fact it is a family movie, then you will catch the fun in watching the movie.

The plot is similar to all those Disney Flicks we are use to, Man puts work above family and then he has to take care of something (usually someone), then he realizes what is more important and forfeit his work to be a good father and husband.

Mr Popper doesn't fall far from this tree of genre, as the plot shows Mr. Popper (Carrey), a slick real estate broker in New York City, his ex-wife (Carla Gugino), a young son (Maxwell Perry Cotton) and teen daughter (Madeline Carroll) and a fancy apartment.

He also has an assistant named Pippi who makes sure her sentences always have words beginning in P.

Mr Popper is the best at what he does resulting in a broken home and creating a gap between him and his kids. One day, Mr. Popper receives a crate containing a penguin, an inheritance from his father, who was usually absent in Mr Poppers life while growing up. In the process of getting rid of the Penguin he ends up with more penguins.

I won’t say the movie is bad, cause i enjoyed it and believe you and your family will too.

Cars 2: Review (2011)

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Cars 2


 

















5/10

Starring

Owen Wilson
Larry the Cable Guy
Michael Caine
Emily Mortimer
Jason Isaacs
Thomas Kretschmann


Directed by John Lasseter and Brad Lewis (co-director)

Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures

The idea of taking the spotlight off McQueen is a development that the writers and the screenplay writers hoped will make the movie one for the Oscars. Well...it didn’t quite pan out that way, and ended up missing the mark. The movie has some thrilling races, wonderful sceneries, if there is an award for best animation scenery shots OH! Cars will definitely get it.

Pixar is Known for its memorable animations, pulling out Characters like the ones we see in Finding Nemo and Toy Story, Challenging our imagination with Ratatouille and Monsters Inc, matured action like that from The Incredibles and of course the emotional touch of Up and WALL-E, but like the first Cars which fell short of the other master pieces this one too follow suit.

Cars 2 is a computer-animated action comedy spy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios. Cars 2 fall behind of all the greatest from Pixar except its original Cars. This is the first Pixar animation am sure won’t put up a fight for best animation in the Oscars. Cars originally have a weak story and the sequel just made it glaring. Preferable to the original though cause of the fast paced scenes and it still had its humorous times the movie itself seems to be made for kids.

It has a G rating and I recall asking myself, hey isn’t that a torture scene, and I also recall going, "I think that Car (also those Cars) is dead.

I guess it is high time studios take a pause from all this part 2, 3 or 4. Cause it’s starting to get old.

Here is the plot, Lightning McQueen has been challenged to a series of races by the Italian speedster Francesco Bernoulli, a challenge he accepted. Sally then convinces him to take Mater with him. Somewhere else, the smooth Bond like British spy car Finn McMissile (Michael Caine), assisted by Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) are trying to foil a plot by a criminal mastermind.

Now the criminal mastermind's plot is so twisted and complicated that after you figure it out in a sec, you say "hmm!!!"

The British spies by some rare coincidence mistake the bumbling tow trucker Mater for an American spy, and the rusty cling cling and the two spies engage in a thrilling adventure, to save…"the financial market, and also Cars of cause”

So do you have some spare time? Wondering what to watch? Cars 2 is not it

Green Lantern (2011)

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Green Lantern


 

















4/10

Starring

Ryan Reynolds
Blake Lively
Peter Sarsgaard
Mark Strong
Angela Bassett
Tim Robbins
Directed by Martin Campbell

Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures

In brightest day, in blackest night,
Horrible movies like this
Shall escape my sight

First I will like to say this movie is an absolute waste of time, not well scripted and sometimes dull, the comic relive scenes lacked the relive it is suppose to offer, and the intrigue was drowned in the dialogue. Let’s not even go to the screenplay which looked like a whole mumbo jumbo of clichés stolen from the super hero movies we love and all mysteriously rolled in to one, and what do we get from this Martin Campbell (the director) latest a package, is a movie that is worth missing.

This superhero film is based on the DC Comics character of the same name.

A super villain named Parallax, which looked like a puff of smoke (a large puff if I may add) was suppose to bring the end of the world, but Hal took care of it (making the villain my top worse villain ever). DC has been struggling with hero movies lately, they have Batman and Superman locked down no doubt but after that, this was supposed to be the next best thing, but ended up turning out to be the worse. I think the director confused recklessness and showing lack of safety with lack of fear which Hal Jordan is known for.

The plot is much about Hal and his issues with his dad, it also shows how he struggles to live up to the expectations of being a Green Lantern.

The movie had a promising start until like after the first 5 minutes into it where we see a dying green lantern elect a new one Hal, he gives him the ring and we get to see Hal produce things conjuring them from his mind e.g giant hammers, machine guns, race cars. The character Hal, is a Test Pilot with serious Daddy issues, well dead daddy issues.

Well let me say after the huge budget penned down for this intended masterpiece, you will expect hey 200 million worth of good looking aliens not Star Trek rejects. But it was the dullness in the plot that makes this movie not worth watching.

We see Hal flying around and I ask myself, why have I been waiting anxiously to see this movie?

The movie ends with hope for a part two, but after looking at the money the movie pulled home from the box office, i think that hope is dead.

But i think we will be seeing Ryan in the Justice League movie that DC intends to make sometime in the near future.

X-MEN: First Class (2011)

X-men: First Class (2011)

7/10

Starring
James McAvoy
Michael Fassbender
Rose Byrne
January Jones
Jennifer Lawrence
Oliver Platt
Kevin Bacon

Directed by Matthew Vaughn


They say, "Don't judge a book by its cover". It's true. The posters don’t do justice to this movie.

This movie is one you will likely see more than once. The plot is on the fringe of perfection, and the action scenes are well choreographed, the special effects were great, and the dialogue is engaging.

First class is the introduction to Stan Lee's mutant team. We get to see how Charles Xavier and Magneto grew their mutual respect for each other and how their differences drove them apart. As we get to see these two characters grow into the men we now see today in the comic world. We also get to see a new iteration of first generation X-men since the original roster (which had Cyclops and Jean Grey) is altered. And that's a good thing.

Remember the scene in the first X-men, where we see a young Magneto separated from his parents in a NAZI concentration camp back in 1944? No? Well, you're going to see it again. And it's done with depth and class. We get to see a young Erik Lehnsherr being forced to display his mutant power, when he’s separated from his mother. This act of force was carried out by a doctor Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) who wants to study and harness Erik’s abilities

In New York, a wealthy boy, Charles Xavier, who can read minds, meets a girl named Raven who can shape shift but whose natural physical state is blue and scaly.

In 1962, Charles has grown and has become a compassionate genetic scientist (now played by James McAvoy) studying genetic anomalies. Erik on the other hand has grown (now played by Michael Fassbender) into a man consumed with anger and vengeance, tracking down the doctor who tortured him. Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) is also grown into a frustrated mutant longing to live without hiding behind her many forms.

It's all here: how Hank McCoy becomes the hideous beast, why Raven aka Mystique prefers to be on Magneto's side, why banshee can fly and some other nice surprises I'm not going to rob you of.

Casting, in this movie is just the thing that gives this movie the edge it needed, as Kevin Beacon (long time no see) was just wonderful, giving us a memorable performance and totally stole the show. The other teens in the movie, Havoc, Darwin and Banshee also did their part as we see them struggle with their mastery of their powers.

Summarily, Marvel did something which is a lot better than what the last 2 films had done. They told the X-men story the right way. This is 2 hours well spent in any cinema, 3D or otherwise. I guess summer just got better.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

5/10

Starring
Johnny Depp
Penélope Cruz
Ian McShane
Geoffrey Rush


Directed by Rob Marshall

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, is an adventure fantasy film and the fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. In the film, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is joined by Angelica (Penélope Cruz). I am not a huge fan of part 4s and was skeptical about the movie and expected it to stink, but it didn’t stink as much as i expected.

This movie packs a lot of action and reminds us why we liked the 1st Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. This to me is manageable, bust should be a reason for Disney to stop production of movies in this franchise. The writers tried to bring back the adventure focus of the first movie, by stripping down the side plots of the first three films. The writers tried to give us the old Jack Sparrow…oh! Sorry, he prefers to be called by his full name Captain Jack Sparrow.

Also in this movie we have Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) return with a lot of arggh, and a lost leg. You won’t even miss Will and Elizabeth Turner as Angelica (Penelope Cruz) does a good job as the new female lead to replace the two.

The plot to me was pointless and lacks all form of common sense, and yet I stayed glued, in loyalty to the franchise. The movie did have lumps, as Jack Sparrow's swag was a little tuned down and we get to see him look serious at some time, the length of the movie to me was also not reasonable. Some dialogue were... let me say foolish and while some achieved the purpose of making you laugh.

The plot continues from the previous movie, as we watch a three way chase for The Fountain of Youth, by The Spanish, The English led by Babossa and Blackbeard (Ian McShane). The movie has a subplot that involves a mermaid (French actress Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) and a missionary (Sam Claflin). Ian McShane, did well in the role of Blackbeard as he had the voice that can make any character look like the devil himself.

The romance between Jack and Angelica was just odd as we see them fall in and out of the love thingy, which made no sense.

If you are a big fan of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, you will love this one. If like me you believe that Disney should have stopped after the first movie, and the second and third were a waste of your money, this will also be a waste of those precious bills.

In conclusion, Johnny Depp put in a near good enough performance and although I believe the writers could have done a better Job with the plot, I still give the movie a five as it did have it's funny moments.

With the box office returns and if rumors are true a fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie should be expected. I just wish Disney will take a cue and stop while it is still hot.

But as the way things go, studios do not stop until they make a loss or a small profit which could be equated to a loss. Here is a movie that is best left to be seen later and not to be seen in the cinemas.