Three Quick Reviews: Less Than Zero, Youth in Revolt, Limitless

As most of you have seen, I’ve been taking it easy with the whole posting world.  One reason is that its hit me that I’ve been really tired so I’m trying to find a balance between everything I post to kind of not slack off on the quality of the context but slow down the frequency of posting, especially now that I’ve start up a second blog.  However, I do want this one to keep one of its main focus on movies so no worries, I will get back to it. Plus, I have a few theatre visits planned so because of slowing down, I had a few movies hanging out in my drafts and I realize the best way to approach this is to do quick reviews 🙂 I promise to not do this frequently but sometimes, its quite refreshing 😉

Lets get it going…

LESS THAN ZERO (1987)

Director: Marek Kanievska

Cast: Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz, Robert Downey Jr., James Spader

Clay(Andrew McCarthy) heads off to college leaving his two best friends behind as they both carry on with their lives.  His ex-girlfriend Blair (Jami Gertz) decides to stay behind and pursue her career as a model while Julian asks his dad to open his own business.  When Clay comes back home for the holiday as his ex-girlfriend’s request, he realizes that things aren’t as smooth as he had expected for his friends.  Julian is now a drug addict who has lost all his father’s money and owes even another rich kid drug dealer money. Putting his own troubles aside, he tries to help with Julian’s situation before its too late.

After watching Pretty in Pink, I have gained a fondness for Andrew McCarthy.  He has a weird vibe in his movies but the boyfriend told me that he heard that this one was good so I gave this one a shot.  I didn’t know that Robert Downey Jr. was in this.  Let me just clarify that I’m only a fan of his newer movies so that gave me a little bit of doubt.  Surprisingly, I thought this was a well-made movie that had a strong message about the danger of drug addiction with youth. The most notable performance goes out to Robert Downey Jr.  I never thought I’d say this about his earlier works but he did a very convincing role.

As I was reading, this is supposed to be loosely based on a book with the same title but I’ve never read it so I can’t compare.

Have you read the novel? Have you seen Less Than Zero? What do you think about it? Are you a Robert Downey Jr. fan?  

YOUTH IN REVOLT (2006)

Director: Miguel Arteta

Cast: Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Jean Smart, Zach Galifianakis, Steve Buscemi, Ari Graynor, Justin Long, Ray Liotta

When Nick Twisp’s mother, Estelle (Jean Smart) moves out to the country to live in a trailer while her boyfriend (Zach Galifianakis) hides away from sailors that he cons money from. There he meets a girl, Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday) that he falls in love with completely.  Any hideaway comes to an end and when he has to leave, he promises Sheeni that he will find a way to get back to her.  With Sheeni’s smartness and his absolute desire to get back to her, Nick tries to find a balance between himself and a slowly develop completely bad alter personality called Francois to give himself courage to be a rebel.

As I sat through Youth in Revolt, the only thing that ran through my mind was that it was weird.  Its a good weird though because it made me curious about what else would happen.  Honestly, the more fun parts of this was when Nick channeled Francois into his life.  It turned into his own journey to be more courageous and figure out how to be who he had to be.

Although, I wasn’t sure about Sheeni’s intentions, Nick’s desires to be with her had some pretty cute elements to it along with some pretty funny dorky ones as well. Plus, there are many stars before they did some bigger movies in their career here.

What do you think about Youth in Revolt? Have you seen it?

LIMITLESS (2011)

Director: Neil Burger

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, Robert De Niro

Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper), a uninspired writer whose girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) just left him, tries this experimental drug called NZT which unlocks 100% of the brain’s capacity.  This allows him to not only finish his book but also learn things at quick pace which he uses in financial investments.  Thats when Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro), a powerful  and cunning energy business man uses him to settle a deal that he is trying to land.  As the drugs unknown effects start taking a toll on him, there are also others who have learnt about this drug and want to have their hands on its limited supply putting Eddie in danger on multiple fronts.

The premise for this was a good one.  I think it had a really decent idea but the execution fell short.  The script could have been stronger but what it does have is one of the better roles that I’ve seen of Bradley Cooper.  I personally have mixed feelings about him but so far, aside from my hatred for The Hangover, he’s been involved in decent movies. I haven’t seen Silver Linings Playbook so that doesn’t count.  As ridiculous and predictable as some of the events are, it has a pretty intriguing beginning to set up how the movie was heading and right away, it wasn’t a movie that you needed to really over think the details too much if you intend to enjoy it.  And I didn’t, so I actually found it alright.  It could have been better but lets not be too picky sometimes 😉

What do you think about Bradley Cooper? What are your thoughts on Limitless?

New Year’s Eve (2011)

Its New Year’s Eve and I couldn’t let it go without watching this movie (since I bought it a few weeks ago at Plattsburgh for this)!

NEW YEAR’S EVE

DIRECTED: Garry Marshall (Valentine’s Day, Pretty Woman)

CAST: Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Hillary Swank, Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Katherine Heigl, Russell Peters, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Abigail Breslin, Josh Duhamel

This movie has so many stories that interlink that I don’t even know how to start.  So lets start it off as they did it and sending a GIGANTIC thanks to IMDB.  We start with Claire Morgan (Hillary Swank) who is responsible for the ball drop in Times Square and making sure that things go smoothly up until the ball starts to descend. That is the Times Square story. Next up, we go to Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer) who is somewhat of an introvert and scared woman who needs to find her courage to complete her resolutions with the help of Paul (Zac Efron). This story is referred to as Resolutions Tour.  Afterwards, we have the snapshot of two couples waiting for their babies and trying to get the first baby born in new year’s reward of $25,000 with Tess (Jessica Biel) and Griff (Seth Meyers) competing with Grace (Sarah Paulson) and James (Til Schweiger). This story is Maternity Ward.  Following up, we get introduced to Randy (Ashton Kutcher) a hater of New Year’s because of his past bad experiences, who gets stuck in an elevator with Elise (Lea Michele) who is in a

rush to get to Times Square. Also called Elevator Story.  Then, we go to Sam (Josh Duhamel) who is the witness of his friends’ wedding and needs to get back to the Ahern Party, also the name of this story.  After that, we run over to the Ahern Party where we meet Laura (Katherine Heigl) who is the chef for this party where Jensen (Jon Bon Jovi) is performing for this party. This one is Laura and Jensen’s story. After that, we get to Mr. Harris (Robert De Niro) who is dying in the hospital and has a Nurse (Halle Berry) keeping watch over him. I think I missed a story back there with Kim (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her daughter, Hailey (Abigail Breslin) where its a mother who doesn’ t want to let her daughter go with her friends to see the ball drop because she’s protective over her. Thats the general idea of the movie and their short stories.

Did you get all of that? I just watched this yesterday and I needed to recap with playing this movie in the background and IMDB. Its a crash landing of a movie with lots of different actors and actresses into a whole bunch of diferent stories. There are some stars that are my faves like Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Abigail Breslin, Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl.  I’ve had enjoyment watching Lea Michele as well as Zac Efron before.  But if asked what would I call this movie? A mess! A big mess! My highlight when I wasn’t rolling my eyes was when I saw Russell Peters talking in his Indian accent.  Now if you have about half the amount of love that I have for Russell Peters as a comedian, then there are parts you will enjoy.  I’m not saying it was all bad.  I can tell you that I HATED Michelle Pfeiffer in this movie and she was paired with Zac Efron in a role acting like he was wanna-be cool or something and it was a bit annoying.  Thats okay though. The story that grew on me was the elevator story because it was fun and cute.  The Times Square story and the Hospital one was quite heartwarming also.  There was even some Bon Jovi singing to bring it up so I’m alright with that.  I’ve never seen him act before and I did like him pretty much.  I also do enjoy Katherine Heigl so I felt it was an interesting match.  This movie was far from great.  Nothing like Love Actually, of course. There are some parts here and there that I was alright with and seeing as its New Year’s Eve, its okay.  I don’t want to be too harsh.

I’m off to party it up till midnight with a potluck and countdown at my friend’s NYE party.  I just had to post this up before I left, or else it wouldn’t be appropriate.  I’ll be back tomorrow to update some more of my post in the morning.