Category: Three Sentence Movie Reviews

“Hey what ever happened to Jay Mohr?” I thought as I grabbed this movie from the library.*  I found it to be terribly uneven** and shoddily acted.  I was going to chalk this up to Wallace Wolodarsky’s first pancake of a directing venture, but IMDB tells me that this was his third film, so I’m not really sure what to say, except that I do not recommend this film.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home, while sick.

*IMDB tells me he is still acting, but I don’t think this movie helped him get any jobs.  He tends to channel outraged-via-bad-acting Jerry Seinfeld in this movie.
**at one point the story comes to a screeching halt so we can focus on secondary character Andy Richter, a character arc that could have been cut entirely.  And at another point main characters Mohr & Nicholson are having an argument at the front door of their house. One of them leaves and a cat walks in and meows. This is the only point at which that cat appears in the movie.  Also, one character morphs from a pretty normal waitress, to a crazy crackhead in about 30 seconds.

poster from: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/seeing-other-people-2004

To be fair, I really didn’t like either of the characters in the book this movie was adapted from, so I wasn’t expecting much from this movie. It’s very pretty and it deals nicely with various emotions felt when the guy you like doesn’t like you back.  However, sometimes depictions of fabulous (said with that slightly board socialite tone) New York existences turn me off , as was the case for this movie.

Cost:  $3.99 through Google Play
Where watched: at home on Matt’s Surface.  (We’ve really got to apply some time to researching how we can stream things on our TV)

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2015/naomi_and_elys_no_kiss_list.html

One of those movies I’m guaranteed to like, what with being very interested in identity formation and young people going out into the world on their own.  This is a gorgous tale of V-E Day celebrations and how the crown princess and P2 celebrate. I think my teeth dried out from my smiling so much.

Cost: free due to mom’s Netflix account
Where watched: at mom’s with mom.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/intl/uk/2015/royal_night_out.html

Another free admission, thanks to my hotel stay at the Olympic Club, and another film I would not have watched otherwise, despite my love for Kristen Bell. However, the theater was filled with–judging from their chortles of glee–a lot of moms, and when you discard all trappings of “but, that isn’t realistic because…” then this film is very funny and all three main actresses are fun to watch, especially Kathryn Hahn.  While it was great to see so many actresses having fun, I do find myself questioning as to why the two men who wrote and directed this movie did not include any actual females in the creative process.*

Cost: free due to hotel package
Where watched: McMenamins Olympic Club

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2016/bad_moms.html

*What would a movie about bad moms written and directed by women (or even actual moms) be like?  Maybe Hollywood should get on that?

I snuck away for the weekend and free admission to the movie theater was included in my hotel stay at the Olympic Club Hotel, so I watched this.  I found it held my attention and was interesting and it made me want to read the original article on which the movie was based.* Teller and Hill do their solid acting thing, as usual.

Cost: free due to hotel package
Where watched: McMenamins Olympic Club

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2016/war_dogs.html
Much grumpy commentary by the IMP peanut gallery on this one.  Partially for the Scarface ripoff, partially because the names are not attached to the correct head.

*I did.  You can get it by googling.  Not surprisingly, there is no love interest in the real story.

This was homework watching due to the upcoming release of the remake, but I was happy to find it was enjoyable homework.  I enjoyed Brynner & McQueen’s chemistry and the gradual change of both the townspeople and the hired guns was a pleasure to watch.  It’s rare to find a movie this old that kept me interested for the entire run time* but this was one!

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1960/magnificent_seven_ver2.html

*I often am bored during older movies, so much so that I recalibrate my expectations regarding pacing for films made prior to 1980.

I like that I watched this movie; it was interesting to see the depiction of 50s hoodlums, and Willem DaFoe’s performance was good.  But it wasn’t a very good movie to watch due to some drag and a general ennui that emanated from the characters that made me wonder why I should care much about them.  I’ve hit a low point in my #52moviesbywomen project.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

poster from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085872/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Though I was excited for Kyra Sedgwick and the story seemed interesting, this movie was terrible.  The acting was sub-par, the plotting was awful.  Overall, a movie I found hard to keep watching, due to its inadequacies.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

poster from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367587/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1