Movie Review – Date Night

Date Night

In New York City, a case of mistaken identity turns a bored married couple’s attempt at a glamorous and romantic evening into something more thrilling and dangerous.

What Worked: Based on the trailer, I had low expectations. Based on the two leads, I had high expectations. So this could have gone two ways, either a great script with an awesome cast or just an okay script with an awesome cast. Date Night is the latter. In lesser hands, this would be some throw away forgettable comedy, but Fey and Carell bring something that the screenplay was lacking in. They make you believe they’re married and have this long history together. More jokes work than not and becomes really fun to watch overtime. So I do suggest you see it with an audience but also watching it at home as rental would be just fine.

What Didn’t Work: This is an “all star cast”. So every time you turn your head, its another cameo by an A list actor. It became a, “Oh its that guy”, “Oh crap its her from that show” kind of movie. It seemed like the crew said, “Okay we have an alright script, so lets throw in a bunch of actors that a lot of people know and the audience will buy a ticket”. Also a lot of the scenes seemed straight out of a sitcom. I kept waiting for the laugh track to play. And its predictability is no surprise.

Score: 7/10

Review written by: Michael Brawley. View more of Mike’s thoughts on film on his blog.

Movie Reviews- Green Zone, She’s Out of My League

Green Zone

Discovering covert and faulty intelligence causes a U.S. Army officer to go rogue as he hunts for Weapons of Mass Destruction in an unstable region.

What I Liked: How fast paced it was. This is the movie for those 2 people who thought The Hurt Locker didn’t have enough action in it. Whoever you are. Think The Hurt Locker on meth. It opens with the bombing of Iraq then the very next scene you have Miller (Damon) trying to take down a sniper. No this is not Bourne 4. Not at all. Unfortunately. But its as good as any one of those movies. Ok, no that’s not true. The Bourne Ultimatum is still pretty awesome. Green Zone is now the third film done with Paul Greengrass directing and Matt Damon starring. After this, I’ll gladly see any thing those too do together. Id love for there next project to be Bourne 4 but that’s pretty much impossible at this point. Great performances and cinematography. About the cinematography, some might not like it because its very shaky at times. Its not Cloverfield shaky but it does happen.

What I Didn’t Like: Ending could have wrapped up much faster. Theirs a long chase scene towards the end that could have been drastically cut.

Score: 8.6

Read More to check out She’s Out of My League…

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She’s Out of My League

An average Joe meets the perfect woman, but his lack of confidence and the influence of his friends and family begin to pick away at the relationship.

What I Liked: How funny it got overtime. Which is kind of a good and bad thing. It took about 15-20 for it to get really interesting and funny. But when it gets there it really works. Now this was written by the guys who wrote Sex Drive, a far under appreciated better comedy, and the upcoming Hot Tub Time Machine which people are calling “This years The Hangover“. League sort of falls at the bottom of their list of great comedies, but not by much. A lot of the jokes are fresh and some are very surprising. If you see it you’ll no what I mean. I’ll just say it takes place in a bathroom and its the funniest joke in the movie. This is star Jay Baruchel’s first starring role and he plays it well. But the highlights of the movie are with Kirk (Baruchel) and Molly’s (Eve) friends.

What I Didnt Like: It’s really awkward when your watching a comedy and people dont laugh. For the first 10-15 minutes about a dozen of the 70 people in audience were laughing. Which was a pretty bad sign. But the jokes got better and more an more people started laughing. Oh and the ending. An airport chase? Really???

P.S. To the three girls sitting next to me, talking through out the movie, making fantastic observations: YOU SUCK!

Score: 7.4

Movie Review 3/15 – Alice In Wonderland

At March 7, 2010
By NESHA
In Mike's Movies / movie reviews / Movies

Alice In Wonderland

What I Liked: I hate critics. Not them personally but the profession. I honestly think anyone who bases what they watch on what someone else thinks should not be watching movies. ‘Alice’ currently has a 53% on RottenTomatoes.com meaning only half of the critics liked it (Good Reviews: 93, Bad 84). I’m saying all this to say, don’t always listen to critics. Always see a movie for yourself. Oh wait. I’m supposed to review this movie….I loved it. Everything I had hoped it would be. Around the middle of the film, I realized I didn’t want it to end. Which is too bad because a sequel is never going to happen. Instead of doing the obvious thing and just doing a modern retelling of ‘Alice’, Burton does a sequel to it which turned out to be one of the reasons I loved it. It had all the references from the old story we all know and but it also got to go wherever it wanted with this film. Oh and not that this needs to be said but Johnny Depp is as awesome as he usually is. And this actress I’ve never seen before, Mia Wasikowska, is just great as Alice. Now, I saw this in IMAX 3D which is how I recommend you see it. The whole movie fantastically weird. Just really fun.

What I Didn’t Like: It had to end? Can I say that? Guess not. Well for a while in the middle, the movie kind of fizzles out for a bit but picks up.

Score: 9/10

Movie Reviews 2/26: Cop Out & The Crazies

Cop Out

A comedy about a veteran NYPD cop whose rare baseball card is stolen. Since it’s his only hope to pay for his daughter’s upcoming wedding, he recruits his partner to track down the thief, a memorabilia-obsessed gangster.

Review: I usually have a ‘What I Liked’ and ‘What I Didn’t Like’ section for my reviews. But I’m just gonna lay it all out for you now. Sighhhhh. Again… that’s a sigh. This was pretty disappointing. I’m not saying it was bad, I wanna make that clear. Just disappointing. Just a lot of wasted talent here. Everything started off pretty great, it was funny, acting was as good as it should be and i was having fun. Then Tracy Morgan’s character left. And I got bored. Whenever Tracy or Sean William Scott weren’t on screen, I just didn’t care. I’m not sure if it was because I was tired or because of the movie, but towards the end I was really sleepy. I actually closed my eyes a few times.

Score: 6/10

Read More to see a review of “The Crazies.”

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The Crazies

About the inhabitants of a small Iowa town suddenly plagued by insanity and then death after a mysterious toxin contaminates their water supply.

What I Liked: Plain and simple, best horror remake since ‘Last House on the Left’. I don’t really know what else to say about it. Everything just hits the right notes. Its intense, scary, acting is not lazy, and actually makes you care about the victims. Something that’s rare in horror now. So if you want a good scary movie, I recommend this wholly.

What I Didn’t Like: The very last 10 seconds. It just seemed way to obvious to end it that way. Didn’t need it at all.

Score: 8.5/10

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