Valentine’s Marathon: Never Been Kissed (1999)

Its taken me all day to finish writing up these posts but apparently after a whole day of meds, water and losing my voice then watching Superbowl, I finally feel a little more energy to get this finished up.  I promised a review to kick off the Valentine’s Marathon and we are starting with two consecutive days of Drew Barrymore movies. Its all coincidence because Netflix decided to expire those two movies.

The first of the two to kick off this marathon is Never Been Kissed. I’ve never seen this (or the other one for that matter). Let’s check it out!

NEVER BEEN KISSED (1999)

Director: Raja Gosnell

Cast: Drew Barrymore, Michael Vartan, David Arquette, Jessica Alba, Molly Shannon, John C. Reilly, Jeremy Jordan, Leelee Sobieski

 25 year old Josie Gellar (Drew Barrymore) is the youngest copywriter at the Chicago Sun Times.  However, her dream is to become a reporter.  A chance presents itself when she is sent to do a undercover report posing as a high school student in her old high school South Glen South.  Having to face her nerdy unpopular high school past, she tries to get along with the popular kids with the help of her brother, Rob (David Arquette).  At the same time, she realizes that her feelings for her English teacher, Mr. Coulson  (Michael Vartan) are growing at the same time.

 First of all, let me confess that I’ve never been much of a Drew Barrymore fan.  I’ve never seemed to like the roles she plays or maybe just how she portrays them but then, I haven’t seen all that much either.  To be fair, I actually watched Never Been Kissed and then rewatched it a few days later and my second viewing yielded a lot more love for it than the first viewing.  I’m not exactly sure what that says but one of the best parts was all the younger versions of actors/actresses that I’ve noticed like Leelee Sobieski and Jessica Alba both as students.  Oh, and there’s also a very young James Franco.

Never Been Kissed is an okay romantic comedy. I’m not going to remember it or want to add it to my movie collection any time soon but there’s something really sweet about it also.  I’m not such a huge fan of it exaggerating the whole nerdy student thing because trust me, I’ve known nerds in high school and I wasn’t a popular kid and its never that absurd.  Sometimes, I’m not a huge fan of stereotypical portrayals of certain roles and I think that’s really what didn’t work as well for me the first time. But, on the second viewing, I think I got used to it a little more and actually found that what really worked was the whole message about adolescence and high school and just how no matter what generation, it really doesn’t change all that much as far as the student population goes and just the whole popularity thing.

Now, we’re talking about a romantic comedy so our main stars here is Drew Barrymore’s Josie and Michael Vartan’s Sam/Mr. Coulson.  Now, there is two people which really has some amazing chemistry.  Oh, and what makes this movie awesome also was that Mr. Coulson totally is an accurate portrayal of that young good-looking teacher in high school that the girls like to go to their class.  In this case, its English class but for my high school, it was French.  Thats just my way of saying that I think Michael Vartan is really handsome and totally adds to why I would watch this again.

Other than that, what makes Drew Barrymore’s character Josie pretty good was that although she is totally awkward and nerdy at times, she has this really passionate regard of finding that person that she loves and would give her first “real” kiss.  I mean, its also one of the parts that made me fall in love with her character a little. Here’s the quote:

Never Been Kissed is not a perfect romantic comedy and its just about average with a few good and bad points to level itself off.  Drew Barrymore carries her role well as the nerdy Josie looking for her career break but finding more than she imagined in her love interest, Michael Vartan.  Their chemistry in every scene together is pretty fun to watch.  Also, there’s an enjoyable element of watching a younger Jessica Alba, James Franco and Leelee Sobieski on screeen.  With a few memorable quotes to add to the mix, this could be a decent choice with a few laughs at the absurd and awkward situations that happen.  It probably wont’ be memorable but there are a few sweet moments to enjoy. 🙂

Halloween Marathon: We Need To Talk About Kevin & Absentia (Double feature)

I had originally wanted to do these two separately.  These both got third highest amounts of votes in the Halloween polls for psychological thrillers and everything else horror.  BUT, after trimming my movie rundown, I still have two movies that I really want to check out for this Halloween marathon so that means, mega movie night tonight. YUP!

I’m going to say right now that watching anything other than Friday the 13th sounds so refreshing.  I’ll have a huge recap on November 1st once I’ve gotten all the business taken care of. Friday the 13th made me forget what an actual horror movie felt like.  I never was genuinely scared in this marathon. Thats saying a lot because I’m so easily frightened.

Now, I needed to get myself in the right state of mind to watch these but I really wanted to, along with probably 4 other ones on the initial poll.  I’m sure I’ll fit those in eventually, just not in this marathon 🙂 Lets get the show on the road.  After all, we do have 2 movies to talk about!

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (2011)

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, John C. Reilly, Jasper Newell, Ashley Gerasimovich

Kevin’s mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly vicious things he says and does as he grows up. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined.- IMDB

I have no idea how to sum up the movie so I’m just going to use whats on IMDB.  However, as much as its showing the course of Kevin’s mother (Tilda Swinton) trying to love her son, its also about her trying to make sense of everything that lead to his final act.

We Need To Talk about Kevin is one of those psychological personality analysis of two people.  In this case, its Tilda Swinton’s character as Kevin’s mother flipping through the upbringing of his son’s life and figuring out why he did that final act.  What was the reasoning behind it and whether it was essentially her fault as everyone else seems to treat her like she’s the one responsible.  It a true look at the whole nature versus nuture story of what affects growth and development the most.  I get that as I’m watching it, except I feel that the material is a little too deep to be brought to the big screen.  Its the same reason I was happy to read Gone Girl or The Lovely Bones before seeing a movie.  I’m guessing the novel dives into a more balanced two sides of the story view.  In this one, Ezra Miller’s Kevin gets such a small part although the younger version of him really does bring out a little of his character already.  Being based on a source material that probably is pretty deep is hard to bring it to the big screen and now I really want to check that out and revisit this movie because I feel like I might appreciate it more.

Although, I do think the material is not shown appropriately or could possibly be more effective.  There is no doubt that the performances were all around amazing.  This is my first time watching everyone except John C. Reilly and I can’t even remember what I saw him in before. I know understand why everyone raves about the stellar performances by Tilda Swinton because she grasped her role very well.  I really understood her perspective of this and just the confusion and despair of being in her situation.  I’m in the stage of life where its almost time to decide when to have kids and this really clings on to make you wonder: who can predict how your child turns out.  Its funny because it makes me think about a Chinese saying about  how who you are at 3 determines who you will be at 80.  I guess, nature plays a role but nurture is also a big thing because the script always gets in a little bit about how there are a lot of similarities between Kevin and his mother.  On the other hand, I might have wanted to see more of Ezra Miller’s role but that ending definitely was thought provoking.

Not really a horror per se, but as a psychological thriller it does hit a few buttons with its awesome performances.

ABSENTIA (2011)

Director: Mike Flanagan

Cast: Katie Parker, Courtney Bell, Dave Levine, Justin Gordon, Morgan Peter Brown

 Its been seven years since Tricia’s (Courtney Bell) husband Daniel (Morgan Peter Brown) has gone missing.  Now, she’s pregnant and slowly learning to move on with her life as she prepares to file for his death certificate under the reason of absentia.  Her sister Callie (Katie Parker) drops by to help her pack up and move forward. This is when they realize that maybe  there’s something more to the disappearance of Daniel.

Goodness, thats a bad summary I wrote up there.  Its okay, I really just don’t want to say too much.  Absentia is one of the more creepy movies.  The first time a creepy scene came in I turned off the movie for a solid 5 minutes before deciding to turn it back on.  Because you know what? I need to tough it out since Halloween is literally around the corner.

Absentia can be split into two parts. The first part is creepy and builds up the story of Tricia and how she inner struggle while Callie is also finding herself and trying to be helpful to her sister.  At the same time, they both have some creepy incidents that happen.  The second half takes a abrupt turn and changes a few factors in Tricia’s life especially but pulls Callie into a more main role as she starts seeing that there might be more to the disappearance and may be linked to a bigger picture.

Absentia is very much an independent horror film and some of the shots and how they move around is obvious that fact but it has a kick ass story.  I was totally pulled in and even though the start scared me so much, I’m happy that I toughed it out because the director and writer Mike Flanagan is fantastic.  He knows how to put a story like this one into a movie and balance the right factors, giving the right scares and the perfect sound and silence and even when to reveal or not to reveal anything.

Maybe its because I’ve been sitting around watching campy movies for the last month that I’m even easier pleased and I was extremely jumpy but Absentia has an awesome story behind a good cast and the atmosphere that Mike Flanagan puts together feels so perfect. He takes you on twists and turns and times them really well.  I don’t usually rate horror harshly (unless its for Shitfest) but I do know when I have a great one and this one is a must-watch horror experience on so many levels.

Another double feature done!

Have you seen We Need to Talk about Kevin? What did you think of the performances? Which aspect was the best in this movie? Did you feel that there should’ve been a stronger emphasis on the grown up Kevin (although this movie was already pretty long)?

How about Absentia? Have you seen it? Did you like how it ended (because I did!)? Was it on some level creepy for you? 

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Have I told you about my Disney animated collection? My goal is to collect all of Disney movies.  Mostly, it includes animations/classics but then I have a few that aren’t but I always enjoy it.  When I went to Burlington/Plattsburgh for Easter weekend, I managed to pick up a cheaper (than Montreal) copy of Wreck-It Ralph.  Finally, in the lineup of comedies, I chose this one to see!

Director: Rich Moore

Cast: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Mindy Kaling

Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) is the video game villain in the 30 year old arcade game Fix-It Felix Jr. After 30 years, he feels alone and rejected.  As Felix  has his hammer to fix everything and he’s the hero of the game, he always gets the medal.  After an encounter with the “good guys” in the game, he vows that he will get a medal to prove that he can hang out with them so they know that he isn’t a bad guy.  As he searches for a solution, he finds himself the opportunity to jump to another game, Hero’s Duty to get their Medal of Heroes.  Its there, things get a bit out of hand and he unleashes something and ends up accidentally bringing that into another game Sugar Rush.  Little did he know that he would end up with an annoying little girl called Vanellope who wants to race in the game but King Candy (Alan Tudyk) and the other racers will go to no ends to stop her from joining in.  In between all this, we get Hero’s Duty leader, Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch) and Felix teaming up to bring Ralph back before their games are all affected and get unplugged forever.

“I’m bad, and that’s good. I will never be good, and that’s not bad. There’s no one I’d rather be than me.”

Wreck-It Ralph is very appealing.  It has a lot to offer and I loved the premise.  I love arcades and when you set it in an arcade scenario and manipulate the use of the setup there to make its own imaginative (but real) community, I found it completely ingenious.  The power bar was the central station of the games.  They had everything including a Bad-Anon group to give therapy to all the bad guys in the games because they are just normal characters who are playing a role to keep their game alive and plugged.  My boyfriend and I particularly loved it when they even inserted the Metal Gear Solid exclamation mark! We love that game to bits! Plus, Pacman, Sonic, Street Fighter, Bowser..its a gamer’s dream right there.

“Here you go, guys. Its fresh from Pac-man’s”

Other than having a great premise, this animated flick has some pretty awesome characters.  To start, we have Ralph.  He’s our protagonist, despite being a villain in his game.  All he wants is to not feel wanted and accepted for who he is and not his job per se.  He ends up overlooking the balance of things and he learns that being a hero means a whole lot more.  The responsibilities behind it and just simply what it means to be friends and to tell and analyze right and wrong and seeing the true nature of someone.  He’s big but he’s sweet and caring.  We can see that when he deals with the situation like with Vanellope.

“So…how’d I do?”

Vanellope is the cutest little girl ever! She’s annoying and all but she has her reasons for being the way she is.  At many times, this flick is about the developing friendship between her and Ralph.  They both start it off with manipulation to get something from one another and use each other’s skills to get to their end goal but it changes around.  The spark and the dialogue between them are just so fun and it made me fall in love with these two.

Sergeant Calhoun in Hero’s Duty

Being a sub storyline and supporting characters in this flick, Sergeant Calhoun is the one that packs in the intensity and has this type of sarcastic humor that only the awesome Jane Lynch can do.  Which is also why she is playing this hilarious role.  She has her own back story and the character’s tough gun-wielding gal matched up with peaceful and righteous hammer fixer-upper Felix to save Sugar Rush from its abomination.  Its a weird and awkward team but silly and crazy fun at the same time. 🙂

“It’s my job to fix whatever Ralph wrecks!”

This is getting a bit longer than I expected and I haven’t even gotten to King Candy.  This is a really fun animation.  I had to insert these quotes and it doesn’t really ruin the review.  Still spoiler-free, right? Its been a while that I’ve felt so young and absorbed into a more current animation.  I liked a lot of last year’s flicks, but this one really takes it.  There are a great amount of laughs and it pleases not only younger audience with the little girls and the easy dialogue, and has a light love story mixed with nothing really in the scary area, but at the same time, its fun for the adult audience thats been through gaming (like me) that grew up with Mario, Pac-Man, Sonic, etc.  I really had an awesome time with this one! I watched it again in the evening and I found it as great as it was on the first viewing 🙂

Do you have a favorite animated Disney flick (excluding Pixar)?