Movies I Shouldn't Like

HBO and Cinemax had one of their free preview weekends a while back, and I like to surf through those times and record movies and shows to my DVR that I wouldn't normally go out of my way to watch. One of those movies was a film that by all rights I shouldn't have liked, but did, and it got me thinking about other movies I like more than seems logical. Maybe I'll do a series of posts on this, starting with the movie that sparked these thoughts, GET HIM TO THE GREEK.

As you can see from the poster, it's brought to you by 'the director of FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL and the producer of KNOCKED UP and SUPERBAD.' Normally these proclamations are designed to draw people in, this one pushed me away. I am not a Judd Apatow fan, the comedies he's made or been involved with all seem to have a lack of characters for me, and I find them to be boring. So I had no right enjoying GHTTG. I'm not a Russell Brand fan, I can't recall him ever making me laugh. This film should've been high on my list to avoid. Rock & Roll rarely works in movies, when film makers are trying soooo hard to convince you that their lead actor is the Greatest Rocker Ever, but the songs all suck, well, that's a death knell for a movie about music.

Go figure, I recorded the movie, made my wife watch it with me, and within 10 minutes I was already loving Brand's character Aldous Snow. I bought it all, and mainly because he's incredibly believable in the role of a debauched rock star. And the music ain't bad either. Jonah Hill is o.k.

So it may not be a perfect movie, the end's a little goofy, but I liked the characters enough to see me through any problems I had with the plot. It's always fun when a movie surprises me and confounds my expectations, and GHTTG certainly did that. Good on them.

Summer Movies 2011

Looking over the movies I saw this summer, I was struck by the emptiness in most of these films. But that's what summer flics are all about, so without further ado, here's a pretty vapid list, in chronological order. Oh, and these are all 2-D, the third dimension sucks.

THOR

I actually saw this twice, once with my wife Dawn on opening night (she loved it), then later with my 11 year old boy (who also loved it). I liked it the first time, and was surprised how well it held up on the second viewing. Solid characterization that was true to the source material (well, except for Jane Foster and Hawkeye), some impressive visuals, and a nice story arc for Thor compel me to give it 4 out of 5 stars.

KUNG FU PANDA 2

Kinda surprised I didn't like this one more, since I really enjoyed the first film. Gary Oldman's peacock character was fun, but other than that I found it kind of bleh.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS

On the other end of the spectrum, I enjoyed this more than I expected. The story's clear, the characters have depth (well, most of them anyway). I was only disappointed in the death of a certain character near the end, but otherwise I was really into this movie. And it has Banshee! Awesome!

GREEN LANTERN

Haters gonna hate, but I thought this was fantastic, a really good introduction to the Green Lantern. I'm not going to refute every complaint I've seen online about this movie, I'll just say it was a total geek out to see GL on the screen.

BRIDESMAIDS

I liked this one, but I forgot almost everything about it half an hour after leaving the theater. Seeing the ads for the DVD release recently reminded me of how many times I laughed, but it wasn't enough to make it a really top-tier comedy for me. Plus that frickin' Wilson Phillips song really makes me ill. Here's a link to some great out-takes, Jon Hamm is pretty funny.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

Loved this one, Chris Evans gave a performance that surprised me, he really evoked what I thought Steve Rogers should be like. And the Red Skull! Holding the Cosmic Cube! Total geek moment.

COWBOYS & ALIENS

Huh? Wha...? Did something happen? I think I fell asleep for a couple hours there...

Ok, that's not really fair, I didn't hate the movie, but in a summer of (mostly) empty movies, this one just seemed like the worst offender for some reason. Harrison Ford was good, but that's about all I remember.










No, I didn't see HANGOVER 2, I didn't think the first one was all that funny, and you can tell by the trailers that the sequel is just a re-hash of the first one. Plus, I liked that movie better when it was called DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR?