three sentence movies – Page 33

Three sentence movie reviews: The Middle of Nowhere

Mostly, I found this movie to be slow, which isn’t a bad thing.* What this movie did have were subtle shifts and a lot of internal introspection and change. Also really good acting by all participants.**

Cost: free from library.
Where watched: at home.

*For instance, it examined gender roles in a much more interesting way than The Best of Me did.
**While Emayatzy Corinealdi was very good in the lead, Lorraine Toussaint really killed me with her portrayal of a mother trying and failing to connect with her daughters.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2012/middle_of_nowhere.html

Three sentence movie reviews: The Best of Me

I knew I shouldn’t have watched this, not just because it is adapted from a Nicolas Sparks novel,* but also because my DVD copy advertised it was a “Tears of Joy” edition. But I like Michelle Monaghan, and I’m a sucker for the “first love” plot, so viewed it I did. And dammit if my thought “that plot twist didn’t set me up for Tears of Joy” wasn’t followed by actual Tears of Joy ten minutes later.**

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home. Toes are now ice blue. And let me say, the previous color, a glittery black and mauve concoction called “Scandalous” took a very long time to remove. I have other polish that is also difficult to remove, but that polish doesn’t chip on day three of wear. Scandalous, living up to its name, will not be making an appearance on my toes ever again.

*If you made a game of drinking each time his stories reinforce traditional gender roles you would be dead before the climax.****
**It was still a massively annoying movie though–though not as terrible as the Notebook. It was filled with the gender role crap, plus Luke Bracey looked like he was five years out of college.*** Could they not find someone close to eighteen to play an eighteen-year-old? I could never really believe Liana Liberato was his first love.
***IMDB trivia reports Bracey was 25 and Liberato was 19 when filming. Interestingly Bracey’s bio on the site doesn’t include his year of birth. So perhaps he is older.
**** “Why do I feel dumber after you tell me about these movies?” Matt asked, after I dramatically recounted the plot. He was also highly offended at the title, once I told him where the Tears of Joy came from.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2014/best_of_me.html

Three sentence movie reviews: Heaven Can Wait

Hey, are you looking for a male-centered comedy about a man who gets pulled into heaven before he should arrive and thus must spend some time in different people’s bodies while the people in charge of such things find him a suitable body? Well, this is the comedy is for you, and despite it being nearly forty years old the humor still holds up. Watching this, I can see a glimmer of why Mr. Beatty was once considered so desirable, though I can’t say I felt the same way.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.

Thus ends my Elaine May marathon. She co-wrote this film. There’s nothing left to watch, alas.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1978/heaven_can_wait.html

Three sentence movie reviews: White House Down

I didn’t have much downtime this weekend, so when I saw this at the library, I grabbed it, then offered it up as an entertainment option for my sick (and bored) boyfriend. On first viewing, I entered with low expectations and was happily surprised; this time I noticed that after about the 2/3rds mark EVERY line was cheesy. However, I did again enjoy the breadcrumbs of plot that were nicely scattered and then returned to, as well as the way the plot kept dragging them back into the White House in plausible ways.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home with Matt

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2013/white_house_down_ver5.html

I’m sorry, but the comments are too good not to grab. I love that some of them include their job titles. Is a Visitor Experience Associate of the Science Museum of Minnesota qualified to judge this poster? The internet says yes.

Adreanna Ramirez ·

Los Gatos, California

might be the worst poster of the year. Its so bad on so many levels.

Like · Reply ·

1 · Apr 19, 2013 9:26am

Shawn Grobel ·

Cal State Long Beach

walk away bro, just walk away.

Like · Reply · Apr 19, 2013 10:01am

Donnacha Kenny ·

Graphic Design & Social Media at Star Cinema Grill

“Cool guys don’t look at explosions…”

Like · Reply · Apr 19, 2013 12:13pm

Evan Gamble ·

Cedar Ridge High School

Are you sad?

Like · Reply · Apr 19, 2013 4:20pm

Bert Shuttlecock ·

Manager at Saint Bernard Pittayasan

Generic and uninteresting. Except ID4, the rest of the director’s credit is useless or even harmful!

Like · Reply ·

1 · Apr 19, 2013 6:40pm

Ryan O’Brien ·

Visitor Experience Associate at Science Museum of Minnesota

Would have been so much better if he were looking at us incredulously with his thumb jerked behind him as if to say ‘Holy sh*t do you see that?’

Like · Reply · Apr 19, 2013 9:29pm

Richard Nelson

When you’re the second movie about something in a year, why would you create a poster that resembles something from the first movie?

http://impawards.com/2013/olympus_has_fallen_ver13.html

Like · Reply · Apr 20, 2013 9:15am

Fred Carlsson ·

Stockholm, Sweden

Bad bad bad.

Like · Reply ·

1 · Apr 21, 2013 4:14am

Heidl Bär ·

CEO at HQCovers

John Carter of Earth?

Like · Reply · Apr 22, 2013 2:13am

Alexandro Olivera ·

Castor Troy

Awwww the famous and inevitable red sparks.

Like · Reply · Apr 22, 2013 6:30pm

Three sentence movie reviews: Thirteen

I’ve been meaning to see this since its debut in 2003, because I knew it would be a good movie, but I also knew it would be a hard movie. And man, was it a hard movie, partially because it was written by a thirteen-year-old girl. Super props for the mom character though, as she was well-rounded in a way mothers in film usually aren’t.

Cost: $11.00 (Half of the $22.00 POWFest double feature)
Where watched: Hollywood Theater

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2003/thirteen.html

POWFest: Catherine Hardwicke

Thank goodness I signed up for the Hollywood Theater’s newsletter, or this opportunity would have passed me by. Two movies I’ve been meaning to see– Miss You Already, Thirteen–plus a conversation with the director, Catherine Hardwicke? Yes please!

Hardwicke was interviewed by Melissa Silverstein, founder and editor of Women & Hollywood, the site where (among other things) you can sign up for a weekly email of movies about, written, or directed by women.

Hardwicke told us some great stories. Among them:

The movie treatment for Twilight was rejected by every studio. Hardwicke thought it would be successful, given the online chatter. She was told that the only market for a Twilight movie would be 400 teenage girls in Salt Lake City.
After having the #1 movie in the country (Twilight) she did not receive a car or a three-picture deal from the studio, as is common practice for male directors. Instead, there were balloons and mini-cupcakes.
She was told that the 69 million Twilight made its first weekend was probably all it was going to make–that everyone who was going to see it had already done so. Instead, it went on to make 400 million dollars.
Hardwicke had the option of directing the second movie in the Twilight series, but declined. She assumed the studio would hire another woman director. They did not. The next four Twilight movies, all four Hunger Games movies and all three Divergent movies have been directed by men.
Movies made by women don’t get the advertising budgets that movies made by men do. Hardwicke pointed out that we probably never saw an ad for Miss You Already.
She wrote Thirteen with Nikki Reed when Reed was 13. They mostly wrote the script over six days while Reed was on winter break.
Hardwicke was also a production designer and worked on Tank Girl which she said was very fun.
To be a director with a project that goes, you have to have about eighteen projects going.

This was a great program and I was sad to note that most of the seats in the theater were empty. Why weren’t more people attending? Then I realized that I’m interested in women’s voices in film, yet I’ve never attended the POWFest. I also don’t tend to prioritize watching female created/centered films in the theater, but rather wait for them on DVD. I’ve made a pledge to return to POWFest next year and to make more of an effort to prioritize women’s films.

Miss You Already

Birth, death and other stuff, with two wonderful actresses we don’t get to see enough of.* This movie doesn’t shy away from the cancer stuff, though it also takes a twist not typical of cancer movies. Overall, a really fabulous film and unfortunately overlooked.

Cost: $11.00 (one half of $22.00 ticket for the Catherine Hardwicke Double Feature at the POWFeset.)
Where watched: Hollywood Theater

*Plus Dominic Cooper, aka “Bucky” in Captain America.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/intl/uk/2015/miss_you_already.html
Good lord but I love Toni Collette’s necklaces!

Hollywood Theater Oscar Party

This year, Kelly and I spent our time with the Oscars at the Hollywood Theater. Our $25.00 admission got us reserved seats, two drink coupons, and a voting ballot. Doors opened at 3:30 and so we watched all the pre-shows before the ceremony began at 5:30.

People were encouraged to come in costume, and there was a fashion show during one of the commercial breaks. (They nicely turned the sound down during the commercials.) Here is the initial round of contestants.

Here are the five finalists. My vote was for the woman in the red dress, who really knew how to work her model walk. I was also a fan of the Tidy Cat lady.

But here was the–admittedly stunning–winner, inspired by Cate Blanchett’s performance in Carol.

Aside from beer and wine, there were also specialty cocktails inspired by some of the nominees. This is the Denizan, inspired by The Big Short. It was delicious.

I usually enjoy the Oscars Ceremony. It can be a little draggy and long, but so can football and other sporting games. I thought Chris Rock was a great host. It was also fun to watch with a crowd. A collective shriek of delight rose up when Mark Rylance won, beating out the presumed winner Sylvester Stallone. And there was quite a big gasp when Spotlight was announced as the winner as probably most people had pickedThe Reverent. But yay! Spotlight won!

I thought I did a pretty good job with my picks, missing only nine. (I forgot to read up on the short films, and missed all of those.) No one in the theater got all correct, and the person who ended up winning the big prize missed five.

Overall, it was a fun night and a good way to see the Oscars.

Three sentence movie reviews: Paper Towns

A good second viewing, though I had to keep reminding myself that Margo Roth Spiegelman would soon exit stage left and leave me to enjoy the movie.* I enjoy watching the boys hanging out in this movie, and how true the end-of-high school emotions are. And wouldn’t the Fault in Our Stars have been a different (and much better movie) if Mr. Nat Wolff had gotten the part of Augustus Waters?

Cost: free from library.
Where watched: at home with Matt. Film 4 of 3 of today’s scheduled Movie Palooza. (Matt and I were supposed to go on a date, but there was car trouble and he had a copy of this movie, so we watched it.)

*Didn’t like the character in the book and her translation to the screen didn’t do anything for me, either.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/index.html
I think this was one of those Fathom Events promotions, but it looks cool, so I put it up.

Three sentence movie reviews: Ishtar

I’m going on record as saying that I remember my family watching this on VHS in 1987 and finding it hilarious.* And while it wasn’t knee-slapping funny, I laughed throughout this viewing. If you are amused by two middle-aged men bumbling through the desert, you will quite possibly like this movie, especially if you ignore all the film-critic baggage that has attached itself to this picture.

Cost: $2.99 via Google Play
Where watched: at home on the tablet. Film 3 of 3 of today’s scheduled Movie Palooza.

*So much so that I can still sing the “Tellin’ the Truth” song from the soundtrack.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/index.html