Bridesmaid (2011)

Bridesmaid (2011)

7/10

Starring

Kristen Wiig

Maya Rudolph

Melissa McCarthy

Directed by Paul Feig

Bridesmaids was a movie that made waves when it came out in 2011. I didn’t see it then, mainly because I considered it a chick flick. After watching it now, I’ve concluded that it is a chick flick—but a chick flick with a lot of entertainment and it is worth seeing. Bridesmaids is well-scripted, well-cast, and has no dull moments. The movie deserved all the attention and accolades it received, and I really hope they don’t make a part two and ruin it.

Nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Melissa McCarthy) and Best Original Screenplay, this romantic comedy was directed by Paul Feig. Since this movie, I’ve seen him go on to direct two more films with Melissa McCarthy: The Heat (2013) and Spy (2015).

Bridesmaids was both serious and fun, and the incidents that occurred in the movie were so over-the-top that you wouldn’t believe such things even crossed the writers’ minds. Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo wrote the movie, and Wiig also starred in the lead role as Annie.

The movie starts with a hilarious sex scene—one you have to see. It then introduces the two best friends, and we see how Annie balances her life, which is in shambles, with her love and companionship for her friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph). Everything was a mess but still great for Annie—until Lillian tells her she’s getting married. Her boyfriend popped the question, and Annie is to be the maid of honor.

Annie is supposed to be thrilled for her friend, but that’s not the case. For Annie, she and Lillian were single together. Now, she’s single alone, and her friend is starting a new life with her groom.

Things get worse when Annie meets Helen, the groom’s boss’s wife. Instant dislike and jealousy spring up between the two, as Annie finds out Helen and Lillian have been spending a lot of time together, bonding.

This jealousy leads to a series of events that mar the bridal shower and, if not nipped in the bud, could ruin the wedding and Annie’s future happiness.

Bridesmaids is a good film—funny and thrilling. It was a critical and box office success. Word is out that there are plans for a part two, and like I said above, I hope those plans never come to fruition. Movies like this only need one part.

What do you think?

Old School (2003)

Old School (2003)

6/10

Starring

Luke Wilson

Vince Vaughn

Will Ferrell

Directed by Todd Philips

First, I’d like to say this: if anyone tells you you won’t enjoy Old School, they’re lying—because I did, and I know you will too. The movie features Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell at their best, and the script isn’t flaky or weak. It’s just a bogus attempt to feel real, an attempt I applaud. Maybe it is my age talking, and someone born much later will find this movie offensive, but it was to me very funny.

I guess there are some things you’re better off leaving to memory. In your head, they remain something you worship. Way back in 2003, I loved Old School. Watching it again made me wonder what made me rate it so highly back then. The movie did have the jokes, I enjoyed the script, and Will Ferrell was funny back then, but it wasn’t as great a comedy as I remembered.

I’ll admit, I must’ve been naïve back then to think this was one of the funniest movies I’d seen Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, or Luke Wilson in. That said, the movie is still good enough to be rated a 6/10. It has cool scenes and brings out the best in the actors.

For me, Old School is about how three men facing midlife crises handle their lives to avoid self-destruction.
One of the men is Bernard (Vince Vaughn), who feels trapped in his marriage but won’t do anything to jeopardize his family. Another is Frank (Will Ferrell), who just got married and can’t believe how much he has to compromise to stay married. The last is Mitch (Luke Wilson), who catches an early flight home to surprise his live-in girlfriend—only to find her involved with other people (emphasis on the “people”).

Mitch gets an apartment near a campus, and Bernard decides to turn it into a den where the guys can escape their lives and be free. The whole idea and partying catch the attention of the campus dean, who happens to be an old acquaintance the trio ridiculed in high school. He decides to make things difficult for them, forcing them to turn their den into a fraternity. Now, they have to defend its existence and keep its members happy and fulfilled.

The movie was a box office success, making more than three times its production cost. It almost had a sequel, but we were saved from seeing it when Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn declined to be in it. Here’s an old movie I can say I saw and liked.

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

10/10

Starring

Cary Grant

Katharine Hepburn

Directed by Howard Hawks

This movie is outstanding. I have to be honest—if you haven’t seen this movie, you need to. This is the best Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant movie I’ve seen to date.

The first time I ran into a paleontologist was in Friends, and in Friends, Ross was just as scatterbrained as Dr. David Huxley, played by Cary Grant in this 1938 screwball comedy classic. Now, I am not saying all paleontologists are scatterbrains, but based on my movie and TV viewing, they do not have good representatives.  Screwball is a genre where the female lead dominates the male.
Their onscreen chemistry is magical, and the screenplay is something you don’t see every day. The lines are more than comical—they’re hilarious. The moment the two leads start getting in each other’s way, you wish they’d never stop.

As the movie progressed, I wondered if the script would have them married and struggling to raise a child. I was wrong—Baby is actually a 3-year-old leopard that Susan’s brother sent her to look after.

The movie starts with an introduction to Dr. Huxley, who is planning to get married until his path crosses with Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) on a golf course while he’s meeting with a benefactor. After a series of events where Susan and David spend more time together, Susan takes a liking to David, while David is ready to do anything to get away from her.

Susan’s decision to pursue David takes the movie through a series of twists and turns, and I laughed hard watching the two of them get in each other’s way.

For me, the gem in this movie was Katharine Hepburn. I totally adored her in this film and fell in love with her character immediately. You will too when you see and hear the hilarious lines she delivers.

The movie’s production took a long time to materialize, mostly because Grant and Hepburn had to ad-lib their dialogues, which made them laugh and struggle to get their lines right.
Bringing Up Baby wasn’t a box office hit when it was released in 1938, but as it got re-released, it became a success.

Furthermore, the movie is ranked 88th on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition), 14th on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs, and 51st on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Passions list.

What a wonderful movie—one you’ll enjoy watching and revisiting.

Super Mario Bros. (1993)

Super Mario Bros. (1993)

3/10

Starring

Bob Hoskins

John Leguizamo

Dennis Hopper

Samantha Mathis

Directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel

After seeing the Honest Trailer on Screen Junkies (YouTube), I just had to go look for this film. Reading more about the movie on Wikipedia didn’t help—it just made me more curious.

This is a movie Bob Hoskins (who plays Mario) called "the worst thing I ever did." In a 2007 interview with The Guardian, he answered Super Mario Bros. to three questions: "What is the worst job you've done?" "What has been your biggest disappointment?" and "If you could edit your past, what would you change?"

John Leguizamo, who played Luigi, also said in his autobiography, "Oh man, that movie sucks. And I suck in it."
I just had to see this movie to find out why it sucked—and boy, did it suck. This movie is so off the mark and borderline confused about whether it was a family film or not. When I finished watching, I felt like the directors and writers had never played the Mario game before making this movie.

The movie has decent effects, considering it was made in the early '90s, but the story and screenplay didn’t add up.

What was with the fungus?

The game made sense with the bad guys being anthropomorphic turtles, but in this movie, they were humanoids of reptilian descent living in another dimension. Mario and Luigi live in the human world.

For the movie plot, I was expecting Mario to have to save Princess Peach, but the movie’s love focus was on Luigi and Princess Daisy. That was my first turn-off.
Daisy was brought to the human world and raised there. Koopa needed to get a rock that was in Daisy’s possession, so he sent his goons to kidnap her and bring her to his dimension—which they did.

Mario and Luigi followed into the new world, where fungus is growing everywhere, and Koopa was king and ruler.
The two heroes have to find Koopa and save Princess Daisy before Koopa gets his hands on the rock in her possession and merges the human world with his.

Critically panned by critics and a box office disaster (making 20millionfroma20millionfroma48 million production cost), it’s rumored that this is the reason no other live-action film has been released from Nintendo’s garage of characters. I hope they get over it—this was in 1993. A lot of great writers could spin characters like Metroid and Zelda into box office hits.

I don’t know why, but I’ll be rewatching this crap.

This Is the End (2013)

This Is the End (2013)

6/10

Starring

James Franco

Seth Rogen

Jonah Hill

Jay Baruchel

Danny McBride

Craig Robinson

Directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Their debut)

This Is the End is the second Seth Rogen film (the first being The Interview (2014), which also starred James Franco and Seth Rogen) that I’ve enjoyed. I didn’t get to see it when it came out in 2013 because I’m not much of a Seth Rogen fan, but the movie wasn’t bad at all. The comedy was well-paced, and I didn’t find myself being dragged on for too long before another laugh came crawling up my belly.

The whole idea of the main cast being exaggerated versions of themselves is one you’ll enjoy. My favorite was the exaggerated version of James Franco, with him being called a nerd—because that dude is a total nerd. Check out his bio on Wikipedia to see how many degrees he has.

The movie mixes and matches, using many cameos to play exaggerated versions of themselves. It uses Biblical themes of the end of the world and tries to pass on a message that, regardless of how life presents itself, we should think about others (although this message may not have been in the minds of the makers). All of this was done in a perverted way, which I didn’t initially appreciate but soon saw the fun in.

The movie plot is about two actor friends, Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel, who decide to go to a party at James Franco’s house. Seth wanting his new friends—James Franco, Jonah Hill, and Craig Robinson—to get along with his old mate Jay wasn’t going well. Both Seth and Jay went on a stroll while the party was still going on and witnessed what seemed like an earthquake to Seth and the Biblical end of the world to Jay.

They both got back to the party, and the world started to burn before their eyes, with people dying and some being sucked up by a blue light. Now trapped together (James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson), they have to find a way to survive what is happening.

I can’t jump out and say the acting was great or the script was wonderful. What I can say is that the movie is fun to watch, and James Franco was the bomb in it.

The movie had a grand ending. I enjoyed seeing the Backstreet Boys partying in heaven, and the graphics of the movie were wonderful. Towards the end, some intense CGI was used to depict monsters and demons, and it was so good.

This Is the End is a movie you should watch. Sorry, it ain’t a family film, but it is a funny one.

Awakenings (1990)

Awakenings (1990)

6/10

Starring

Robert DeNiro

Robin Williams

Directed by Penny Marshall

I don’t know if you’ve heard of or seen this drama, but it’s very good. Robert De Niro has been dishing out masterful and memorable performances for years, and in this 1990 movie, his portrayal of a catatonic patient dealing with coming back to life after 30 years of being out of it is worth seeing.
His acting earned him a nomination for Best Actor at the 1991 Academy Awards. The movie also got nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The downside of this movie is that the makers tried too hard to make the acting and the story feel too real. While that may work for some, a viewer doesn’t always want to watch a movie and feel depressed—they want to feel happy.
Penny Marshall is a great director; her movies Big (1988) and A League of Their Own (1992) are forever memorable. I feel like the thing she left out of this movie (comedy) was what it needed to become a masterpiece and a box office hit (which it wasn’t). I spent most of my time feeling sad and wanting to stop watching because I just couldn’t take the gloom, rather than being excited for the patients who got to live again.

De Niro played Leonard Lowe in such a moving performance that I almost broke down in tears. Leonard was the patient Dr. Malcolm first tried L-Dopa on (L-Dopa is a drug used to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease), increasing his dosage numerous times until one night Leonard got out of bed by himself and started talking. After monitoring him for some time, L-Dopa was then administered to the other catatonic patients suffering from Encephalitis lethargica, and they too came back to life.

Things started to change when the drug began to affect Leonard. He started behaving erratically, becoming harder to control and a nuisance to himself and others. Leonard eventually calmed down and allowed the doctors to use him to study the effects of the drug.

The late Robin Williams also delivered a great performance as British neurologist Oliver Sacks, fictionalized here as an American doctor named Malcolm Sayer. The movie is based on a 1973 memoir of the same name, where Oliver Sacks documents the effects of L-Dopa on catatonic patients with Encephalitis lethargica.

I can bet everyone involved in this movie would have been pleased because the screenplay is very inviting and entertaining. We get to watch a doctor care so much about his patients that he does everything he can to bring them back from their catatonic state.

Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015)

Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015)

6/10

Starring the voice of

Benjamin Bratt

Michael C. Hall

Tamara Taylor

Directed by Sam Liu

Justice League: Gods and Monsters is a beautiful movie set in an alternate DC universe where our heroes have different personas and names. Instead of:

• Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman, we have Hernan Guerra/Lor-Zod/Superman
• Bruce Wayne/Batman, we have Kirk Langstrom/Batman
• Princess Diana/Wonder Woman, we have Princess Bekka/Wonder Woman

It’s a dark feature where we see our heroes killing, sucking blood, and a whole lot of mass murder going on. This time, I didn’t fancy the voice acting as much as I did the animation. Putting this side-by-side with the Suicide Squad trailer that came out recently, it seems DC isn’t caring much for PG-rated movies.

I certainly enjoyed seeing a dark side of the "boy in blue," and a Batman and Superman combination where they’re actually friendly toward each other—instead of the usual dynamic where Batman seems to be a step ahead of his Boy Scout friend.

The animation is a direct-to-DVD feature written by Alan Burnett and Bruce Timm. The story is original, and a comic book series has been released showing incidents dealing individually with each member and events that occurred before this Gods and Monsters animation.

The movie kicks off with a twist: in this alternate universe, when Jor-El finished the ship that would take his son to Earth, General Zod broke into his chambers and implanted his own DNA instead of Jor-El’s into the egg sent to Earth.
The Superman in this universe is the son of General Zod, Batman is a vampire who sucks blood, and Wonder Woman’s backstory is quite long.

These three use brute force, kill, and suck blood to ensure Earth is safe.
There’s also a Lex Luthor in this film, but he’s good—more of a peace-loving individual who just wants to learn about the stars.

The group didn’t have a welcoming fan base due to their style of dishing out justice, and things went further south when renowned scientists started dying mysteriously.
One was found drained of blood in the Arctic, another was stabbed with a woman’s boot print on his car door, and the last was burnt alive by heat vision.

All the signs pointed to the League, who claimed to be innocent of the whole thing.

The animation is fun to watch, I didn’t feel like I needed it to do anything more. It has a dark twist on the heroes we know, so there is doubt in my mind to recommend this for you and the kids to see together.

Ted 2 (2015)

Ted 2 (2015)

3/10

Starring

Mark Wahlberg

Seth MacFarlane

Amanda Seyfried

Directed by Seth MacFarlane

Ted 2 is not a movie worth watching. It shows that the writers had no idea what else to do with a talking teddy bear. I didn’t like the first movie and gave it a 5/10 rating. I didn’t expect the sequel to be better than the first, but I didn’t expect it to suck this much. You won’t believe how much of this movie you can literally cut out because those scenes added nothing to the story and couldn’t even pass as comedy.

The movie had enough cameos, but even they couldn’t save it.

The plot is so lacking in insight that it’s despicable. Ted decides to get married—a teddy bear with no male genitalia tying the knot with his girlfriend. This takes me back to the first movie, where you see him with women (sex implied), and even then, I was wondering what weird sense of humor Seth and his co-writers have.

John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) is his best man, of course, but he’s going through a rough patch as his marriage is over.

Ted and his wife decide to adopt a child to strengthen their marital bond. When it comes to the state’s attention that Ted can’t adopt, hold a job, or even be married because he’s considered property and not a human, John convinces Ted to sue the state. However, they’re up against some big guns who want to claim Ted as their property and rip him apart to see what makes him tick.

The reason we have to endure this crap is that in 2012, Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) wrote a story about a boy who wished for his teddy bear to come to life. The wish came true, but the bear turned out to be foul-mouthed and loved getting high. Seth made a movie about a 35-year-old man and his bromance with a 27-year-old teddy bear named Ted.

Ted (2012) was Seth’s full-length directorial debut, costing $85 million to make and earning over $540 million at the box office. You can guess the rest of the story—a sequel was already in the works, with Seth returning to direct. What you just read above is the crappy plot for Ted 2.

I guess there is a market for people loving adults behaving like children, with a stuffed animal being foul-mouthed, who am I to stop people from loving what they love, for me this movie is something to avoid.

Burying The Ex (2014)

Burying The Ex (2014)

3/10

Starring

Anton Yelchin

Ashley Greene

Directed by Joe Dante

Anyone with half the mind of an adult will definitely tell you not to go see this movie. Burying the Ex was made for lovers of B-rated horror movies who don’t mind a lame plot. The screenplay lacks any form of maturity, and the problem with such a screenplay is that you’ll sit through the movie wondering what else they could come up with—because it’s so bad, you can’t accept that it could get worse.

If you’ve ever liked zombie movies and the whole idea of the dead coming back to life, you’ll be utterly disappointed with how Joe Dante decided to channel this movie.
Joe has been in the movie-making business for a long time. Making horror films—or movies about odd creatures coming to life—is something he’s known for. I liked his old movies, like Gremlins (1984), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), and Small Soldiers (1998), but I disliked this one. The movie wasn’t horror enough, which was the idea since it’s a horror-comedy, but the comedy wasn’t even funny enough to make up for the lack of horror.

I guess my only thrill was seeing Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin) from Star Trek, but I should’ve waited another year to see him in the next Star Trek movie, Star Trek Beyond (2016).

The movie’s plot centers on Max (Anton Yelchin), who is dating and living with his environmentally obsessed girlfriend. She makes Max eat healthy and tries to keep him away from behaviors that would be bad for him. She even tries to cut his half-brother (a drunk, jobless waste) out of his life so that Max’s life can be great.

Yep, she’s a controlling freak, and Max didn’t like it for a second. But she was beautiful, sexy, and caring, so Max just hung on—until she took the whole "green" thing too far.
The movie takes its time making us hate Max’s girlfriend, Evelyn (Ashley Greene), for her controlling nature, but it fails to show why the things she was trying to keep Max away from were actually bad. In my opinion, she was the best thing that ever happened to him.

Max decides to break up with her, but she dies before the breakup. And since they had somehow wished to be together forever in front of a freakishly devilish genie, Evelyn crawls out of her grave to get back together with Max.

Well, if you need a movie to watch to pass the time… I’d advise you to go exercise until you’re worn out, take a shower, and go to bed instead.

Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

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Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

7/10

Starring

Robin Williams

Forest Whitaker

Directed by Barry Levinson

Good Morning, Vietnam is a 1987 war comedy movie set in Saigon 1965 during the Vietnam War. The radio phrase, “Good Morning, Vietnam” sticks with you and the radio show is one you will listen to with excitement and joy as you watch Robin marvel the mic with silky smooth talks that will make you wish you can do the same.

The movie plot is loosely based on the experiences of AFRS radio DJ Adrian Cronauer.

It stands out as a wonderful comedy and a thrilling war drama and Williams chaotic comic relief during a disastrous war is something you have to see to appreciate.

His character acts on impulse, meeting everything head on and making you wish you can meet the real Adrian Cronauer because if he really acts as Williams portrayed him, then he must be a cool guy. If not, then I bet he wishes he is just as cool as Robin makes him to be. Not only does the movie boast of Williams mastery, it is filled with a wonderful cast too.

The movie plot is about a radio station based in Saigon, Vietnam where the American soldiers can tune in and catch up with what is going on around the globe and from home.

Airman Adrian Cronauer was brought in to host a comedy segment in the radio station daily broadcast, a task he was born to do.

Adrian not only delivered a memorable performance, but he made even some of his superiors jealous with the way he acts, as Adrian is care free, loud and quick with comebacks. He was a source of inspiration to the men in the fields, inspiring them and give them something they were not used to.

Adrian also made friends with the local, which was frowned on by some of the other soldiers, and his friendship although nice may actually be his down fall.

Here is a movie showcasing the late Robin Williams at his best as he host a radio show which most of it were improvised. Robin Williams gained numerous accolades for the movie, including a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a leading role and nominations for Best Actor in The Academy Awards and BAFTA.

The movie is rated 100 in the AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs, and it was a critical and commercial success, making over $123 million from a $13 million production budget. This is one of the best of the late Robin Williams, and if you have not seen it, you should.

Paul Blat: Mall Cop 2 (2015)

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Paul Blat: Mall Cop 2 (2015)

3/10

Starring

Kevin James

Neal McDonough

Directed by Andy Fickman

Once in a while I like watching the comedies universally panned by critics because they can be so bad, it becomes really funny. You watch the movie wondering, it can’t be that bad and they surprise you.

The thought I had when the credits started rolling was, “they knew.”

They knew that this movie was crap right from the beginning, they knew they didn’t have anything and all they had was people like me who liked the first movie and would love to see a second part and they cash in on that.

In this crap pot, which Kevin James co-wrote Paul and his daughter went for a security officer’s convention in Las Vegas, it so happens the hotel they were in Wynn Hotel was also the location of a crime operation.

In the midst of the convention criminal master mind Vincent (Neal McDonough) and his accomplices disguised themselves as hotel employees to properly position themselves as they steal priceless works of art from the hotel and replace them with replicas.

Things were going great for both Paul and Vincent, somehow in the middle of the movie, until their paths crossed and Paul passed out from lack of sugar.

They would be stupid to make a part 3, this was a financial ploy, taking advantage of the audience. Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 is another Happy Madison Genre, of bad writing, weak characters, and a sad excuse for comic entertainment. Yeap, the movie is that bad and more, as it tries to string up shameful jokes and totally avoidable stupidity with the aim of making you laugh hard.

In the end you do laugh though, not at the movie, but at yourself for wasting your time and your finances to go see this movie. Whose script lacked any form of seriousness, to be accepted as well thought through idea.

The whole Mall Cop thing in the first movie, where Paul tries to deter some bad guys alone was good, and that does not give Happy Madison the right to ruin a good memory. I had to go wiki the director (Andy Fickman) up because the movie experience felt like he had never directed a movie before in his life, yet he has been in the business since 2002.

The movie was a commercial success, why? Because people like me wanted to watch Paul Blart again.

Happy Madison productions an Adam Sandler company is making money from mediocrity, I can’t wait for such to stop.