April Fools 2014: Tranquil Dreams

Check out my entry on the April Fools Blogathon over at Silver Screen Serenade. We had to choose 5 lovable idiots from movies or TV. I vouched for movies and it was tough to narrow it down in the end but here’s i the final list. In my mind, lovable idiots seem to all have a good heart and pure intentions, they just don’t really have the right mindset to do it, if not something else.
Drop by and see what other bloggers have chosen also. I’ve seen some pretty amazing lists 🙂
Huge thanks to Cara for putting this together and thinking up this April Fools Blogathon. It was so much fun 🙂

Silver Screen Serenade

Another day, another round of idiots! This set of April Fools is brought to you by the lovely Kim of Tranquil Dreams. Kim’s blog is super cool with a whole variety of stuff–movie reviews, awesome travel photos, recipes, and much more. Be sure to go give it a looksee! Now let’s see what fools Kim picked…

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Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011)

First review (out of 2) before the August recommendation month officially starts 🙂 Watched this before I decided to do that!

I just realized that I hadn’t done a review of the 2nd Alvin yet but if you are interested, you could check out the review of Alvin and the Chipmunks HERE!  Honestly, after the second one didn’t really do too well for me, I’ve been hesitating to watch the third one: Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.  There’s only so much of chipmunk singing pop songs that I can take before it gets old.  But hey, it was on Netflix so means I technically am watching it for free since its in my first month of subscription! Why not, right?  Lets see how it was…

Director: Mike Mitchell

Cast: Jason Lee, David Cross, Jenny Slate, Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse McCartney, Amy Poehler, Anna Faris, Christina Applegate, Alan Tudyk

Dave (Jason Lee), Alvin (Justin Long) and the Chipmunks (Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theordore (Jesse McCartney)) and Chipettes: Brittany (Christina Applegate), Eleanor (Amy Poehler) and Jeanette (Anna Faris) are going on a cruise for some R&R before their performance at the International Music Awards. On the ship, Dave sees  Ian (David Cross), who is now a pelican mascot for the cruise ship, Ian vows to watch the chipmunks closely to plot revenge and get them kicked off the ship.  After some mischief with Alvin, they get banned to one area of the ship. When Dave falls asleep, the chipmunks crew accidentally end up flying off in a hang glider and ends up on a deserted island.  Due to this, as Dave was trying to save them, Ian gets involved and they also end up stranded in the ocean and eventually find the island. Determined that he will find the chipmunks on the island, he sets off with Ian to find them while the chipmunks are learning their own lessons and making acquaintance with a girl, Zoe (Jenny Slate) thats been trapped there for almost a decade.

How would I describe this movie? There was a lot of chipmunks singing, for everything and everywhere.  In the first movie, it was not that much singing and it had more of a storyline.  We hit this third one and its all become a lot of chipmunk voices singing to lead through every sequence. I think that affected this flick a lot. I get that its for children and probably young children but there is also the fact that Alvin was known to the 20s-30s crowd or whatnot.  I’m not exactly sure of the time frame.  That really made this movie really boring and man, it was long.

Plus, there isn’t much changes.  The only difference is that a different character learns the meaning of life in a different scenario.  The first one was about Dave learning to accept the chipmunks as families and learning to take responsibility and care for them as his kids.  Now this time, think parents teaching kids to grow up and the concept of responsibility and that the only way they learn is through making mistakes to learn to be grateful and more understanding for both Alvin and Dave.  Its also about learning to be courageous and at certain times, embrace being fearless for Simon.

This time around we bring in a new character called Zoe played by Jenny Slate who has been stranded on the island for eight to nine years. She’s not completely there and her friends are different types of sports balls and she names them with their brand.  Stealing ideas from Cast Away, right? “Wilson!!” Sorry, I’m having a moment right there.  She’s not a bad character though.  She just didn’t get a great script.

Overall, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked was pretty disappointing even though  I didn’t have much expectations.  You know I find positives in even the worst movies if you’ve been following my reviews but really, this one didn’t have much.  I just didn’t really enjoy myself and felt I might have wasted my time and almost turned it off.  I did tough it out till the very end.  At least Theodore got enough parts to keep me “aww-ing” over his cuteness 😉 I can’t get enough of him in these.  Just way too adorable! Who I recommend this to? Kids might enjoy it…I don’t have kids so I don’ t know but young kids might get a little more enjoyment than I did. It has a lot of good values and lessons to learn just its not really set for a wide age range.

How do you feel about Alvin and the Chipmunks? Do you know if they will be doing a sequel after this?

What’s Your Number? (2011)

I needed a light-hearted rom-com to kick start the weekend.  What’s Your Number? was what I happened to pull off my shelf.  All my movies that I haven’t seen happen to be dramas or action and I just wasn’t in the mood for it.

Director: Mark Mylod

Cast: Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Ari Graynor, Chris Pratt

One day, Ally Darling (Anna Faris) reads an article that the national average for the number of men that women sleep with is 10.5.  Seeing that she has neared almost twice the national average with her number being 19 (and this means she has a possibility of never getting married), she proclaims that she will not sleep with any other men until she finds the right one to fill in the slot of 20.  With her sister, Daisy’s (Ari Graynor) wedding in the planning stages and discussions with some friends, she comes up with the idea that she should go back and take another look at her exes to see if she can spark something with them, as to not raise her number.  At the same time, she asks for the help of her neighbor, Colin (Chris Evans), who not only has tracking skills, but is not serious about romantic relationships.  The search for her exes, with Colin’s help, turns out to be a lot more than she expected.

This is a movie that falls in the enjoyable level for me.  Its somewhat of a guilty pleasure not only because its a romantic comedy (and an R-rated one at that) but because Chris Evans is amazing eye candy.  He is 90% naked or in his boxer briefs almost in all the shots.  And when he isn’t naked, he is extremely dreamy and charming to look at.  I’m going to admit right away that he makes this chick flick better than it actually is. He gives some nice little moments and some funny ones and sometimes, when they capture his charming looks on screen it just sweeps me  away.

Searching for the exes

On the other hand, I’m not a huge fan of Anna Faris.  From what I’ve heard, she got popular from the Scary Movie franchise.   I have watched none of them and do not intend to ever do it.  Feel free to tell me if thats true.  However, I have seen her in House Bunny.  She seems to like to engage herself in roles where she gets mildly revealing and/or naked.  I think in an interview, they called her daring.  She has some cute moments here and there in this flick however, she doesn’t engage me into the movie mostly because of the way she talks.  I think its just her voice bothers me and sometimes, she has forced smiles and expressions.  I guess its just her acting isn’t very natural to me.  Not exactly sure how to describe it, but then at the same time, she has an awkwardness that can sometimes be cute and humorous.

Cute chemistry 🙂

As far as chemistry goes between Anna Faris’s Ally and Chris Evans’s Colin, there was some here and there.  One of my favorite scenes was this basketball faceoff scene.  That part was awesome.  Well, and I can’t decide if its Chris Evans or the chemistry that they had but they had some hot moments when they were on-screen together. Like the one above this paragraph…

Another reason for guys to watch this, if you want to see her naked…

I’ve never sat around and compared my “number” with anyone nor have I ever wanted to share that even to start with.  It seems a private matter, so I’m not exactly sure if that’s such an impact on a relationship, but if you do think it important, then I’m sure this flick could have some appeal.  It does have some silly and comedic moments.  I had a few laughs and its mostly mocking the flashbacks of her past boyfriends.  Its cheap humor though, nothing witty about what they do with it and sometimes, it was plain strange.

What’s Your Number? is an enjoyable romantic comedy.  Some cute moments, some humor and lots of sexy Chris Evans with his beautiful eyes to look at.  That’s enough for me and fitted into my Friday movie night mood.  Sometimes, its all about fulfilling my guilty pleasures 🙂