Continuing the tradition of seeing a superhero movie in celebration of our anniversary, we caught up with Tony Stark. I found this movie to be great fun, especially with the always excellent Don Cheadle replacing the mediocre Terrance Howard. Also, I finally find a movie when I can stand to watch Mickey Rourke and, (plus!) Sam Rockwell was awesome, as usual.
We watched this with Mom as part of her Mother’s Day celebration. I learned that you have to pay for on-demand movies and also that high definition looks weird to me, sort of like soap opera lighting. It was still a funny movie.
The wealth in this movie was distracting* but the acting was superb. I found some of the “hi-lar–ious” situations a bit forced, but still amusing and I liked how everything ended up. Question: Is it his charisma or would John Krasinski be as magnetic if he wasn’t Jim from the Office?
*as in, “Hmmmm. I’m guessing that house must be worth at least two million dollars. Now clearly she owned it when she and her husband were married, so she probably got it in the divorce, but how could she afford the upkeep? Her bakery/coffee shop seemed to be very busy, but one location can’t possibly pull in that much, can it? Perhaps she has multiple locations? He is some sort of successful lawyer, but really do lawyers make that much? He has the swanky condo in the city and the fancy car, plus probably some sort of payments/loss of income due to the divorce, although that was more than a decade ago, so perhaps he has time to recover. And neither of them seem to work. And really, her already quite large kitchen isn’t big enough? It’s the size of my living room. If she’s so busy, as alluded to, when does she have time to do all this cooking? Also, the daughter and son-in-law’s home is huge! They are supposed to be in their 20s and this is California. How can they afford that? Are they lawyers too? Maybe there is a trust fund involved. Really, this all should be explained so I can concentrate on the story. Just a throwaway line like ‘grandpa’s cotton money provided all this’ would do. Geez.”
I really enjoyed this whimsical tale that combined the best of fantasy, good acting and excellent plot. The ghosts were a delightful addition as was Robert DeNiro as Captain Shakespeare. This was an incredibly fun way to spend 127 minutes.
Bechdel score: two women? Yes. Who talk to each other? Yes. About something besides a man? Yes. Although the topic of conversation happens to be killing another woman so that the women in question can regain their youth. Not necessarily what were looking for, but we will take it.
Also: Robert DeNiro seems to be having an incredibly fun time in his sixth decade. Many “fun” roles. Some that are actually funny, like this one, and others that are not, like in Meet the Parents.
Who knew stop motion animation, and the Belgians, could be so funny? This is worth seeking out for its wacky storyline and hilarious dialogue. If your child understands French, or is a fast reader, they might be able to read the subtitles and enjoy this movie; if not, you will have to enjoy it yourself.
Wow, is it that everyone is a bad actor, or is the script the problem? I found this movie visually pretty, for which I think we have to thank Catherine Hardwicke, but ultimately not a very good way to spend two hours. Not that I was surprised by that.
Engrossing drama filled with moral dilemmas as well as mistakes made and made up for. The acting is top notch. It may have been the settings on my mother’s TV, but I found parts of the movie so dark that I could barely see what was going on.
This has two great actresses I love and I expected to like it. But it was boring and incredibly dissatisfying. Matt went grocery shopping for an hour in the middle of it, came back and guessed what had happened in his absence, it was that predictable.
Given all the anti-racism reading I’ve been doing I expected not to like this movie. After all, it’s the quintessential–as my friend once referred to the genre–“white woman swooping in to save the poor black kid in the projects” genre. But, darn it, Sandra Bullock is charming and fun to watch and she wins me over every time.
Now go read the book.
Kinda slow in the middle, but as my mother observed, “When nothing is happening, you can just look at all the pretty things in her hair.” Emily Blunt is very good as the young queen, the politics are well explained and Albert is very cute. A good movie to bring your knitting with a somewhat complex pattern to.
ps. passes the Bechdel test. Two women? Yes. Who talk to each other? Yes. About something besides a man? Yes! (Though if you count the British Throne as masculine, this would be a no)
