Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Today I’m pretty proud of myself.  Not so much the weekend because I didn’t even get a romantic comedy review in for my Valentine’s marathon.  But then its always kind of quiet during the weekend.  Now, I’m proud because on Friday  night I said that I was going to go see Jupiter Ascending (one of my most anticipated movies of 2015!!) on Sunday afternoon and early this afternoon, I managed to get my ass to the theatres despite the snow.

Honestly, although this is still my most anticipated movie despite the pushing back of the release from last year to this year, I can’t help but be a little worried that it might let me down, especially since this is kind of trash season at the theatres.  Plus, RT has it at like 22% rotten, but then, I don’t always agree with RT so I kind of pushed that out of my mind and still went.  Channing and Mila haven’t disappointed me for a long time and I’m sure they won’t.  Got to stay positive, right?

Let’s check it out, shall we?

JUPITER ASCENDING (2015)

Director & writers: The Wachowskis

Cast: Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, Tuppence Middleton

Jupiter Jones was born being told she was destined for better things as a baby.  As a young woman in Chicago, she wakes up at the brink of dawn to be a caretaker with her mom cleaning toilets and other people’s house.  Hating her current stagnant life, her only dreams are to have the money to get a telescope to gave in the wonders of the sky just like her father.  Until one day, a genetically engineered ex-warrior, Caine Wise under command to search and save her from the surprise attack from the current leader of Earth in the faraway planet in outer space, Balem Abrasax (Eddie Redmayne).  Being whisk into this outer space world that recognizes her a recurrence of a past authority and mother of the current leaders of the world, she gets caught up in the fight between her past life’s children, Kalique (Tuppence Middleton), Titus (Douglas Booth) and Balem. The only person she can trust is Caine but she also needs to make decisions to save herself and possibly her family on Earth as well, while deciding if she can take on the rightful responsibilities to reign Earth.

Man, thats a really long synopsis. I just don’t know what to cut out and what is saying too much. Either way, when I make long synopsis, that usually means that I enjoyed that movie a lot.  Jupiter Ascending was absolutely not disappointing.  Sure, its not a perfect movie and its obvious that it wasn’t.  I’ll explain it a little more later but I was able to get past some of it and really fall in love of in for various reasons.  If there is no other reason to see this, the CGI is awesome in this.  Everything is so beautiful to look at it, from the Earth, the planets, kingdoms.

Another element to really love was ALL of the intense action.  Hell, every single time there was an action sequence it was crazy intense.  I was grabbing tight to the edge of my seat.  It was convincing to make me wonder if they would achieve their objective.  Channing Tatum’s Caine Wise was just absolutely bad ass! LOL! Plus, all that outer space technology was so fun!

However, visuals and action means little to some viewers and the one thing that a lot of people probably will critic will be the story itself.  I fully acknowledge it, especially because I kind of found the love story a little bit forced BUT, I was able to get through it because Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis took Caine and Jupiter and added this awesome chemistry.  I just couldn’t resist their presence together and I kind of fell in love with their characters more than the love story itself, plus some of the dialogue was pretty awkward and funny at the same time.  But hey, if you don’t see pass this, I’m guessing its going to be a big flaw. I’m just saying, I was able to get pass it.

Even if its not the love story, Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis both started out as an actor and actress that wasn’t extremely appealing to me but they’ve really stood out and improved so much that I always look forward their performances.

The love story however is the side story to the actual plot of this whole dictatorship and reigning of Earth’s story.  Everyone want a piece of this valuable land because it holds a lot of value and each sibling wants a piece of it.  Titus and Kalique both don’t have the rightful reign of it so they have to charm Jupiter to believe them. Its a game of whether who is lying and for what reason. Now, lets take a look at the siblings a little.  I’m going to put Tuppence Middleton’s Kalique away because sure, she was good and sufficient for what she did but the main ones here is Titus, played by Douglas Booth.  I spent a good bit of the movie trying to figure out where I saw him before.  It was in LOL and thats a movie that I kind of want to forget I saw..haha! I really liked the whole charming Douglas Booth because he really gave a convincing performance for Titus.  I hope that he gets more roles in the future.  I’d like to see how he progresses as an actor.

My surprise was that Eddie Redmayne was part of this.  Honestly, I only saw the preview once or something and I can’t even remember much of it but the concept of Jupiter Ascending was what drew me in even before I knew too much.  Sometimes, thats the best way to go see a movie.  I’ve loved Eddie Redmayne since Les Miserables so seeing him as a villainous ruler definitely a change in pace because he got a funky voice but also a very good performance on his part.

Overall, Jupiter Ascending has great CGI visuals and the set is lovely to watch.  The characters are engaging because of the casts’ outstanding performances and the action scenes which cover a good 70% of the run time is always intense to watch, keeping the movie at a solid pace.  However, the story has its flaws especially with a rather forced side love story between Jupiter and Caine.

Still, I had a lot of fun with this one and I’m definitely adding this to my movie collection when it comes out on Bluray 🙂

Valentine’s Marathon resumes tomorrow! Remember to check back!

Valentine’s Marathon: Friends With Benefits (2011)

This year’s start of the Valentine’s Marathon was actually a complete spontaneous choice.  I decided this morning that I wanted to watch a romantic comedy and didn’t want to get out of bed and saw this in my Netflix list so I watched it.

Director: Will Gluck

Cast: Mila Kunis, Justin Timberlake, Patricia Clarkson, Jenna Elfman, Richard Jenkins, Woody Harrelson

Jamie (Mila Kunis) is an emotionally damaged headhunter who just fell out of a relationship and decides to not get emotionally attached in another relationship.  While at her job, she is sent to help connect Dylan (Justin Timberlake) to a art director position for the GQ.  Dylan has his own set of commitment issues and also is single as well.  He also ends up moving to New York City for the job and end up being good friends with Jamie.  Being in similar situation, they decide that to fulfill the desire for sex, they would never want to date each other so it would be easy to keep it simple with a friends with benefits relationship. Except, is it really that simple?

There’s only one specific reason that I’ve been putting off watching Friends with Benefits and thats Justin Timberlake.  I like JT as a singer, more his older stuff but as an actor, he really has a lot of space of improvement.  I mean, a long long way.  Bad Teacher was a disaster, In Time was simply average, was he in something else? Point is, I recently just starting liking Mila Kunis so I was worried that JT would bring this down.  I’m happy to say that he didn’t! Justin Timberlake finally  has a movie that I enjoy.  I think it really has to do with Will Gluck being the director because that man also did Easy A and I have immense love for it, just read my review HERE!

Friends With Benefits is nothing extraordinary in the world of romantic comedies but the chemistry between Justin Timberlake’s Dylan and Mila Kunis’s Jamie is very good. They are entertaining to watch and I found myself laughing quite a bit.  Its an entertaining movie and a fun premise.  I don’t know how feasible friends with benefits actually are in reality but it doesn’t matter because in reality its about being able to be in a relationship with someone that you can be completely straight-forward with and thats besides all the emotions and feelings.

Isn’t that so true? And thats why this movie is so great! Because its just so true. A lot of girls will have fairy tales in their minds.  My best friend will probably give me the “I know you do” look.  Yeah, I’m a romantic but even me, I still remember updating my fairy tale.  Awesome quote, right? But you know, this comes to the point that I love Patricia Clarkson.  She’s an amazing actress.  Even though she is only a supporting role, she always does a great job. Another supporting role that had me laughing out loud was Woody Harrelson. I’m starting to really like this guy.  This guy is just so enjoyable to see on screen.  Love it!

I’m heavily medicated with cough meds right now so I’m going to stop the review here.  Friends With Benefits is an enjoyable and fun romantic comedy.  Its nothing like the best thing I’ve seen but I’d gladly sit down to watch it again.  Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake have great chemistry and the supporting roles help to make it funny.  And they have some amazing quotes.  That sounds like a good rom-com to me. 🙂 Oh wait, and there’s a cameo with Emma Stone and some tribute to Easy A.  Its pretty awesome!

Have you seen Friends with Benefits? What do you think about Mila Kunis?

Being on meds is the best time to watch romantic comedies (and probably Nicholas Sparks movies).  I’d say this Valentine’s marathon kicked off with a decent start (so much better than the Superbowl game at least)…

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

Earlier this year, I wrote a review for Bad Teacher (find it HERE) and talked about how I really liked my first experience of watching Jason Segel.  Thats when my actual friend and fellow blogger, Jelliefishie, suggested that I should check out Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  I hesitated on this one a while but then after horror and action lined up, I felt like it would be good to get some comedy in, even if it included the annoying Russell Brand.  Let’s check it out!

Director: Nicholas Stoller

Cast: Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Bill Hader, Jonah Hill

Struggling musician Peter (Jason Segel) gets dumped by his 5 year TV celebrity girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell).  To escape from his pains, he goes to a Hawaiian resort where he coincidentially ends up at the same time with Sarah Marshall and his new boyfriend Aldous Snow.   (Russell Brand).  As he makes friends and tries to move on, he meets the resort front desk employee, Rachel (Mila Kunis) who helps cover up and encourage him to break out of his shell and embrace life.

I had no idea what to expect from this mostly because Jelliefishie recommends awkward humor movies.  Last time was The House Bunny which I grew to like a lot.  Funny enough, when Forgetting Sarah Marshall started, I had that feeling.  I should mention that I watched the Unrated version, since Rotten Tomatoes seem to view it as two different films.  Anyways, as the movie progressed, it actually had a lot of really funny moments and turned into a nice balance between romance and comedy.  I ended up having a really good time with this.

Jason Segel is a pretty awesome actor.  He has this silly adorable vibe.  Sometimes, thats just the charm that brings out the right level of not too sappy romance.  Maybe he was a tad overexaggerated, (or do guys that break up really act that way?) and in this unrated version, we saw him fully naked.  Did they do that in the original theatrical version? Either way, he had great chemistry with Mila Kunis.  On that note, I have seen Mila Kunis a few times in movies.  She’s actually a pretty fun actress and in this one, even I thought she had really nice style.

On the other side, Kristen Bell fit right into the role of the crazy ex girlfriend who is super full of themselves matched with the very well-deserved (still annoying) boyfriend in the form of Russell Brand.  Honestly, I don’t like him anymore after this.  I walked away halfway through one of the scenes because it was just ridiculous… That was the only downside for me.  I can see how if that type of humor was your type of thing then he was supposed to be the comedic relief.  I found many other parts funnier.   However, in the parts with him and Jonah Hill (as the waiter), those scenes were pretty epic.

Jelliefishie definitely gave me a decent recommendation.  Will it be my fave comedy? Probably not but it sure was fun! It was what I needed to lighten my mood. It had a good amount of hilarious moments, a solid cast with Jason Segel, Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell and a great supporting cast with Jonah Hill and even a cameo with Kristen Wiig.  Plus, the girls had a beautiful wardrobe and even I started wondering, how can I get Kristen Bell’s core… That aside, c’mon its in HAWAII! Who is in for a vacation Hawaii? I know I’d go in a heartbeat (if I had the money)!

I talked about Jason Segel before.  What do you think of Russell Brand? Are you into his comedy style? How about the two beautiful girls in this: Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell? Do you like them? Any notable performances that come to mind? Did you see this flick? Love to hear your thoughts 🙂

Remember to go check out Jelliefishie’s awesome blog! She’s very artistic and take awesome photos and she writes awesome stuff, even recently dipping into the world of movie reviews 🙂 I linked her up on top!

Date Night (2010)

I don’t have a lot of my  own movies that I’ve ripped the digital copy on my computer however, I chose this flick to test it out a while back.  So, on last Saturday morning, when I wanted something quick to accompany my breakfast, I switched this on and finished it later on the afternoon.

Director: Shawn Levy

Cast: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, Taraji P. Henson, Jimmi Simpson, Common, William Fichtner

A New Jersey couple Phil (Steve Carell) and Claire Foster (Tina Fey) has lost their flare in their marriage and go about their life driven by daily routine.  Right from the start, we know that Claire doesn’t trust Phil with a lot of chores because he forgets certain details.  Every week there is one night they schedule for date night where they go to the same restaurant, order the same food and talk about the same things.  Every part of their life is scheduled.  When one of their friends decide to separate and live life better instead of being friends in their own house, they start getting worried about their own relationship.  On the next week of Date Night, they decide to change things up, dress up and go into New York City to a fancy restaurant and enjoy themselves and bring back the spark.  At the restaurant Claw, they realize that they are too late and there are no tables available, thats when Phil decides to take the reservations of the Triplehorns, who were no show.  In the middle of their meal, they get order by two men, Armstrong (Jimmi Simpson) and Collins (Common) and thats when they learned that these guys are looking for something that were stolen by the actual Triplehorns.  Being mistaken in their identity, they end up running all over town, asking for help from a previous client of Claire, Holbrooke Grant (Mark Wahlberg) and realizing that this goes deeper not only into the gang, the police but also the red hot political figure DA Crenshaw (William Fichtner).  Date Night turns out to not only have changed it up but to be life-threatening and all the Fosters want is to get home to their children.

One of the most hilarious segment where I topple over with laughter every time!

I really enjoyed this flick and I always turn it on when I need a good laugh, especially since its a pretty hilarious.  There are some parts, I just topple over with uncontrollable laughter.  What do I like so much about the movie? Maybe its not the plot itself, but as much as the story is pretty straightforward, Steve Carell and Tina Fey together are phenomenal.  They are a blend of awesome comedy.  Their expressions, reactions and dialogue just carry the movie along so well.  This is the first movie I’ve ever seen of Tina Fey and man, she’s won herself another fan in me.

Another factor of awesomeness if that its an action comedy full of ridiculous things that happen.  Ridiculous in a super good way as in its just funny and hilarious moments one after the next.  On top of that, they had a little cameo with James Franco and Mila Kunis who play the actual Triplehorns and Mark Wahlberg who plays the hot muscular (and shirtless) ex-client of Claire’s.  There’s a short appearance of Mark Ruffalo and Kristin Wiig as the soon to be divorced couple and Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester as the babysitter.  Its loaded with a lot of cool cast.

There is lots of shooting and guns, panic and yelling, a hot car totaled mixed with some intense, exciting and laugh out loud moments.  I think that sounds like a pretty awesome formula for an action comedy, don’t you? I always mention this when I look at comedy, its very personal and that’s why even as I was checking up on the scores, there’s always a mix of people who find it funny or not.  Its just a personal preference.  I’m into Steve Carell’s humor and apparently Tina Fey’s as well so this works for me.  Because of that, I notice but manage to overlook any other flaws that it might have.

Have you seen this? Are you fan of Steve Carell and/or Tina Fey? What movies from them would you recommend for either of them? Have you read Tina Fey’s book Bossypants?

Oz: The Great and Powerful (2013)

I’m super happy that I got to watch this opening weekend.  I rarely ever do that because my boyfriend and I aren’t crazy about crowds.  However, we both wanted a little date night at the theatres since the last movie we saw was Les Miserables on New Year’s Eve.

Director: Sam Raimi

Cast: James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff, Joey King

In 1905, an ambitious yet unsuccessful magician, Oz (James Franco) finds himself carried into a tornado and landing into the enchanted land of Oz.  There he meets Theodora (Mila Kunis) who is convinced that he’s the wizard mentioned in the King’s prophecy to save Oz from the powers of the wicked witch.  She then takes him to meet her sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) who is taking care of the kingdom while there is no one on the throne.  Evanora shows Oz the benefits he would reap if he were to become the King after he’s proved himself as the wizard.  The one thing he would have to do is to destroy the wand of the wicked witch residing in the Dark Forest, Glinda (Michelle Williams).  On his adventures, he takes on a flying monkey Finley (voice by Zach Braff) and saves a little China doll in China Town (Joey King), who ends up joining him in the quests to prove his greatness, they get whirled into the problems of the land of Oz and he needs to not only figure out who to believe, who is good and evil but also how he chooses to become: good or great

I’ve been anticipating this movie a lot and I haven’t actually seen any of the trailers.  Its just I’m into the Wizard of Oz story and the cast seemed fantastic.  The CGI fantasy world looks so beautiful in the poster.  I watched this in 3D because the normal version had ridiculous hours where my boyfriend was still at work.  It was worth it even with a stupid ticket issue before the movie at the theatres.

One of the best part of the movie was its visuals.  It started in the 1905 real normal world in black and white. Everything was black and white till he got spun around literally and whisked into the enchanted world. Let me say that the landing sequence in 3D was super awesome and fun.  If you saw it, you know what I mean. It was a pretty rough landing but it was just beautiful to look at as well.  It gave the audience (and Oz) a general view of everything around him and when he got out, he got to see the enchanted world around him.  The vibrant colors they used and it had this slight cartoon-ish touch to it that reassured us of the magical world around us.  I really  loved it a lot!

Next, I loved the cast.  James Franco was amazing and he really shone as the lead.  I haven’t seen a great amount of him doing comedies.  I’ve seen him in drama (127 Hours) and action (Spiderman).  However, I felt he fit right into the role and brought out all the charisma that he needed.  Man, did he kiss a lot of girls in this movie! And he had a lot of funny moments as well!

As much as Oz was a great part of this, the conflict between the three witches were a huge chunk as well.  Lets start with the order they appeared.  Mila Kunis as Theodora was gorgeous.  Its probably one of the best roles I’ve seen her in and she looked really pretty.  She took on an innocent believer, just the type that Oz would prey on to help him and her love ended up changing her into the total opposite of the spectrum.  She did it really good. Rachel Weisz played Theodora’s sister Evanora, a manipulative witch that holds a lot of hidden secrets.  Prior to this, I’ve only seen Weisz in The Lovely Bones and I don’t really remember much of it.  She is a very charming woman as well.  She portrayed really well the elegant yet manipulative and slightly evil role she was given.  Her expressions and tone of voice was spot on.

Last we have Glinda played by Michelle Wiliams. I haven’t known this actress before however she played the sweet and soft but had strong will and inner strength.  She was convincing not only with how she represented that character but she had a very wonderful smile to match it. I think for all the 3 witches, they did cast the right women.  Charming, pretty and elegant embodied each of them. Many times where the witches were involved, it was the most intense and dramatic moments in the movie.

The comic relief in this movie other than Oz himself had to be the addition of his flying monkey, Finley.  I don’t watch Scrubs personally and I’m not really familiar with Zach Braff but his dialogue and facial expressions that they gave for this animated character was just hilarious.  He was my boyfriend’s favorite part of the movie, I think.  Aside from that, another character worth mentioning was the Chinadoll that was rescued from China Town.  I love the name, a twist on what we know as Chinatown 😉 That little girl was super awesome. The detail in the character and the voice was done by Joey King.  It showed perfectly at times, how she was fragile but courageous at the same time. Very well depicted characters!

 

I could go on and on about this.  I love this movie and its a great choice for seeing in theatres.  The CGI, the characters, and the whole animation was gorgeous and well-portrayed.  The story itself had a twist from the Wizard of Oz story that we know.  It wasn’t too dramatic or tense and had a balance of fun and comedic moments, which makes it highly enjoyable!