Movie Reviews From Jim

As you should be aware, we love hearing what you guys have to say about the pop culture items you enjoy or didn't enjoy.  Our friend Jim sent us an e-mail reviewing two movies that he recently watched.  As always, feel free to send us an e-mail at abconvo27@hotmail.com and we'll feature it on the site, if you want us to.

Hey ABconvo Guys,
 
Sat through two movies this week and figured I'd let others know what
I thought.
 
--> Tomorrow You're Gone
(Stephen Dorff, Michelle Monaghan, Willem Dafoe)

 Story:
Charlie Rankin (Stephen Dorff), recently released from prison, seeks
vengeance for his jail-house mentor William "The Buddha" Pettigrew
(Willem Dafoe). Along the way, he meets the ethereal, yet streetwise,
Florence Jane. They embark on a unlikely road trip, careening towards
an unlikely redemption and uncertain resolution.
 
Great Actors but the story is boring, choppy, and there are questions
that are never answered.
 
Example:
Charlie is released from prison after many years and has a hot woman,
Florence, hanging all over him (she wants sex super bad).  He
constantly shrugs it off and has flashbacks that lead to nowhere.
Then later in the movie he just decides to sleep with her for no real
reason. So, why is a guy deprived of women in prison not able to sleep
with her through almost the whole movie? We don't know, nor do we get
an answer. I thought the flashbacks might lead to something like his
mother being raped or killed.  Or maybe he was gay but as viewers we
were unaware of it.  Pointless, except to take up several minutes
throughout the movie and add nothign to the already weak storyline.
 
Skip This Movie!!
 
--> Jack Reacher
(Tom Cruise) 

 Story:
A homicide investigator digs deeper into a case involving a trained
military sniper who shot five random victims.
 
This movie turned out to be pretty action packed and kept me guessing
on motives of the gunman.  I also enjoyed the small parts in the movie
by an old gun range owner played by, Robert Duvall.
The only thing I might change about the movie is the fact that they
show the gunman early on, instead of leaving it a total secret till we
know for sure who he is.
 
I probably won't buy this movie on blu-ray but might buy it if I can
pick it up cheap on DVD.
 
If you are the type of person that likes and/or doesn't mind gun
violence, then Watch This Movie!!
 
- JimJam

Movie Review: AFTER EARTH

The king of summer is back, Will Smith brings his big summer movie credibility to team up with his son Jaden in hopes of launching his movie career to the next level in After Earth.  This movie was very quietly directed and co-written by M. Night Shyamalan, which is unlike his previous movies where his name was above the title.  At this point, sadly, the Shyamalan name is more harm than good.



Set 1000 years after the Earth becomes inhabitable, humans now live on a planet named Nova Prime.  Little did the humans know when they took over this planet there was an alien species, that fed on people's fear, that were trying to kill the humans.  Cypher Raige (Will Smith) figures out the way of defeating the aliens called "ghosting" which is not having any fear and therefore becoming invisible to the alien. Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith) is working hard to enter the Rangers where his father becomes a hero, but while physically capable is not ready mentally.  Cypher decides that it's time to become a father, so he embarks on one last mission (it's always the last mission!) this time bringing Kitai along.  While transporting one of these alien creatures to take it to another planet for training, they navigate through an unexpected asteroid field, suffer major battle damage to the ship and crash-land on the nearest planet, which just happens to be, wait for it, Earth.

Of course everyone on the spaceship is killed except for Kitai and Cypher, who is badly damaged and can't leave the chair he's sitting in.  Cypher sends Kitai on a mission to find the tail end of the ship that broke off while crashing towards Earth, which is 100 kilometers away so he can get supplies and a beacon to signal a rescue team.  Of course they had all of this stuff on the front end of the ship but all that stuff was apparently sold in the future version of the dollar store because it's all cheap junk that breaks on impact. This Earth is full of animals that have somehow evolved to absolutely hate humans, even though they haven't seen them over the past 1000 years.  From there, Cypher has to guide Kitai through the forest and a ton of very unlikely scenarios to guide him towards the tail end of the ship.

What an absolute piece of garbage.  Quite frankly, this is as lazy as movie making gets.  There was not one thing that happened in the movie that was not cookie cutter, color by numbers predictable.  For a director that has made his career over having interesting twists in his movie, Shyamalan plays everything far too safe here.  Because Will Smith is basically hospitalized the entire movie, he never gets to really show the charismatic qualities that make him one of the biggest actors in Hollywood, yet without him this movie would much worse.  Jaden Smith delivers probably the worst performance I've seen by the star of a summer movie.  Both Will and Jaden speak in some weird accent that sounds like British meets Indian. Jaden is almost incomprehensible at some points, especially the beginning when he's trying to explain the fall of mankind on Earth.  Jaden tries to keep up with this terrible accent the entire movie and it never gets any better, while Will for the most part goes in and mostly out of it.

As for the good, After Earth was visually solid but not spectacular, the CG didn't look bad but wasn't that believable or impressive either.  For the most part the pacing of the movie was pretty decent as well, except for some of the flashbacks and exposition scenes that occur while Kitai is off on his adventure.  Clocking in somewhere around the 100 minute mark, the movie isn't nearly as long and painful as it could have been.  This is also more of a kid's movie than they market it to be and in that way it's kind of Shyamalan's successor to The Last Airbender.  Except for some graphic imagery, I'm almost surprised this didn't get a PG rating.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Graduation Time

It's an exciting time of the year for all graduates to move on to the next phase in their lives. I graduated from college 5 years ago, and it feels like it was yesterday.  The best part of graduating is the commencement speaker, most schools have former graduates come back to the campus and give a motivational speech about the lessons they learned outside of the school.  The possibilities for who this speaker could be are endless and sometimes they can be really freaking cool.  My favorite videos this year come from Wesleyan University where 1987 graduate Joss Whedon spoke and Georgetown where writer/actress Brit Marling talks about meeting her filmmaking partners Mike Cahill (Another Earth) and Zal Batmanglij (Sound of My Voice, The East).  Whedon and Marling deliver tremendous speeches and I can't recommend enough to check these out.





While you're here, you might as well check out my favorite college commencement speech of all time, Conan O'Brien speaking in front of the 2011 Dartmouth College graduating class.

Movie Review: THE INTOUCHABLES

I'm not one to normally watch foreign films, or as Kevin Smith likes to call them, "readers." It's not anything against them, it's just hard to focus on the screen that hard for 2 hours, especially at home. However, I usually try to watch a few every year that sound interesting to me. The one that really stood out the most from last year's release schedule was The Intouchables. 

The Intouchables is the story of a paraplegic man, Philippe (Francois Cluzet), who needs to hire a new caretaker, that's when Driss (Omar Sy) enters his life.  Omar just shows up for the interview so that he can get a signature that he applied for a job so he can get his government benefits. However, Philippe sees something in Driss and hires him on to be his caretaker. From there it's just a touching and hilarious ride to see how both of these individuals affect each others lives.

This movie completely blew me away. Not only was the story amazingly compelling but there were quite a few legitimate laugh-out-loud moments. The performances those two gave were brilliant, especially Omar Sy who has a great career ahead of him, including that he's going to be playing Bishop in the new X-Men: Days of Future Past movie.  Even if you aren't a fan of "readers," give this one a chance it's refreshingly honest and a terrific story.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Movie Review: VAMPS

Opting to go the Video-On-Demand route instead of being released in theaters is the vampire rom-com, Vamps.  This is the latest movie from Amy Heckerling, the director of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and writer/director of Clueless.  Heckerling re-unites with her Clueless star Alicia Silverstone in a very Cher-esque vampire role along with Krysten Ritter (Don't Trust the B in Apt. 23).



Vamps is the tale of two single female vampires, Goody (Silverstone) who's been a vampire for over 200 years and her friend Stacy (Ritter) who's only been a vampire since the 1980's.  It follows their lives of going to the clubs and vampire awareness meetings at night and sleeping during the day.  During this time, Goody accidentally runs into old boyfriend Danny (Richard Lewis, Curb Your Enthusiasm), whose wife is near death and is astonished at how Goody looks 40 years later.  Stacy, meanwhile, develops a relationship with a young male named Joey Van Helsing (Dan Stevens), whose dad is THE Van Helsing (Wallace Shawn, The Princess Bride), not Hugh Jackman.

 While this movie looked and felt like more like a made for TV movie, Vamps was a surpringsly good time.  The casting was very good and had a lot of recognizable faces as the supporting cast in here, including Sigourney Weaver as their "stem" vampire, Cisserus, and Malcolm McDowell as Vlad Tepish.  Vamps could have used a higher budget as you can tell many corners are cut, especially in make-up and the CGI, especially that used in the final fight scene is hilariously atrocious.  While it's not over the top funny, there are some decent chuckles to be found.  Vamps is not nearly as good as Clueless but that's okay, it's still a fun romp that makes for an enjoyable movie experience at home.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Movie Review: DARK SKIES

Dark Skies was released in theaters in February and is available on Blu-Ray/DVD today. This movie stars Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton (not the baseball player) with a small but important appearance by J.K. Simmons.  Dark Skies was written and directed by Scott Stewart (not to be confused with ESPN anchor Stewart Scott), who previously made such movies as Legion and Priest.




This movie is advertised (poorly) as being from the producers of Paranormal Activity and Insidious. It seems like every horror movie is advertised with some sort of tie-in with Paranormal Activity, much the same way that 2 years ago  every movie was by somebody who made Saw.  Overall, it's not a horror movie in the way those movies are as it's much more a psychological thriller.   

Dark Skies tells the story of a suburban family that begins to have a bunch of strange things happen at their house, from all of the home security sensors being at the same time to all of the pictures on the mantle just disappearing.  The problem escalates as the family members begin to be affected by having hallucinations and starring off in a daze like a possessed individual from the Paranormal Activity movies. 

 This was an interesting movie that never reached the heights that it could have.  Dark Skies wasn't scary enough to be a horror movie, but not smart enough to be a thriller.  The performances from the cast are very good, especially the always exceptional Keri Russell, who is the fuel for this movie and keeps it from becoming a colossal failure.  While it doesn't trudge any new ground and there have been better movies of the same ilk done before, Dark Skies doesn't drag and is captivating enough to make it worth checking out.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Movie Review: ALEX CROSS

I was pretty excited when I first saw the trailer for Alex Cross last year, as it was nice to see Tyler Perry try to branch out and do something that different than the schlock he normally makes.  This movie came and went in theaters last October and due to it's universally terrible reviews and list of things I'd much rather watch, I didn't end up viewing this until today.

 

Alex Cross stars Tyler Perry as Alex Cross, a Detroit detective/psychologist who after investigating a crime scene where he figures out exactly how the incident happens with Sherlock Holmes-like precision, begins to hunt down the suspected killed, Picasso (played by an uber lean Matthew Fox).  Picasso is a serial killer who loves inflicting pain on others and gets his name by leaving cubist drawings of his victims at the crime scene.  If you have tremendous folding skills like Alex Cross these drawings are also hints to who his next victim will be.  These two lock together in what former wrestler Larry Zbyszko would describe as a human game of chess.  Alex Cross is directed by Rob Cohen, the man who directed the first of The Fast and the Furious movies as well xXx and Stealth.  This movie is based on the novel Cross by James Patterson and is co-written by Marc Moss and Kerry Washington, who have nothing to their credit other than Moss writing the much superior Alex Cross movie, Along Came a Spider.

Sadly this movie just felt generic.  The inexperience of the screenwriters' clearly shone through as a lot of the dialogue felt very plain and sometimes even cringeworthy, especially when trying to establish relationships.  Also the writers couldn't determine if they wanted to make a smart thriller, or a balls to the wall action movie, so they ended up trying to make a mediocre combination of both.  The acting was unspectacular as well, Tyler Perry looked mostly expressionless even when going through some fairly significant issues.  Matthew Fox gave a better performance but relied too much on cliches of acting like a psychotic serial killer instead of trying to do something original with the role.  While it's not a bad movie and is a very easy movie to watch, it just felt like a movie we've all seen much better and smarter versions of before.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Box Office Estimates May 24-26, 2013

What a weekend for Fast & Furious 6 as it had the third highest weekend worldwide gross of all time with $252 million and the biggest May opening 3-day weekend ever.  This is even more remarkable considering that it didn't cross $100 million in the United States, the support worldwide for these movies is breathtaking.  Meanwhile, The Hangover: Part III had a pretty disappointing opening, making less than 50% of what The Hangover: Part II made it's opening weekend.  Epic finished up 4th this week falling behind Star Trek Into Darkness in it's second week, but ahead of Iron Man 3 in it's 4 week.  Speaking of Iron Man 3, it officially moved up to the 5th biggest movie all-time with $1.14 billion, it's about $200 million behind 4th place, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Next week, After Earth and Now You See Me open up.  After Earth has the most potential to make some bank this weekend considering the Will Smith star power, but I could easily see both of these movies having pretty soft openings considering all of the other choices available.

1	N	Fast & Furious 6	Uni.	$98,528,000	-	3,658	-	$26,935	$98,528,000	$160	1
2	N	The Hangover Part III	WB	$42,415,000	-	3,555	-	$11,931	$54,204,000	$103	1
3	1	Star Trek Into Darkness	Par.	$38,000,000	-45.8%	3,907	+39	$9,726	$146,827,000	$190	2
4	N	Epic	Fox	$34,200,000	-	3,882	-	$8,810	$34,200,000	$100	1
5	2	Iron Man 3	BV	$19,424,000	-45.7%	3,424	-813	$5,673	$367,506,000	$200	4
6	3	The Great Gatsby (2013)	WB	$13,705,000	-42.8%	3,090	-460	$4,435	$114,432,000	$105	3
7	8	Mud	RAtt.	$1,928,000	-13.7%	712	-248	$2,708	$14,535,000	-	5
8	6	42	WB	$1,245,000	-55.7%	915	-1,465	$1,361	$91,049,000	$40	7
9	5	The Croods	Fox	$1,215,000	-59.8%	1,008	-1,365	$1,205	$179,238,000	$135	10
10	7	Oblivion	Uni.	$815,000	-65.1%	572	-1,505	$1,425	$87,280,000	$120	6

Credit goes to BoxOfficeMojo.com for the table and numbers. 

Episode 58 Notes

Here are the official show notes for Episode 58: Rogue Demon Convo.

Movie Review: PARKER

I'm forcing myself to write movie reviews for all movies that I see from now on, so be prepared for a lot of content coming through of this type.  I figured this is the only way I'll get better at writing movie reviews, but also a good way to talk about more movies than just the ones we talk about on the podcast.



My first movie review is of the movie Parker, which came out in January in movie theaters but just came out this past Tuesday on Blu-Ray/DVD.  Parker stars Jason Statham as Parker, who is just another version of Chev Chelios, Lee Christmas, Frank Martin, or the guy in The Mechanic, so basically it's Statham being Statham.  Parker is your anti-hero who helps a band of thieves, including one of my favorites Michael Chiklis, put together by Nick Nolte pull off a heist.  While on the way back from pulling off this heist, they start planning their next operation, this time with much higher stakes and a much bigger payout.  Parker is uncomfortable with this and his heist mates sense his disapproval and leave him for dead on the side of the road.  Parker obviously recovers from these attacks and goes to the location of the next robbery in order to get revenge on his former crew. Oh yeah, and Jennifer Lopez shows up too, mostly as a marketing ploy to try to get a female audience interested in what is very much a typical Jason Statham movie, which are usually targeted pretty predominately towards men.  Parker is directed by Taylor Hackford, who probably most recently famous for directing the Ray Charles biopic Ray, and also thrillers The Devil's Advocate and Proof of Life.

Overall, this movie was alright.  It truly is what you expect it to be, nothing more, nothing less.  If the Alice Eve underwear scene in Star Trek Into Darkness, that has been much talked about this week, was gratuitous there's an equally gratuitous scene with Jennifer Lopez stripping down to her skivvies so Parker can check her for a wire (or mostly so we can see J-Lo's bodacious bod).  The one thing you expect from Statham is some cool action scenes and witty one-liners which are largely absent from the movie, while there is some action it's mostly short-lived.  While the story was a little slow to develop and for the most part unoriginal, it was still good enough to be entertaining even while being predictable.  Considering the crop of videos available to rent this past month, you could spend your evenings in much worse way.

Raitng: 2.5 out of 5

Memorial Day

Just wanted to take a second and wish all of you a very happy and safe Memorial Day weekend!  Hopefully you have some fun Memorial Day weekend plans, like watching Arrested Development Season 4 on Netflix this Sunday or listening to the AB Conversation podcast while making some food on the grill.

Here's a very special Memorial Day greeting from director and star of the amazing movie The Room, Tommy Wiseau.

WE WON A LOTTERY!!!!!

That's right boys and girls, the hosts of this podcast are going to be hella-rich.  I just got a totally legitimate e-mail from the Abu Dhabi Manchester City lottery saying that we were one of six e-mails selected to win one million pounds.  No scam organization I know would possibly send you an e-mail saying that you've won a million pounds without ever sending the money, right?  I have included the e-mail chain that I had with them for your enjoyment.

Box Office Estimates May 17-19, 2013

Star Trek Into Darkness opened up with $84 million over the 4 days this weekend, which ended up being right about the same amount as the first one made, probably a little disappointing for JJ Abrams' and crew.  Iron Man 3 moved up to 9th all time worldwide for box office gross, passing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and being about $11 million behind The Dark Knight Rises for 8th, which it should easily surpass next weekend.

Opening up next weekend are Fast and Furious 6, The Hangover: Part III, and Epic and it should be an interesting week to see who tops the box office.  Sadly, Star Trek's stay on top looks to be brief as The Hangover Part II made $85 million opening weekend and Fast Five made $86 million when it opened.  I'm sure it'll be really tight between those two for first and second place.  Not sure how well Epic is going to do because there doesn't seem to be as strong of a marketing campaign behind it, but seemed to do well opening overseas last weekend.

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	Star Trek Into Darkness	Par.	$70,555,000	-	3,868	-	$18,241	$84,091,000	$190	1
2	1	Iron Man 3	BV	$35,182,000	-51.5%	4,237	-16	$8,304	$337,073,000	$200	3
3	2	The Great Gatsby (2013)	WB	$23,415,000	-53.2%	3,550	+15	$6,596	$90,159,000	$105	2
4	3	Pain and Gain	Par.	$3,100,000	-38.0%	2,429	-874	$1,276	$46,574,000	$26	4
5	7	The Croods	Fox	$2,750,000	-23.8%	2,373	-277	$1,159	$176,750,000	$135	9
6	5	42	WB	$2,730,000	-40.5%	2,380	-550	$1,147	$88,735,000	$40	6
7	6	Oblivion	Uni.	$2,222,000	-46.0%	2,077	-693	$1,070	$85,500,000	$120	5
8	8	Mud	RAtt.	$2,160,000	-14.9%	960	+108	$2,250	$11,588,000	-	4
9	4	Tyler Perry Presents Peeples	LGF	$2,150,000	-53.4%	2,041	-	$1,053	$7,858,000	$15	2
10	9	The Big Wedding	LGF	$1,100,000	-55.8%	1,443	-855	$762	$20,198,000	$35	4

Credit goes to BoxOfficeMojo.com for the table and numbers. 

New Fall TV Series

On Episode 57, I talk about all of the new shows coming this fall to the big 5 networks: NBC, FOX, CBS, ABC, and The CW.  If you are interested in watching the trailers for them, you're in luck.  Hit the read more link below.

Episode 57 Notes

Here are the official show notes for Episode 57: There's No Keys.

Under The Dome Trailer

While all the networks are busy advertising all the new shows coming out this fall, I hope quality summer shows like Under The Dome do not go under the radar.  Based off the best selling book of the same name by Stephen King, Under The Dome tells the story a small town that basically gets trapped under a giant bubble in which they can't escape from.  It's kind of like The Simpsons Movie meets the Luna Brothers comic Girls in that regard.  It premieres on June 24th on CBS and the trailer was just posted online, so check it out!

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Trailer

While I'll spend more time talking about the new TV series announced this week at the upfront presentations, I had to put up the trailer for the new Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D trailer for you all to enjoy now.  It's hard to believe that the Marvel Comics movies we all know and love are going to be coming into our living rooms for somewhere between 13-24 weeks a year in addition to coming out every 6 months or so in theaters.  It's a great time to be a fan of Marvel. This show is going to be on Tuesday nights at 8/7 CT.

ABOUT TIME Trailer

Love Actually stands as probably my favorite romantic comedy of all time and I've been looking forward to Richard Curtis' follow-up to it.  I think Curtis knocks it out of the park with this trailer and I can't wait to see this movie.  This is basically this year's Safety Not Guarenteed for me.

About Time is the story of 21-year-old Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson) who learns from his dad (Bill Nighy) that the men in his family have the ability to travel backwards through time.  They can't affect history other than their own.  The movie follows Tim as he tries to have the perfect relationship with Mary (Rachel McAdams).

Gravity Trailer

Alfonso Cuarón is one of my favorite directors and Children of Men is one of my favorite movies and it's hard to believe that 7 years have passed since that movie was released.  Cuarón also did one of my favorite of the Harry Potter films, The Prisoner of Azkaban.  It's long overdue that Cuarón makes another film and finally he has and the trailer just went online for it last week, it's called Gravity and stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock and it just looks astonishing.  Clooney and Bullock play two astronauts who become stranded in space after their space station is destroyed.  Sadly it does not come out until October 4, but here's the trailer to enjoy for the time being.

Box Office Estimates May 10-12, 2013

Iron Man 3 unsurprisingly topped the box office again this weekend raking in another $72 million, bringing it's total gross to a very impressive estimated $284 million in just the United States over the past 9 days. Boy was I way off on my projections for this week, thinking that Peeples could take The Great Gatsby at the box office as Gatsby dominated the 2-hole pulling in around $51 million, while Peeples took fourth with just $4.8 million, maybe the Tyler Perry fascination is coming to an end, we can only hope.

Star Trek Into Darkness opens up next Thursday and should be able to overtake Iron Man 3 in it's third weekend.

1	1	Iron Man 3	BV	$72,472,000	-58.4%	4,253	-	$17,040	$284,893,000	$200	2
2	N	The Great Gatsby (2013)	WB	$51,115,000	-	3,535	-	$14,460	$51,115,000	-	1
3	2	Pain and Gain	Par.	$5,000,000	-33.4%	3,303	+16	$1,514	$41,608,000	$26	3
4	N	Tyler Perry Presents Peeples	LGF	$4,850,000	-	2,041	-	$2,376	$4,850,000	$15	1
5	3	42	WB	$4,650,000	-23.2%	2,930	-415	$1,587	$84,732,000	$40	5
6	4	Oblivion	Uni.	$3,864,000	-31.5%	2,770	-660	$1,395	$81,655,000	$120	4
7	5	The Croods	Fox	$3,600,000	-14.3%	2,650	-265	$1,358	$173,215,000	$135	8
8	6	The Big Wedding	LGF	$2,500,000	-35.6%	2,298	-335	$1,088	$18,288,000	$35	3
9	7	Mud	RAtt.	$2,343,000	+8.4%	854	+278	$2,744	$8,363,000	-	3
10	8	Oz The Great and Powerful	BV	$802,000	-62.0%	774	-386	$1,036	$229,985,000	$215	10

Credit goes to BoxOfficeMojo.com for the table and numbers. 

Episode 56 Notes

Here are the official show notes for Episode 56: Suspension Times at Ridgemont High.  We start off the show talking about Mother's Day and what interesting stuff happened in our lives this week.

Movie Review: The Great Gatsby

Finally the book we all had to read in high school is getting it's fourth movie adaptation as English teacher's wait with bated breath to see if this will be the version they show in their classroom for years to come or if they stick with the 1974 version starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow.  While it's a much more loyal portrayal of the source material than Baz Luhrmann's edgy Romeo + Juliet that took place in modern time, Luhrmann does get rid of some of the substance of the novel to add some style and bring this world to life for a modern audience while keeping the Roaring Twenties backdrop.



The Great Gatsby tells the story of one crazy summer of your average bond salesman, Nick Carraway's life.  After living next door to an eccentric millionaire, Jay Gatsby, who nobody seems to know anything about yet everyone goes to his parties every evening, Nick gets an invite to come over to Gatsby's house.  Carraway and Gatsby begin to develop a friendship revolving around Gatsby wanting to rekindle the romance started 5 years previously with Nick's cousin Daisy, who is currently married to an equally eccentric millionaire, Tom Buchanan. 

While Baz Luhrmann doesn't direct a lot of movies, when he does you know it's going to be beautifully shot and this movie is no exception.  In a lot of ways the camera was almost limitless on where it could go as it moved frequently and everywhere especially during Gatsby's party scenes.  While it was good to look at, what really stood out most about this movie was the cast.  Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Jay Gatsby and as per usual delivers a stupendous performance and proves why he's one of the greatest workers in Hollywood today.  I also can't say enough good things about Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, and Joel Edgerton as all of them brought Nick, Daisy, and Tom Buchanan to life and gave tremendous performances as well. 

Where the movie suffers most is length.  It times out at 2 hours and 20 minutes and while the beginning is a good set-up of everything that's about to occur, it just takes too long to get there.  While the movie was full of visual goodness, some of the long party scenes of people singing and dancing could have been cut down just to focus on the story more. Unfortunately Luhrmann's flaw is he always wants all of his scenes to look bigger and more spectacular, when sometimes he needs to tone things down a bit.   While I appreciate what Luhrmann was trying to do, having Jay-Z and other curent artists do the music for the movie by inserting some actual songs or 20's style performances of his songs, it just took you out of this world.  Luhrmann tried to channel Moulin Rouge's performance of current songs in older times again but it didn't feel genuine to The Great Gatsby at all.

While visually stunning and terrifically acted this version of The Great Gatsby suffers from being a little too much.  The Great Gatsby is a literary classic and this version of the film does as good of a job as possible to convey this to a 21st Century audience, it's still the same source material that most of us didn't want to read in school.  It's one of those movies that I'm definitely glad I saw and would recommend to others interested. I just can't envision myself re-watching when it comes out on Blu-Ray or even 5 years down the road.  However, if there was a version of The Great Gatsby I would have to watch, I would want it to be this one.

3 stars out of 5

Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago

Here is the e-mail (as mentioned on episode 55 of the podcast) from friend of the podcast Jim Lewko's food adventures at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.  If you have any fun adventures to share with us, please send them to abconvo27@hotmail.com.  Thanks Jim!

Hey ABConvo Guys,
 
Just emailing to tell you about the amazing food I had at the Lincoln
Park Zoo in Chicago.  Kim and I had just got to the Park (which is
free except parking if you need it) and we smelled something good.
When we looked over there was a couple of food stands with some
workers grilling something with a sign that read, "Park BBQ".  Upon
further inspection we saw that it was a BBQ Nacho Stand.  It served
Cheese Nachos, Southwest Chili Nachos, BBQ Chicken Nachos, and (what
we ended up ordering) BBQ Brisket Nachos.
The combination of flavors in each bite was Amazing! The Brisket
Nachos were well worth the price and all of the toppings went perfect
together!
 
On a side note the Lincoln Park Zoo is well worth the visit if you are
in the Chicago area.  The Park has tons of animals in well kept,
visually appealing enclosures, park staff to answer questions, and you
can just walk right in (It's Free).

Jay Larson Stand-Up on Conan

It's very rare that I see a stand-up act on a talk show that just blows me away, this is one of those exceptions. Jay Larson, a comic I've never even heard of, was the guest on last night's Conan and told a story about receiving a wrong number and playing along with the guy on the other line that was absolutely brilliant.  I highly recommend checking this out!

Brenty Awards 2012 Write-Up

I wrote this about a month ago, right about the time that I was working on the Brenty Awards for Episode 52 of the podcast as a potential column for something I'm unsure of the time frame for or if it will even transpire, as it's kind of a pipe dream in the first place.  Due to the timing of this it doesn't make sense in the means it was originally intended anymore and I figured I would throw it up on here for you wonderful people to read.  This is my written picks for the Brenty Awards 2012, but I can't recommend enough to listen to Episode 52 of the podcast to get the movie nominated in each of these categories, most of which are just as good as the ones that actually won.

Top ten lists for movies are not an uncommon thing however, I like to put my own spin on things. Starting in 2001, I made my own favorite movies of the year awards called the Brenty Awards, which are for the best movie of that category for the year.  Even though we’re in April, it’s never too late to look back at the best movies of 2012, which was an all around solid year for film.

Best Animated Movie - In my opinion, the best animated movie of the movie was hands down Wreck-It Ralph.  This movie does for video games what Toy Story did for toys, it brought an interesting take on what happens to video game characters when those games aren’t being played. Wreck-It Ralph tells the story of Ralph, who is the bad guy in his video game having a change of heart and wanting to be a good guy.  The voice acting is fantastic especially John C. Reilly as Ralph and Sarah Silverman as Venellope as both handle these complex characters very well and add a lot of humor along the way.  

Best Family Movie - Life of Pi is a captivating story about a 16-year-old boy whose family is moving their zoo halfway around the world on a boat. When a major storm sinks the boat, Pi is lost at sea on a lifeboat with a ferocious bengal tiger as his only companion. There’s a lot of things to like about this movie as it not only deals with the willpower to survive an impossible scenario but it’s full of adventure along the way. This film is also the most interesting visual movie of the year as the scenery and visual effects are extraordinary. It’s astonishing that the tiger they used in the movie was completely CG. 

Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movie - While not typically what you think of for a Science Fiction movie, the winner of this is Safety Not Guaranteed.  Typically when you think of sci-fi or fantasy you think of a movie happening in space or in a distant land in the distant future/past, however this one takes place in our world, current day.  This charming and funny film, which stars Mark Duplass and Aubrey Plaza, revolves around time travel.  When three magazine writers notice an article in the paper that says, “Wanted: Someone to go back in time with me.  This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed.  I have only done this once before,” they investigate the man behind the article.  This movie has the perfect combination of comedy and mystery as there’s no way one man could build a time machine, right?

 

Best Horror Movie - You know those horror movies that take place in a house in the middle of the woods and some evil force starts picking off the lives of those individuals one-by-one. It’s a formula we’ve seen numerous times before, but none better than Cabin in the Woods. This movie turns this formula on it’s head and is told mostly from a control room that is designed to set up these scenarios and sacrifice these teenagers lives to a higher power.  This movie is a pure tongue-in-cheek look at the horror genre that honors it instead of parodies. Cabin in the Woods has a lot of funny moments in addition to some great scary moments.  This movie needs to be seen by all horror fans.

Best Action/Adventure Movie - Quentin Tarantino is a master of cinema and one of my favorite filmmakers.  His films are just so unique and have a great balance of humor, action, and storytelling.  Tarantino’s latest work, Django Unchained, was no exception as his Academy Award winning script is an homage to classic westerns, like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, while still feeling modern.  This movie was carried by strong performances from Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jamie Foxx, with Waltz also winning an Academy Award for his work.  Waltz plays a German bounty hunter who teams up with Django (Foxx), a slave that he frees, to rescue Django’s wife from Candie Land, a plantation run by Calvin Candie (DiCaprio).  

Best Comic Book Move - Comic book movies have been extremely prevalent in today’s movie going society and make up a huge percentage of the summer blockbuster box office, plus for a geek like me, it’s so much fun to watch your favorite super heroes come to life on the big screen.  This year’s best comic book movie was The Dark Knight Rises.  Set after the events of the amazing The Dark Knight, it was clear that this movie was probably going to be a step-down from that as The Dark Knight raised the bar extremely high, especially with Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker.  This movie was more tonally similar to mythos centric Batman Begins then the action-packed The Dark Knight, which also may have been offputting to some as it wasn’t quite the thrill-ride of it’s predecessor.   The Dark Knight Rises starts off 8 years after the events of The Dark Knight as Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) goes into hiding until he needs to don the suit one more time to stop his biggest opponent yet, Bane (Tom Hardy), who will do anything to destroy what Gotham stands for.  

 

Best Thriller Movie - Not making a bold decision here as Argo was easily in a class by itself this year.  I was just blown away while watching this journey of a CIA agent (Ben Affleck) who comes up with a plan to extract 6 fugitive Americans from hiding in Iran.  This plan involves staging a fake production of a sci-fi movie named Argo, as an excuse to venture into Iran to help these people escape from the Canadian embassy.  This movie works on so many levels, that the fact that this is based on real events, makes it even more astounding.  Ben Affleck, who directed and stars in this, gives probably his greatest performance both in front of and behind the camera. The last 30 minutes of this movie are near perfection and will keep you on the edge of your seat.  It’s easy to see how this would win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

 

Best Romantic Movie - Moonrise Kingdom is a quirky and fun romp about two 12-year-old kids who fall in love and run away, while the townspeople, like Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, and Bill Murray, hunt for the vanished kids.  The relationship between these two kids, Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward (both making their screen debuts) was the perfect combination of sweet, innocent, and awkward.  The director, Wes Anderson, has such an interesting visual style that makes it almost appear like you are watching a painting happen in front of you.  All of the shots in this movie are beautifully crafted and Anderson’s screenplay is full of unique characters that make his movies at the very least, unique and at their very best, exceptional, and this movie was exceptional.  

 

Best Drama Movie - Very rarely do I say that I’m blown away by a movie, but End of Watch absolutely blew me away.  Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena as two police officers in Los Angeles who are just as much friends as they are partners, however while just doing their job they end up way over their heads.  End of Watch is made to look like a homemade documentary project as many of the cameras that are used in the movie are handheld or attached to the police officers themselves, which gives it an interesting visual look that works for this type of gritty on the street type movie.  However, it’s the characters that Gyllenhaal and Pena play that just draw you in and makes you feel like you are part of their lives, including some legitimate laugh out loud moments. Their heroism during the final conflict was one of the most emotional endings to a movie this year.  

 

Best Comedy Movie - While I have a fairly legendary story on how I first got to see this movie, that had no effect on my thinking that Pitch Perfect was the comedy movie of the year.  This competitive college acapella movie features a group called the Barton Bellas trying to capture the regional acapella championship.  While not doing anything out of the box by combining a bunch of oddities into a group that works really well together, the characters are just so much fun that you really don’t care, especially Rebel Wilson’s Fat Amy.  Pitch Perfect panders to a more female crowd has enough charm and laughs that it can please a wide degree of audiences and is in a lot of ways the spiritual successor to movies like Mean Girls, Bring it On, and Clueless.

Best Movie of the Year - While the best movie of the year would always win for the best sub-genre as well, I instituted a rule in the Brenty Awards that the winner for Best Movie can’t also win it’s category.  With that being said, the best movie of the year for 2012 was Marvel’s The Avengers.  I’m a geek and in a way this is kind of a “homer” pick, but I was thoroughly impressed with The Avengers in so many ways.  Not only does it do the impossible and bring together 6 comic book heroes on the big screen in the same movie but, from the very beginning until the heroes dine on shawarma during the end credits, The Avengers tells the most complete and entertaining comic book movie to date.  Filled with laughs, fun, adventure, excitement, and action this movie packs a punch that not many movies can and pleases audiences of all types.