With that, not a whole lot new has happened. My report for the Aquarium is in for internal review right now. So that's moving along. Work is work. There's been some serious drama, but things are still ticking along. We have been struggling to make plan, though. I'm not sure what's going on with the area right now, but it's been a struggle. My manager goes on paternity leave any day now so that'll be interesting when he leaves. Chris and I are still job hunting. Nothing new there. Other than that, not a whole lot.
I have watched several movies in the last few weeks, though. Funny how it went from 1 new movie to 9 new movies! Nothing particularly great and a lot of disappointments.
Guilt Trip (Seth Rogan, Barbara Streisand) - Come one...You know you're curious about how this duo did! At least, I was, which is why I rented it. It's definitely not fantastic. It's a son-mother type of movie where the mom seems annoying and is overly into the business of the son who tends to deflect the mother. They, oviously, bond over their road trip. It was interesting to see Streisand in this type of movie and also to see Rogan take his normal comedies down a whole lot to an almost family level (not a family movie, but for Rogan's normal stuff, it's close!). It just could have been better in almost every way. Grade: C-
The Numbers Station (John Cusack, Malin Akerman) - This movie takes place entirely at the number station, which is kind of interesting for an "action" film. I liked the acting, mostly. Cusack does a good closed-mouth-non-social type and the action is pretty good given there are no car chases or explosions. With that said, it's not super fantastic either. It is rather short (1.5 hours, opposed to the normal 2 these days), but fills the movie pretty well. It's paced well, but there's just not a whole lot to it. It's like some sort of Bourne movie without the "oomph." It's just missing something to make it better. It passed the time, but it's easily forgettable. Grade: C
Broken City (Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones) - Police crime-thriller. It's okay too. Revolves around a former-cop-turned-private-investigator and a city mayor. Zeta-Jones is the mayor's wife. So it's part mystery and part political thriller where Crowe has Wahlberg look into his wife and Wahlberg thinks it's for cheating on him, but, in fact, it's for some other reason. It's not original and I think that's the problem with this film. It's supposed to be a sort of Law Abiding Citizen type of movie, but doesn't quite get there. It doesn't have the same message and not the same execution. It's decent acting and that's what saves it from being worse. Grade: C
Parker (Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez) - I knew this would be silly, but I had to see it to see how it was. Actually, the romance that usually ends up in these types of films doesn't go the way you think it would, which was sort of refreshing. It was okay. Lopez was really just a side-bar in the whole film and, in ways, wasn't even really needed. Statham's role was basically to go out and stop a crime/revenge. Nothing new either. Grade: C-
Promised Land (Matt Damon, Frances McDormand) - I can see why this didn't do better. It's a good cast and it's a decent film, but you get about 2/3 of the way through and it just falls flat. It was kind of disappointing in that case. Even if you ignore the environmental tone to the film and replaced it with something else, the movie just doesn't really go anywhere except to turn a ladder climber back to his hometown roots...? I didn't really feel like the environmental issue of fracking was the main message or them trying to shove something down your throat. It was purely the foundation in which the movie was based on. It could have been any other issue and the movie would have felt the same. I liked it to a point, though, so it wasn't totally lost, but it definitely didn't quite make it to a good film. Grade: C+
Warm Bodies (Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer) - This kind of surprised me by how much I enjoyed it. It's not great, but it's cute and I liked how love, affection, and caring for each other helped turn the zombies back to humans. Call me a sap, but, let's face it, we can all use some more human kindness in our lives to keep us from turning into, well, zombies and eating each other on our way to our own survival. At any rate, cute idea, pretty good execution, and decent acting. Nothing too graphic or scary, but it is a zombie movie so you see a little gore, but it's pretty tame in comparison to most films. Mostly a predictable film and the zombie speech pattern (understandable) was sometimes hard to listen to, but they're zombies, right? Grade: B-/C+
Safe Haven (Josh Duhamel, Julianne Hough) - Oh Nicholas Sparks...I'm weird, perhaps, but the age-gap between Duhamel and Hough sometimes bothered me! They don't really look it in the film (they're 16 years apart in real life), but still! When I got past that, I liked the film up till its climax. When it hit its climax, I had problems with Hough's acting and the screenplay. I was mostly okay with it up till then. I also had problems with the character of Jo, but, as it turned out, she was meant to act that way because (the way I felt about her) was actually who she was. Who'd of thunk? LoL I guess I would have clued in earlier if I wasn't watching it at 1am. :) It's not an entirely original story since I watch enough crime-dramas to have guessed in the first 10 minutes what was going on, but even *I* was lulled into a false sense of safety because I forgot I had guessed it in the beginning. I did laugh at the end, though, when things resolved because of the obvious "don't want to mar the lovely reunion and happy moment" of the movie at the end. I watch far too many crime shows because I always hone in on the moments where blood should be present and it's not and Safe Haven had that moment and it made me laugh for the aforementioned reason. At any rate, it's okay. Your typical Sparks, but it's not one of the better Sparks either. Grade: B-/C+
Now You See Me (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco) - I knew this wouldn't be great, but I still had hopes for this to be a good film. I adore Ocean's Eleven and any type of movie/show where it takes you on this grand illusion and then shows you at the end or somewhere what truly happened. So, come on, big heists, magicians, and a decent cast? Yes! I knew the critics weren't liking it, but the fans were giving it a decent review so with the movie tickets I won from work, we went and saw it. Yeah, I had higher hopes for it. It did lead you around a little, but it was more of a mix between Ocean's Eleven, Robin Hood, and National Treasure (i.e., secret society). Again, nothing wrong with those 3 things, but there wasn't enough "magic" in it. It was more about the police chase than it was about the actual heists. In addition, things were explained almost right away so you lost the "whoa" moments quicker than Ocean's Eleven (revealed at the very end in one big move). It also felt long and felt like it was tying up a lot of ends at the end that went on for 30+ minutes. It led you on a merry chase, but it definitely felt like either too much was going on or it wasn't laid out well. I think it's something I might have to watch again to really get a grasp. I liked the acting and really wanted to like it more, but there definitely needed to be more "magic" in it. Grade: B-
Star Trek: Into Darkness (Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch) - This was just like Now You See Me. I had higher hopes for it and it didn't meet those hopes. It was really good up till the climax or one of them...? And it just lost me after that. The first half of the film I really enjoyed and even was thinking I liked it better than the first one and then Marcus did his thing and that was when I went, "...What?" I get the point of the Marcus-Kahn plot-line, but it either needed to have been executed better or one of them (Marcus or Kahn) needed to be removed altogether. In addition, the end with Kirk was totally not needed and just made you roll your eyes and say, "Another JJ Abrams film." With that said, it was a mostly fun watch and it was good to see in theaters, but I'll be interested to see what the 3rd film is about given the way this one ended. I just wish something was tightened up in the film or something. It was disappointing for me. I do still love the casting for the entire crew, though. Grade: B
Summer is in full swing for movies. Not sure of what I really want to see in theaters, but the movies I'm going to watch (whether in theater or on DVD) from the summer (through August) are definitely these:
- The Internship (definite DVD)
- Much Ado About Nothing (most likely DVD)
- Man of Steel
- Monsters University
- World War Z
- The Heat (definite DVD)
- Despicable Me 2 (most likely DVD)
- The Lone Ranger (possible DVD)
- Grown Ups 2 (definite DVD)
- Pacific Rim (definite DVD)
- Red 2
- The Wolverine
- Elysium (definite DVD)
- Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (most likely DVD)
- Planes (possible DVD)
- Kick-Ass 2
- The Butler (definite DVD)
Anyway, time to go and eat some dinner and paint the nails. Or, contemplate painting the nails...My schedule is all thrown off. I just painted my nails on Tues night and I don't really want to repaint, but this mani won't last the week and doing tape nail art takes a long time. So, I really only have either tonight or Sunday to paint and I semi want to repaint tonight. I guess I'll go do some swatches and see what inspires me first. :)
