Django Unchained (2012)

Posted on May 22, 2013 at 9:46 am by moviewasbetter

Django UnchainedRating: 9

I know Quentin Tarantino turns a lot of people off. His films are always extremely violent and some say, too far over the top, but I like most of his films. As far as revenge films go, this one is among my favorites. It is a bit long, but it went by quickly for me. I’m a big fan of Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz so that made it even better. For those who like some of Quentin’s movies, this one has plenty of bloodshed, but it’s done in an artistic way, if you can even call it that. I believe it’s usually referred to as stylistic violence, but not like you see in kung-fu or typical Hollywood movies. It’s not the usual blood-pump and gore that Quentin usually employs in his films.

Django (Jamie Foxx) and his wife (Kerry Washington) were slaves. They were separated years before the movie begins. Django is purchased by a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) and subsequently freed, as long as he agrees to help the bounty hunter with one more job. Django then convinces the bounty hunter to help him find and free his wife.

I don’t want to give anything away so all I can say is, if you like any of Quentin Tarantino’s films, you have to see this one.

Review by: Jim

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Posted in Action, Rating 9, Western | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hop (2011)

Posted on April 22, 2013 at 9:26 am by moviewasbetter

HopRating: 9

Fred O’Hare (James Marsden) is a 20 something slacker who just doesn’t want to grow up. He had a close encounter with the Easter Bunny as a kid and never stopped believing. Forced out of his house by his parents (Gary Cole and Elizabeth Perkins), his sister has him house-sit at her boss’ mansion. On the way there he hits a bunny rabbit named E.B. (voiced by Russell Brand). E.B. explains that he’s next in line to be the Easter Bunny, but he has no interest. He wants to be a professional drummer and was on his way to Hollywood when he got hit. The two become friends, but not before they each cause major problems for the other. Meanwhile, E.B.’s dad (voiced by Hugh Laurie), has his hands full when the chicks that run the candy factory try to take over Easter. Will E.B., Fred and the Easter Bunny be able to save Easter? You’ll have to watch this one to find out. This is another family friendly movie that has something for everyone.

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Posted in Animated, Comedy, Family, Kids, Rating 9 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Croods (2013)

Posted on April 18, 2013 at 3:31 pm by moviewasbetter

The CroodsRating: 8

Eep (Emma Stone) is sick of being stuck in the family cave all day, every day. She wants to live life, to take risks, to feel alive, but her father Grug (Nicolas Cage), will not allow it. His stories always end the same way; those who dare to try new things end up dead! When their cave is destroyed they are forced out into the world to try and find a new place to call home. Along the way they encounter Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a young man trying to reach the mountains where he believes they will all be safe. Guy has lots of amazing ideas and inventions. Eep is drawn to him and begins to follow him rather than her father which infuriates Grug. Other voice talent in this film includes Clark Duke as Eep’s brother Thunk, Catherine Keener as Eep’s mother Ugga and Cloris Leachman as Gran. My wife, kids and I all thoroughly enjoyed this film.

Review by: Jim

Search for this movie @ the library (not yet available on DVD as of 4/18/2013). Read more about this movie on IMDB.

Posted in Adventure, Animated, Comedy, Family, Kids, Rating 8 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

That’s My Boy (2012)

Posted on March 18, 2013 at 1:24 pm by moviewasbetter

That's My BoyRating: 8

Donny (Adam Sandler) knocked up one of his teachers in high school. She went to prison, he was left to raise a child on his own. As soon as his son, Todd (Andy Samberg), reached the age of 18, he took off, hoping never to see his father again. Now, about to get married to his boss’ daughter, Todd has to deal with his long lost father showing up. He told everyone his parents were killed in a tragic car accident to avoid having to explain who he really is. Now he has a lot of explaining to do to try and contain Donny and curtail his antics.

All in all, this was an OK movie. Not Adam’s best work, but if you survived the eighties and you like to laugh, you might want to give this one a try. Filled with cameos of 80′s stars, music from that era and of course, a Camaro, it was rude, crude and obnoxious and I loved every minute of it. Well, except for that weird part towards the end… but other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed this film.

Review by: Jim

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Source Code (2011)

Posted on January 4, 2013 at 4:58 pm by moviewasbetter

Rating: 6

Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) was a helicopter pilot in the US Army. The last thing he remembers was flying during a mission in Afghanistan. Now he’s suddenly in someone else’s body on a commuter train in Chicago just before it explodes. After it explodes, he’s in some sort of void where everything is black. He can’t see anything, but he can hear a woman asking him who the bomber is. He answers that he doesn’t know and is suddenly back in the same scenario he was just in. Again the bomb goes off and he doesn’t know who did it.

The effects and the eye candy are why I gave this film a 6. Otherwise, it would have received a 3 or a 4. The plot was thin at best and the truth that is revealed in the end wasn’t anything mind-blowing, it just didn’t make sense to me.

Review by: Jim

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Posted in Mystery, Rating 6, Sci-Fi, Thriller | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Just Go With It (2011)

Posted on January 3, 2013 at 1:27 pm by moviewasbetter

Rating: 8

Danny (Adam Sandler) was stood up on his wedding day but never stopped wearing the ring. Now he’s happy with one night stands claiming his wife doesn’t love him or even beats him. His life is perfect until the day he meets Palmer (Brooklyn Decker). This is the one girl he didn’t tell his lie to. When she finds his wedding ring, he lies and says he is getting divorced. Palmer insists on meeting his soon-to-be ex-wife to get consent for their relationship to progress. Danny insists that his assistant, Katherine (Jennifer Aniston), pretend to be his wife to satisfy Palmer. When Palmer overhears Katherine talking to her kids on the phone, she assumes the kids are Danny’s and insists on meeting them. The kids blackmail Danny into taking the whole gang to Hawaii and chaos ensues. Nicole Kidman, Jackie Sandler, Kevin Nealon, Nick Swardson and Dave Matthews co-star in this hilarious movie about life, love and lies.

Review by: Jim

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Posted in Comedy, Rating 8, Romance | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cancer is Curable NOW (2011)

Posted on January 2, 2013 at 2:27 pm by moviewasbetter

Rating: 9

This amazing film includes interviews with many of the world’s leading experts on curing cancer without surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. In only 2 hours, your understanding of the causes of various types of cancer and the safest ways to treat them will be completely transformed. All of us know someone who has, had or will have cancer. You owe it to yourself and those you love to watch this movie. You can learn more at the official website.

Review by: Jim

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Posted in Documentary, Rating 9 | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ruby Sparks (2012)

Posted on November 26, 2012 at 1:26 pm by moviewasbetter

Rating: 8

Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano) is a genius novelist who became famous at 19. He’s written in the 10 years since then, but is now dealing with a major case of writer’s block. He’s shy and introverted and keeps to himself as much as possible. He has a dream one night about a girl he’s never met named Ruby Sparks (Zoe Kazan). He’s ashamed that his dog, Scotty,  pees like a girl and his psychiatrist (Elliott Gould) asks him to write one page about someone who can accept Scotty just the way he is. That night he has another dream about Ruby Sparks who easily accepts the fact that Calvin’s dog pees like a girl. Filled with inspiration, Calvin wakes up and begins writing, only stopping to eat and visit his psychiatrist. A few days after writing about his dream girl, Ruby materializes in his apartment, as if they’ve been dating for a while. Calvin believes he’s hallucinating until he realizes other people can see and interact with her. As he writes about Ruby, he can change any detail about her and she is clueless. What could be the fantasy of many men, quickly becomes a real relationship filled with challenges and heartache. Will Calvin write the end of Ruby, or is this just the beginning?

Zoe Kazan actually wrote this movie. Her and Paul Dano are romantically involved in real life which I didn’t know until after I saw the film. The chemistry between them was amazing which either speaks volumes about their acting ability or their true relationship or perhaps, both. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.

Review by: Jim

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Posted in Chick-Flick, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Rating 8, Review, Romance | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Vegucated (2010)

Posted on November 15, 2012 at 2:45 pm by moviewasbetter

Rating: 9

What do you think would happen if you took three meat-loving New Yorkers and had them try a vegan diet for 6 weeks? That was the question filmmaker Marisa Miller Wolfson wanted to answer when she set out to make Vegucated.

She chooses a woman in her early twenties, a 27 year old man and a middle-aged mother of two to experiment with. She educates them on what exactly a vegan is, what they can and cannot eat and brings them to noted physician Dr. Joel Fuhrman for some baseline medical tests. After six weeks of avoiding animal products she interviews them to see if they have adopted the vegan lifestyle and brings them back to Dr. Fuhrman to repeat the medical tests to see if there has been any change in their bodies. The results are amazing.

Throughout this 75 minute film, the participants and viewers are educated about what it means to be vegan, the differences between vegan and vegetarian and the animal cruelty that drives most people away from meat consumption. In addition to Dr. Fuhrman, they also interview Dr. T. Colin Campbell who is a leading authority on the plant based lifestyle. Dr. Campbell was part of the infamous China Study which looked at 6,500 people in rural China over a period of twenty years. They found the incidence of cancer and heart disease and other preventable illnesses rose as populations began to consume more animal based proteins (meat, eggs, and dairy).

While parts of the film where actually funny, others were a bit hard to take because of the violence animals raised for slaughter have to endure before they end up wrapped in plastic on the grocery store shelves. They don’t show what exactly happens to them, but you do get a realistic idea of what they go through.

If you’re curious about the vegan lifestyle or just want to better understand why a plant based diet is so much better for humans and all living creatures on this planet, I highly recommend you Get Vegucated! You can check this movie out from the library or you can come watch it at the library on Wednesday, November 28, 2012 at 2:00 p.m.

Review by: Jim

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Posted in Comedy, Documentary, Horror, Rating 9, Review | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

Posted on November 4, 2012 at 11:25 am by moviewasbetter

Rating: 5

In this adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Charlize Theron plays Queen Ravenna. Ravenna and her brother, Finn (Sam Spruell), are pure evil. They were cursed as children to avoid an untimely death and have been taking over village after village ever since.

After Queen Eleanor dies, King Magnus is distraught and has no direction. That is, until he meets the beautiful Ravenna. He falls in love with her instantly and they are married right away. On their wedding day, she kills him, taking over his kingdom. She kills anyone who opposes her, but locks up the Princess, Snow White (Kristen Stewart). Many years later, Snow White is able to escape and takes off into the Dark Forest. Ravenna sends The Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth – Thor), Finn and a few others into the Dark Forest to catch her. When it becomes clear to The Huntsman that Snow White is not the problem, he turns on Finn and the others and helps Snow White Escape. On the run from the evil Queen, they encounter many dangers in the Dark Forest and eventually meet up with, you guessed it, some little people (played by a stellar cast).

Charlize Theron is always great but Kristen Stewart is as awful as she’s ever been. She gives this horribly written and even more horribly delivered speech to get the villagers fired up to help her stop Ravenna. There are a lot of famous people in this film, the CGI is amazing and the story isn’t too bad, but Kristen ruins it for me. I’ve heard they are working on Snow White and the Huntsman part 2 and they didn’t ask Kristen to come back to play Snow White! She must be as bad in bed as she is at acting if Rupert Sanders (the Director) doesn’t want her back. Either that or the producers are looking to avoid any more scandals or just horrible, lifeless acting.

Review by: Jim

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Posted in Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Rating 5 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment