It’s hard to imagine anyone falling in love with this movie, but it’s hard to imagine anyone outright hating it either. It’s really a big shoulder-shrug, the type of “take-it-or-leave-it” entertainment that few people will run out to see, but it’s a pleasant enough time around the holidays, and a pretty good movie for sons…
Category: Mindless Mondays
Movie Review: Cirque Du Soleil, Worlds Apart
This “movie” is really bits and pieces of the Cirque Du Soleil shows in Vegas, all strung together with the thinnest of plots. Basically, there’s a girl, and there’s a guy, and they are in loooooooooooove or something like that, but they are “separated” by the Cirque worlds they have to get through to be…
Movie Review: Jack Reacher
This movie may be slightly better than you think…but only slightly. What Works: At the center is a pretty generic thriller that feels more like a 90’s movie than one in 2012 (the pretty blonde female lead, the basic plot, generic villains, a slightly-damaged hero who’s not really that damaged, the plodding plot, the jokey…
Movie Review: The Hobbit (Lower Your Expectations)
Is “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” (although, really, who can call this an unexpected journey? the lack of self-awareness in keeping that subtitle is staggering) a bad movie? Not at all. It’s a solid spectacle, and arguably more fun than much of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the problem is that it really isn’t…
Movie Reviews: Anna Karenina
I wasn’t really a fan of this movie, but it’s worth reviewing simply because, well, I saw it…But I’ll make it brief since everyone really just wants to talk about The Hobbit (which I will, a little later on today)… What Works: This updating of the classic story will probably please fans of the material,…
A Rare Saturday Mom Joke: Chores
Why a Saturday Mom Joke? Because recent events that have dominated the news have been really…well, I think we could all use a laugh… Chores Little Rodney comes down to breakfast. Since they live on a farm, his mother asks if he had done his chores. “Not yet,” said Rodney. His mother tells him no…
Movie Review: Rise of the Guardians
This movie is pretty much exactly what’s wrong with Hollywood. The “plot” (or, more accurately, marketing gimmick) revolves around the “new idea” that a lot of the most famous characters on Earth (Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, etc.) are actually action heroes that fight the forces of darkness. It employs the trendy mass-market concept…
Mom Jokes: The Power of A Wife’s Love
A man was in his death bed, counting down his last hours with no hope and nothing left to live for. But then he began to smell the wonderful scent of his wife’s cookies—–his favorite food on Earth—–which seemed to magically lift his spirits. Slowly, he got out of bed and practically crawled down the…
TV Review: Sons of Anarchy’s Fifth Season Finale
Sons of Anarchy is almost the exact opposite of Treme (see review from earlier today), whereas Treme is a show I want to like and know is good for me, but I just never really can get into, Sons of Anarchy is pure junk food. It’s the equivalent of Real Housewives for Men, where we watch…
TV Review: Boardwalk Empire’s Third Season
Boardwalk Empire is a show that I should love, but don’t. It’s a show I want to like more often than I really like. And it’s a show I root for more than I really look forward to. That’s because I know the show has been right on the edge of being a great show for so…
Why Django Unchained Flopping Would Be Good for Quentin Tarantino
“Quentin Tarantino is a genius, a singular artist and visionary that is unrivaled in movies today. He can do no wrong.”–The consensus. And it’s true for the most part, or, at least, it was true when Pulp Fiction came out. The problem with all the talk of Tarantino’s genius is that it’s become clear he…
Movie Review: Killing Them Softly
I liked this movie, and it gets a little better the more I think about it. [Disregard the ultra-harsh F cinemascore rating, if people knew what a good movie was, Taken 2 wouldn’t have gotten an A.] While you’re watching it, there may be a certain impatience that sets in as you watch hitmen, thieves,…
Movie Review: The Silver Linings Playbook
I really liked this movie. Will you? That all depends. Depends largely on how much you like the style of sometimes dramatic/sometimes-comedic director David O. Russell (I Heart Huckabees, The Fighter, Three Kings) who’s fully operating in dramedy mode, criss-crossing between dramatic scenes that are hilarious and comedic scenes that are maybe trying just a…