scott, if your life had a face, i would punch it.

Movie Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

IMDb Summary: Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) must defeat his new girlfriend’s seven evil exes in order to win her heart.

What I liked:

• Kieran Culkin as Scott’s “Cool Gay Roommate”, Wallace. He was pretty funny.
• Chris Evans as one of Ramona’s (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) ex’s that Scott must fight, Lucas Lee. Before he was Captain America, he was the skateboarder guy from Scott Pilgrim. I’d previously only seen him in Cellular where he was blah, but he surprised me in this movie. He was so over-the-top cheesy that it was hilarious.
• Brandon Routh as another one of Ramona’s ex’s, Todd Ingram. The only other thing I’ve ever seen Brandon Routh in was on a little soap opera called One Life to Live, which I used to watch every summer vacation with my grandmother (actually, I once tried to watch Superman Returns, but I am not counting this one because I ended up falling asleep after the first 20 minutes). Soap operas are usually pretty serious, so I was totally not expecting him to be funny - but he was so super goofy as the Vegan ex-boyfriend that it made me laugh out loud.
• Knives (Ellen Wong). Actually, in the beginning I found her to be the over-eager, annoying puppy. But by the end of the movie she ended up probably being the most mature out of all the characters because she ends up realizing that she doesn’t need Scott in order to be happy and encourages him to go after Ramona because she knows it will make him happy.

What I didn’t like:

• The visual effects. I get that this story is based on a graphic novel and I get that this is supposed to be a video-game themed movie. In theory, this concept is really cool and different. However, after a while, I found all of the graphics to be too in-your-face.
• Ramona. I know she is supposed to be the girl of Scott’s dreams. I get that in real life, sometimes you can’t really explain why you fall for someone – you just do. But I just couldn’t bring myself to see or understand why Scott was so crazy about her, in the context of this movie. She seemed pretty annoyed, bitchy, and emotionally detached the entire time, that it was hard for me to believe that it was really worth it for Scott to fight all of the evil exes in order for him to win her heart.
• Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim. Scott comes off as being really selfish, meek, and too much of an underachiever. While I think it’s okay to have main characters that are flawed – that’s what helps us relate to them – he just did not come off as a hero or someone that I feel like rooting for.

Final Thoughts:

I know a lot of people like this movie (including some of my loyal blog readers who have recommended this movie to me), but despite the fact that I have more likes than dislikes, I actually ended up not really liking this movie (please don’t hurt me!). I tried, but I just could not sympathize with the main characters, and ended up enjoying a lot of the minor characters more than the leads.

I think the idea of this movie is really appealing – video game themes, based on a comic book, and having lots of action/fight scenes. I also think that the symbolism in this movie is cool – fighting for love, getting past your significant other’s past, overcoming insecurities, etc. Unfortunately, the movie itself didn’t really do it for me.

life is all about moments of impact, and how they change our lives forever.

Movie Review: The Vow (2012)

IMDb Summary: A car accident puts Paige (Rachel McAdams) in a coma, and when she wakes up with severe memory loss, her husband Leo (Channing Tatum) works to win her heart again. 



What I liked:

• 
Leo. Just to clarify, I’m not saying that I liked Channing Tatum’s performance, but that I liked the character itself. As I watched the movie, I couldn’t help but think how heartbreaking it is to love someone who has forgotten how much they once loved you. I felt like he was someone that you could really sympathize with because of his undying love for his wife, yet he never gave up on her up until the end. Eep - I’m starting to get kind of cheesy here… sorry.

• The ending. I was fully expecting the ending to be something along the lines of Paige finding something that triggers her memory causing her to run back to Leo and their living happily ever after. There was still a happy ending (of course) but I liked how it didn’t follow that exact formula. I thought it was really cool that despite the fact that everyone wanted her to re-do her past, she ended up eventually following the same path in life as before her accident.



What I didn’t like:


• The acting. I know I shouldn’t expect much from a romantic drama starring Channing Tatum, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t state the obvious here: the acting sucked. Aside from the terrible dialogue, there were times that the actors sounded like they were monotonously reading straight from the script. There were also a few times I couldn’t even understand what Channing Tatum was saying because he was so mush-mouthed.
• There wasn’t really a strong antihero. Scott Speedman, who played Jeremy, Paige’s ex-fiancee, was supposed to be the antagonist, but his character didn’t seem to really put up much of a fight and even gets punched in the face by Channing Tatum. Weak!

Final Thoughts:


The only reason I had this on the Netflix queue was to give myself an excuse to make fun of Channing Tatum - because sometimes you just need a punching bag. But I’ll be honest - this film turned out to be better than what I had expected. This isn’t to say the movie was great, but it wasn’t bad either. Perhaps it was because I had significantly lowered my expectations? 


One of the things I liked the most about the movie was the ending. Sure, it was still a Hollywood happy ending, but I like how Paige’s storyline progressed, and that despite the fact that she couldn’t remember anything of her most recent past - her career change, her marriage, etc - that she ended up trying to find herself again and ended up finding her true self again. It made me think about that phrase that people always say: “If i had to do it over again, I would do it differently”. But who knows? Perhaps it’s easy for someone to say that they would do things differently, but in the end they’d probably end up making the same life choices, because you can’t escape who you are and what your path in life is meant to be.

random thoughts on the 70th annual golden globe awards

This post is only about five days late, but better late than never right?

Here I go…

• Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were the perfect mix of adorable and hilarious. Also: Tina Fey looked fabulous – have I mentioned I love her?
  

• Jason Statham was there. In a tux. That is all.
  

• WHAT. This was random? I’m sure Lincoln was probably tossing in his grave seeing as how he was a Republican and Bill Clinton is a Democrat.
  

• After the many, many, MANY television spots for the Silver Linings Playbook and the lovely montage for the best picture nominee, I STILL don’t really know what this movie is about. Please advise.

• Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig – HILARIOUS.

• Jason Statham proved he is badass no matter what he does - look at how he ripped the shit out of that envelope! Have I mentioned I love him?
  

• I had no idea until Daniel Day Lewis gave his acceptance speech on Sunday that he is British! THAT’S HOW BAD I AM WITH MOVIES :(

• Jodie Foster’s speech – very endearing, albeit a bit confusing.

• And finally… although I haven’t (yet) seen Argo, I was so, so, SO happy to see Ben Affleck finally get the recognition he’s deserved for a long time. Good for him :)
  

yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.

Movie Review: Die Hard (1988)

IMDb Summary: John McClane (Bruce Willis), officer of the NYPD, tries to save wife Holly Gennaro (Bonnie Bedelia) and several others, taken hostage by German terrorist Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.

What I liked:

• Bruce Willis as John McClane. The last time I saw a really young Bruce Willis, I was about 8 years old and watching Moonlighting (although I probably wasn’t supposed to be watching this show), so I was too young to really appreciate him. Watching Die Hard made me actually appreciate what a good looking dude Bruce Willis actually was back then! Aside from that, I loved his character, his love for his wife, and his determination and sense of urgency. And if he wants to spend the whole movie fighting bad guys in a tank top and/or shirtless, who am I to complain?
• Reginald VelJohnson as Sargeant Al. How surprised was I that Carl Winslow was in this movie?! I really liked his interaction with John throughout the hostage situation and the development of their friendship throughout the movie - as well as his heroic act at the end ;)
• The action. Unlike most of the action movies that I have come to like (read: Jason Statham movies, where his characters most of the time walk away from battles unscathed), the fight scenes were very very gritty - saving the day definitely did not come easy for John, and there was lots of suffering and lots of blood.
• The suspense. Because the action was so brutal, it added a lot to the suspense, making it seem like it wasn’t a given that John would win so easily. I felt like they kept the audience guessing the whole time, which is really good thing given that I know that John lives in the end (you know, since there are 4 additional Die Hard movies following this one).
• The 80’s styles. Oh, the mullets and the aviator glasses. Very amusing. Good times.

What I didn’t like:

• It was really long: two hours and eleven minutes!

Final Thoughts:

This movie was both insane and a lot of fun at the same time. It was awesome to see Bruce Willis in the movie that made him an action star, and to see an old school action flick from which a lot of current action movies borrow their schticks (for example, The Expendables 2).

This had been on my must-watch list for a long time - one of those movies that I should have watched already, but haven’t. Glad I could finally cross this one off the list, and that it was actually very fitting for the holidays (the movie takes place on Christmas Eve). So much fun - definitely one of my newest favorite Christmas movies!