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benbaecher
Reviews
Clown (2008)
I watched it for the wrong reason, too, but loved it!
I watched it, too, like the other reviewers because I saw it on a web site with a couple of names in it. But they paled in comparison to the actor character who stole the show and is the reason for its 'awesom-ness'. The first half, and most interesting and realistic part of the short is about the boy getting tormented by the most scariest clown I have ever seen in my life, being scary in the sense that he could actually exist. Shamus the Clown was the name of the clown, and Paul Sampson was the actors name in the end credits with playing him. I don't know where he came from or what demonic entity spawned him, but he is by far the leader of the pack. He and Stephen King's "TT" Pennywise Clown together would be by far the scariest combination in the world of all time! They would kick the crap out of any modern day scary duo in a cage match. They'd be the tag team champs. Pennywise may still be my number one, but Shamus is a very close second and to me is more real, making him possibly number one. I would have gave the short a 10 but I felt the first half of the short was a 12 (seriously) and the second half without Shamus was a 7 at most, that's my reason for a 9 rating. It should have ended when Shamus leaves the tent and the kid still tied in the chair. That would have been a better film.
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
The Cabin in the Woods is Classic!
I thought it was going to be another one of those typical a bunch of people go to a cabin (literally) and go down one at a time until the nice girl (because there is always THAT stereotype) goes the distance. This was the case, but it was intentional on EVERY level. There are many levels to this movie, many levels. There are no mistakes worth mentioning. A continuity here or there, but really no mistakes that punish an audience member. This movie is clever, consistent, scary, funny, and keeps the viewers on the edge of their seats all the way to the end. What I like most was that they didn't insult and spoon feed the audience right from the get go. Most of the movie makers out there feel the need to spell it all out for us in the first 20 minutes so we know everything and there are no surprises. This movie keeps you enticed until the very end. I feel that everything was explained in the end. There was no loose ends so to speak. All the little details were well delivered and placed properly. The acting, story, and dialogue all were great.
Chronicle (2012)
Chronicle Rocks!
Have to say I wish I didn't see the trailer, because i knew ahead of time that Andrew was going to lose it, so unfortunately I had that in the back of my mind while watching the movie. Still thought it was great, something different, even if at times predictable. You know he's going to put the hurt to someone at school at some point, and going to have a little payback with dad, and because of trailer totally lose it, but still cool. Not sure about the part when his friend Steve gets zapped by the lightning as far as the explanation. That was confusing. Matt confronts Andrew and asks him to explain how Steve got zapped by lightning and there wasn't even any reports of lightning. Looked like a lot of activity going on in the scene, a real sh*t storm more or less, so why the line that there was no reports of lightning? Did Andrew create the lightning? And if so, it's there, wouldn't there be a report of its activity, especially if he created it and it wasn't expected. I'm not a whetherman, maybe at a certain altitude there's 'lightning' but then wouldn't planes get zapped out of the air? That was the only flaw for me, because I bought into the movie and the world it created, just the part about Matt's scene with Andrew didn't make sense. I mean there was lightning all around and that's how he got killed, whether Andrew re-directed it or not, it seemed lie they were surrounded by it, so why did Matt say there were no reports of lightning? Other than that rant, liked that it was something different. I didn't even care that the under ground rock phenomenon of how they get their powers wasn't totally clear. Thought the way that it affected them differently as far as mentally was great, too, because they all had different outlooks on life and even thought they all got the same dose of powers, some where able to expand on them more and want to do different things with them. Had a real, probably unintentionally, comic book hero-villain concept brewing. Like when one gets powers they use it for good, and the person (like Andrew) who has a bad seed in his head, goes evil. Now that I write this I think this could have been a great vehicle for hero and villain set up, kind of like batman and the joker but even more intense. There hasn't been a new comic book villain and hero in a long time, this could have been the perfect vehicle. Maybe it's time! I like Batman and Superman and X-Men and so on, but maybe it's time for a new generation of super heroes and super villains. All in all, thought movie was great. It was great and original. The camera was annoying at times, my friend got a headache. Concept was great.
The Sitter (2011)
Started off fun but fizzled
Jonah Hill's the man, at least as a sidekick. Thought he rocked in Get the Greek. Hysterical! But as the lead I'm not sure if 90 minutes or pure Jonah is going to keep my attention, or better yet, get me to watch a movie he's the lead in, as a supporting or even second fiddle, yes, but not as the lead. Unless of course there is a role or a movie that is a vehicle for him to show off brilliant comedic timing, and guess what, The Sitter was just that, or maybe I should say, it could have been just that. When I saw the trailer I was anxious for the release, if it would have been 80% as good as that I would have been ecstatic. Unfortunately, it kept on falling short. They set it up great. We met him, his 'life', the kids, the whole potential train wreck we just want to get on and then we go into it, and boy was I psyched. But then it just seemed like they were in a hurry to get to the next scene and the next scene and the next scene, and then the movie was over. There were so many scenes that could have been worked out more, either in the writing or in the execution. I wish they could have thought out each scene a little better. I probably won't see another Jonah movie if he's running the roost.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
No Monkeying around!
Wow, those apes are heavy hitters! Enjoyed the movie since it was less about the doctor guy (James Franco) and more about Caesar the chimp. I know they need to develop the story, which is cool, and all, but I don't know if I buy that guy as a doctor or scientist. Really liked the looks of that hot girl friend from Slum Dog Millionaire. Not sure if she's a great actress or not, but she's hot. I think the monkeys, apes, chimps, whatever, are the best thing in the movie. I know they're fake or computer generated, but I believe them the most. I never saw the original Planet of the Apes movies, they were before my time, but I think I'll check them out now because I'm kind of curious how they did it back in the day. Can't wait to see the sequel.
The Other Guys (2010)
No Go
Talk about a movie that had potential and fell short. So you're throwing in your ingredients and you open with the Duane Johnson and Sam Jackson doing a great macho opening and they end up jumping off a roof for, like, no reason, and then Ka-put, silence. Beat. Beat. The audience explodes with laughter. Great. Perfect. Check the Gate, let's go home. Because that's what most of the audience wished they had done 80 minutes or so later. And you have Michael Keaton. He's a God! Like having Bill Murray or some other comical genius on board. Will Farrell, well, you know what you're getting with Will Farrell, and you get it, he delivers. Eva Mendes
WOW
and that ALL works. So where's the problem? Oh yeah, the movie isn't funny. The jokes aren't funny. Mark "E" Mark isn't funny
he's acting with that stupid soft delivery thing he does, which did work in Fear because he's pretending to be a soft spoken guy and is hiding that he is a psycho. I thought he was great in that, but in this movie, he's actually playing it like that's who he really is, and at times it does work, sometimes really well, but overall it doesn't. And if you're not buying one of the two leads for part of the movie, then the movie doesn't work. A very large percentage of the jokes fell really short. I was pumped to see this movie and was disappointed.
Kick-Ass (2010)
Kicked Ass!
Had to bring my younger brother to a movie and my folks thought Kick Ass was safe because of the trailer they saw. In the trailer it looks like it's going to be a kids to teen to family movie, I didn't want to go, but it was forced on me. I was very happy I went. Couldn't believe how crude the movie was, it was great! The little 13 year old shocked the hell out of me. Couldn't believe her language. Funny S*%t. Some of the movie was borderline brutal, definitely not a family movie. Found it more culty. Not gonna ruin for anybody by giving details but the movie was a serious, gritty, action packed film, with characters that at first glance you wouldn't expect to be serious, gritty, and actiony (know it's not a word but you guys get it). And thought Cage was great, he had this ol' school Adam West thing going on (my pop's an avid batman and star trek ol' school fool so I've had it around me for quite some time). But when Cage broke into that mode, I just lost it, and so did my kid brother from the stuff our pop watches. The trailer I saw told a different story, not sure why, maybe for shock factor. The movie definitely rocked.
From Paris with Love (2010)
From Paris with love...of money
Yea ha, we're going to make some money on this one. Maybe ol' Johnny boy can buy himself another plane or give some more loot to that church or whatever it is he belongs to. C'mon pardner, you're a movie star. You can do whatever you want and you do this. Maybe on paper it looked good. Maybe not. Was there clever dialogue in the script that they cut out because they didn't want to interfere with the body count? The casting worked, the action did, too, but the movie didn't. Charlie would do something crazy and then quickly explain right after that it was part of his plan, and they'd tell us he's unorthodox. Sure, I'll buy that. That works fine. His loose cannon methods work like a charm. That works fine. Now can I have a serving of speech more than just a fun one liner. Kind of a cool set up but just could have been something more there. It fell short and could have used six or eight minutes more of substance. Let me try that again. It could have used six or eight minutes of substance in general because it didn't really have any to speak of. Even the Rambo movies have that. They actually have a lot of that compared to this one. Not all the cylinders clicked here, some did but most didn't.
The Wolfman (2010)
"there castle here not a good movie"
From time to time a movie comes out that you have to see on the big screen. Wolfman was one of those for me. I read the reviews, which I usually don't care to read. There was a lot of criticism on Iron Man and I really enjoyed that movie. A couple of fools with an agenda put down Edge of Darkness and I thought it was great. Which leads us to The Wolfman. The critics really destroyed this one but at the same time in order to be political correct, they skated around the truth of the matter. None of them liked it and they said that the lead guy Del toro didn't do a good job or wasn't believable but they just should have gotten to the point. He looks like a Mexican guy from Los Angeles who stands outside of a home depot looking for day work or maybe a Spanish guy from Da Bronx who works down at the tire shop. Before you wave the political correct flag, save it for someone who is dumb enough to buy into the smoke screen. If you're going to make the mom in the movie look of Latin Heritage to allow yourself to hire an actor to be of Latin descent, then fine. But can't you find a guy who can carry himself as if he is born of English class? His father's Anthony Hopkins, for crying out loud. The apple doesn't fall that far from the tree. There isn't an actor of Latin descent out there who could have been more comfortable in nice clothing for 90 minutes. This isn't about being a hater, this is about getting an opportunity to have a non white-bred actor have an opportunity to step up and do a solid for his people. And this is what they give us. Video at best.
Legion (2010)
Flying Aces
Dennis Quaid just makes a lovable not too bright guy. Reminds me of my uncle, but Dennis' character was much nicer. Went into the movie expecting to see a bomb. Read some crappy reviews but a couple of my buddies dragged me into it and I was really impressed. I don't know if it's because my expectations were so low, but I thought there were handfuls of great moments. The old lady was creepy along with the little zombie kid. Cool stuff. And the guy who played the lead, Paul Betheny(?) was perfect. Couldn't have picked a better actor. Liked him when I saw him in the movie with Heath Ledger. He's great at what he does. All the characters were great, I don't know all their names, but each one did their job. Was a little confused when the guy that went out to save the kid (the guy that was on his way to Vegas with the gun) got killed. Why didn't they show what happened? When the father got bit he lived for a while, but when the guy that ran to the gas pumps to save the kid got bit they just kind of forgot about him in the movie. He was a main character—at least show him take out one or two with his hands or something. For some reason they just cut away after he got bit and left it at that. Liked the movie and recommend highly.
Star Trek (2009)
Very cool!
My dad was an old Star Trek freak so I dragged him into going. He doesn't go to the movies anymore. I knew nothing about the old series, wasn't born yet. I'm kind of a geek about the newer stuff. Thought the original just dated and not for me. It was his birthday week, and I went for him and I thought it was awesome. Now I can't stop watching the old episodes with him. What a fun movie. After the old Spock guy showed up, my dad was waiting for the old Captain Kirk guy to show up. On the way home he said it was probably right not to have him in that one, but maybe he'll do a cameo in the sequel. It's funny, my dad just left the theater and he was talking about a sequel. Just the same, my dad and I have now developed this new kinship that we haven't had in years. Talk about combining the old with the new. If you're going to see a remake, I strongly suggest Star Trek is the one. For Now, Live Long and Prosper!