Netflix A-Z: Yours, Mine and Ours (2005)

We’re almost done our first round of Netflix A-Z! I’ve been uber diverting from the original list.  I like being spontaneous so you know what, we’ll just let it flow.  I’ve been craving family comedy and Rene Russo and Dennis Quaid are cool.  This one looks like a bucket of fun and mischief. I’ve been one to love movies (when I was younger) like It Takes Two or The Parent Trap.  I have revisited the former this year and I still thought it was entertaining.  So, Its not a surprise that Yours, Mine and Ours seems like something right up my alley.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

Yours, Mine & Ours (2005)

Director: Raja Gosnell

Cast: Dennis Quaid, Rene Russo, Sean Faris, Danielle Panabaker, Katja Pevec, Drake Bell, Andrew Vo, Nicholas Roget-King, Linda Hunt

A widowed Coast Guard Admiral and a widow handbag designer fall in love and marry, much to the dismay of her 10 and his 8 children.-IMDB

I think the first thing I need to set straight is that when faced with family comedies, I’m very forgiving.  I expect that its predictable and that the humor is usually based on mischief and mishaps.  Yours, Mine and Ours is really no different.  It has all the tropes that you’d expect and the same with the storyline.  But like I said, I’m forgiving so its only met my expectations to just have fun with it. This family comedy is far from some of the best that I’d watch over and over again but I particularly love that there were some surprise younger appearances that I didn’t know was in this movie. I’ll touch on this when I discuss characters later.  The story might not be all that awesome but the kids are awesome.  They are a lot of fun to watch.

There’s nothing like creating two opposite characters to fall in love and meshing their different family values and habits together then adding 18 children into the mix. Mess versus order being the main thing. Its about finding a balance but its also that relationships aren’t built in a second.  It takes time and the same goal and you know its going to happen the same for these characters.  The kids are going to subconsciously get along and bond as they scheme to pull their parents apart and when they succeed, they will be the ones to try to mend it again.  However, what is fun are absolutely how this cast portrays the characters.  We know Rene Russo and Dennis Quaid already.  I don’t watch either of them frequently and honestly, I haven’t seen a movie of Rene Russo since The Thomas Crown Affair so its a totally different vibe here. However, the stars in this one are definitely the kids.  Its hard for me to say they are kids because it has some surprises.  Danielle Panabaker who is now in Flash, did Time Lapse and Friday the 13th remake, etc is in this and Sean Faris who is in Pretty Little Liars playing Detective Holbrook is also in this, playing two of the older siblings.  Watching them as teens is an interesting turn in events, more so for Sean Faris (although he was in Never Back Down) than Danielle Panabaker.

Excuse my ramble. I like those two.  Point is, the kids are awesome, especially the younger kids here.  You see the kid in the yellow shirt in the picture up there? He plays one of the younger ones called Aldo and he is seriously cute as a button.  And that is just the start. The shenanigans they pull may be predictable but still, you just need to accept this movie for what it is.  Its meant to be silly and entertaining suitable for everyone.  This brings me to the point that Dennis Quaid had some creepy expressions, especially one of his ending happy smiles. *shivers* And the dialogue he had was so cheesy and sappy.  *shivers*

Overall, there isn’t so much to say about  Yours, Mine & Ours.  Its a predictable family comedy.  Despite it being that, its exactly what I expected and wanted and its a nice feeling to come out feeling entertained. Its not great but the young cast here make up for a lot of the dialogue flaws in the parents and the whole “I’m not sure Dennis Quaid can do comedy” feeling that I was having.

Halloween Marathon: Friday the 13th (2009)

The 12th movie from Friday the 13th franchise! We’re finally here! However, this is not a continuation but rather a remake set in very much the present.  And you know what? I actually know some actors and actresses in this one.  Thats already a good start 🙂 That was literally my reaction when the names were popping up in the opening credits. Silly things to be excited about, but I was.

Let’s check out this remake, shall me?

Director: Marcus Nispel

Cast: Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle, Aaron Yoo, Derek Mears, Jonathan Sadowski, Julianna Guill, Ben Feldman

Twenty something years has passed since the events of Jason’s drowning and the killings and Pamela Voorhees was murdered on Camp Crystal Lake, the town has been peaceful for ages and many have forgotten the events.  A group of kids go to camp there and eventually get hunted by Jason Voorhess.  All of them go missing.  A few weeks later, one of the girl’s, Whitney (Amanda Righetti) has a brother, Clay (Jared Padalecki) that comes to look for his missing sister to find out what happened and brushes past a group of teens going for a weekend away at one of the guy’s family cabin near Crystal Lake.  As Jason slowly picks down the group, Clay starts following a trail to figure out what happened to Whitney.

Friday the 13th remake in 2009 is a little confusing if I put a little more thought to it.  For one, was the purpose to ignore that the past 11 movies happened and to revamp the franchise completely? I’m not familiar with the franchise so maybe some of you can enlighten me on that.  It might change how I actually feel about it.  However, it does feel like a combination of the 1st and 2nd because we start with Jason and his sack mask.  This one is definitely less effective than the one in Part 2 and it minimizes the death of Pamela Voorhees to emphasize his revenge rampage and they even have the teens mention it to show how no one really remembers or knows about Jason’s existence and Camp Crystal Lake’s happening.

If you remember, because it was the beginning of the month that I reviewed it, I liked Part 2 quite a bit and found the 1st one a little slow and boring.  Friday the 13th remake starts off in an extremely fast pace.  When the beginning sequence ended and Friday the 13th light up the screen, I was thinking that if they kept that pace, we were in for an awesome ride. Especially since the girl who plays Whitney is Amanda Righetti and I love her in The Mentalist.

Except right after that intense opening sequence, things hit the brakes and there was a lot of meaningless build up that didn’t include a lot of Jason’s appearances.  The concept behind searching for the missing persons was a good one.  Eventually, people are bound to search for the reasoning behind their loved ones disappearing.  Plus, the actors include rather more known actors/actresses including Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki, The Flash’s Danielle Panabaker and another little actor in more minor roles called Aaron Yoo.  I couldn’t help to feel good watching just that.  Sure, there were some stupid moments and the pace was really killing the whole atmosphere but when the last quarter or third, it started picking up pace again and things started being a lot more fun to watch all over again.  It helps that the whole searching for a missing person and wondering if they are actually missing is a good premise to work with.

At a certain point, I realized that its really trying to figure out who is the next one to kill or how and when Jason pops up to kill the targeted person.  Its usually pretty easy to figure out the order of the kills but how they do it is pretty different. Its here, I need to stop and talk a little about Jason. If you have just burned through 11 movies with Jason Voorhees, there are a few things you will notice.  For one, the sack mask was better than the hockey mask and they do give Jason here the opportunity of finding that mask and using that instead of his sack over his head.  Not quite as fun as the originals but I’m not too picky on how he finds it.  Next, Jason has ridiculous aim in all the past flicks and in this one, man, he has a sharp eye.  There is one commendable thing about this one and thats the kills.  They are pretty entertaining. Plus, this Jason is pretty effectively creepy especially in that scene next to the lake.

All in all, I liked this one well enough.  The 1980 version has a more campy and low budget feeling to it.  This one covers a bit of the story from the first to the third like sack mask, finding the hockey mask, his mother being beheaded.  Its a different story rebooted in the present.  Jason’s body count doesn’t slow down and the whole opening and ending sequence are extremely entertaining to watch.  There are some corny one liners that might get a chuckle/giggle out of you (as it did for me) and the cast is a good one even if the characters for Friday the 13th are never very deep.  Still, its pretty entertaining.  Maybe its because it lacks the style of the old one and the essence will always be in the original version, but this one does a well enough job as a remake, a whole lot better than I imagined.  Not a whole lot of substance but a ton of entertainment (if that makes sense) 🙂

What did you think about the remake? How many movies of the Friday the 13th franchise of you seen? I’ve heard about favorites, which is your least favorite among the 12 movies?

Thats the end of the main feature of this Halloween Horror Month.  Don’t leave just yet! October 31st isn’t quite here yet and I still have few reviews to go up and don’t forget my Halloween special! I’m not exactly sure what and when it is but it will be there some time on Halloween night, with a little November announcement as always 🙂

Fantasia Film Festival 2014: Time Lapse (2014)

On the same day as The Drownsman (my review HERE if you missed it), I saw Time Lapse with my boyfriend.  We had a double movie date plus, it was absolutely awesome that both movies were world premieres with Time Lapse being on its second showing (so not really world premiere anymore but just minor details) and had the cast hosting with Q&A.  Time Lapse has a really awesome concept and the trailer was so awesome.  When I saw that the first showing was one of the first movies to be sold out, my anticipation grew exponentially.

Director: Bradley King

Cast: Danielle Panabaker, Matt O’Leary, George Finn

A couple, Callie (Danielle Panabaker) and Finn (Matt O’Leary) and Finn’s best friend, Jasper (George Finn) live together in a complex.  While each are dreaming to pursue their own lives, some riskier than others, when checking up on a neighbor’s home, they discover a giant machine that is pointing into their living room and prints out photos every 24 hours of their future. Although Callie and Finn are reluctant at first, they are soon convinced by Jasper to use this machine for personal gain.  However, when the machine starts showing disturbing images, things start to go horribly wrong and knowing about their futures start messing with their own course of life.

Time Lapse is a spectacular sci-fi thriller which kind of tiptoes into the time travel area.  Time travel is always a tricky area to go into. I remember last year I saw I’ll Follow You Down and despite some little bits and pieces that didn’t fit well as I pondered on it more, it shows the ambition of diving into anything that works with this area especially when it is an independent film.  With that said, Time Lapse takes a very huge step and thanks to the brilliant minds of screenwriters Bradley King (also director) and BP Cooper, they put together a story that keeps us at the edge of our seats as the story slides down that slippery slope.  What started off at a beautiful relationship: love and friends turns into something completely into the ugly area of manipulation and greed.

Time Lapse is a well-rounded movie and one thats very enjoyable because although you may have a little questions and details, there are so small that I can’t even remember them right now.  The screenwriters are also very great because they address little issues and double back to give you answers.  As much as I like room for imagination, and they do give you that as well, they also give us enough answers to be satisfied and just enough questions to keep the audience intrigued. I can’t compliment Time Lapse without talking about the phenomenal character development and the amazing cast. You will see that each character develops as the plot thickens in each their own ways.  Everyone has something they want to protect, some gain they want to see and what is really at stake for them.  I can’t say that I’m particularly familiar with the cast except that the familiar face goes to Danielle Panabaker and I saw her in Piranha 3DD (minus the 3D since I saw it on Netflix) recently but that is a waste of her obvious talent.  Her character, Callie is one of the best characters in this movie because she gets caught in a few dilemmas and it just spirals out of control. And then we have the other totally amazing actor, George Finn who plays Jasper that just falls right into the role and convinces us every step of the way.  Although, not quite as out there, Matt O’Leary also delivers a great performance as the guy who tries to be the moral balance in this.  Except the question is, when personal gain is pulled in for whatever purpose or reason, are there morals that remain?

I’m going to end this write-up right here because anymore and I’m going to destroy the awesomeness of it.  The best part for any thrillers is to sit through with as little knowledge as possible and just dive in.  Time Lapse will carry you on a journey following the lives of these three friends and make you cling to your seats.  Definitely one of the the best movies that I saw at the Fantasia Film Festival.  Although it is an independent film, everything was done so well from the mysterious machine’s design to the well thought out plot and the amazing way the cast played off each other and carried the plot.  The concept is ambitious and just so awesome.  I love Time Lapse through and through and I urge you to go see it if you get the chance because its been a while a thriller has truly made me feel engaged.

Are you a fan of sci-fi thrillers? What do you think of Time Lapse? Have you heard of this before?