Current Movies: Thumbs UP or DOWN?

[Nick22]

I saw Super 8, Winnie the Pooh, and Cars 2. I'm not gonna grade them (I'm bad at that), just give comment. I honestly rully enjoyed all three.

Super 8 - I rully RULLY liked this movie. Great acting all around, but Elle Fanning in particular. I went in thinking she was gonna suck, but she was AMAZING. The whole movie was great. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, ignored my friends the whole time. Definitely worth seeing, in my opinion. Can't wait for it to come out on DVD!

Cars 2 - My least favorite of the three, but definitely not a bad movie. I didn't love it, but I did find the ending to be a surprise. And I enjoy plot twists in movies. I doubt I'll buy this on DVD, but I think it is worth going to see. Not Pixar's best work, but still good.

Winnie the Pooh - I was the BIGGEST Winnie the Pooh kid, so I was especially excited for this movie. And it didn't disappoint! I loved it! Like someone said, it was very short, but I still thought it was very good; classic Disney. Will definitely be getting this one on DVD.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Here's my top 10 for the year so far. Please note I haven't seen Harry Potter yet (really have to!).

10. Captain America: The First Avenger
9. The Lincoln Lawyer
8. Super 8
7. Kung Fu Pands 2
6. Rango
5. Bridesmaids
4. X-Men: First Class
3. Winnie the Pooh
2. Source Code
1. Win Win

Bottom 5:
5. Paul (not terrible, just nothing really memorable about it despite being pretty funny)
4. The Hangover Part II
3. Cars 2
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
1. Green Lantern

 

[Drtooth]

I might as well add a TV movie. I'm not saying HOW I saw it, but...

Grow Up Timmy Turner: Now, I shudder to call it even a telefilm, since it was barely even an hour. More like a special. Now, I have qualms with Nick shoving their tween stars in the project... BUT virtually everyone else was PERFECT! They were all perfectly like the cartoon characters they portrayed. They got the same guy who plays Timmy Turner's Dad in the cartoon to play him in live action AND HE REALLY LOOKS like Timmy's Dad! The Crocker guy went through spasms the same way, he got the voice and the look down (though he somehow seemed a bit young). I had a little problem with how AJ and Chester were portrayed, but it worked overall. Not a really good plot, and some of their humor just doesn't mesh well in live action, but still, considering the alternatives, at least they tried VERY hard to get the look and feel of the cartoon down.

Unlike, say, almost every other live action cartoon I've seen besides Popeye.

I give it a B-. Well done, but not great. Though I did like theloophole they made at the end for Timmy to keep his fairies, because... well, everything he did would have been undone, and he did save Fairyworld on multiple occasions... that's how Jorgen was able to stretch Da rules... but ONLY:Y for Timm!

y

 

[BoomerangFish]

Captain America... what a total stinker. 6/10

 

[frogboy4]

"Captain America" is what you'd expect it to be. It's a solid superhero picture. No more and no less. Chris Evans is wonderful, but the cut-and-paste film is so over-produced that it doesn't give him or the other actors much opportunity for their charisma to shine through. 80%

"The Smurfs" and their village are beautifully modeled and textured in digital CG. That's probably the only nice thing I can say about it. The story is just a string of watered-down bits that has no more depth than the trailer. It plays like an advertisement for itself. The dubbed voices don't even appear to be coming from the characters. All the Smurfs, except the pitch-perfect Clumsy, feel unengaged as if reading their lines from a page in a soundbooth. The whole film seems manufactured. 30%

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is a much better film than I expected. The digital apes created by Weta not only come to life, but they are the driving force behind the drama. This isn't just a creature movie with smashing and growling. It's a thoughtful film and there will be others. I'd say more, but no spoilers. 89%

 

[Drtooth]

"The Smurfs" and their village are beautifully modeled and textured in digital CG. That's probably the only nice thing I can say about it. The story is just a string of watered-down bits that has no more depth than the trailer. It plays like an advertisement for itself. The dubbed voices don't even appear to be coming from the characters. All the Smurfs, except the pitch-perfect Clumsy, feel unengaged as if reading their lines from a page in a soundbooth. The whole film seems manufactured. 30%

That's basically what I've been thinking it would be the whole time. Celebrity voices... always has to be B-List celebrity voices. Even with the Chipmunks, when, let's face it... the voices are so high pitched you can't even tell anyway. I call Bull on that. The CGI renders of the characters look ugly, Smurf became a euphemism for swear (according to the trailer), and there was absolutely no call for them to be in modern era and tripping over new technology.

Still, I kinda want some of the McDonalds toys. Even though they have the movie look.

Anyway, I'm conflicted. it's a bad movie that's for some reason more popular than they thought it would be, and there definitely will be a sequel. Now, if they STAY the heck in Smurf world, I will want to see it. If they randomly come back to the future and fly over iPods and ask what they are, the heck with that. And the UGLY movie merchandise is actually selling out (at least in the TRU I was in last night... the Target looked untouched, but I swear they came out a week after the movie premiered because I didn't see them at that Target the last time a couple weeks ago). Though I guess this means WB would get off it's butt and release the rest of the show in boxed season set form, or at least Papercutz will give us all the rest of the classic Peyo comics.

That said, I don't care if Return to the Revenge of the Uprising of the Prequel of the Planet of the Apes is good. STOP THE HECK MILKING THE DANG THING! The first one was good enough as it was. And I hate saying that as someone that says we always need new media if it's good enough... just... really.

 

[BoomerangFish]

I love the Smurfs... I have a collection of over 100 of them that I've been gathering since I was a kid. I have fond memories of the cartoon even. I knew the movie was going to be bad, and rather than suffer disappointment I've chosen not to watch it. Thanks for confirming that it's rubbish! haha

 

[frogboy4]

I love the Smurfs... I have a collection of over 100 of them that I've been gathering since I was a kid. I have fond memories of the cartoon even. I knew the movie was going to be bad, and rather than suffer disappointment I've chosen not to watch it. Thanks for confirming that it's rubbish! haha

Heads up. The DVD will reportedly include a Christmas special set entirely in the village and it will contain a traditionally animated sequence along with the computer animation. Might be worth a NetFlix.

 

[BoomerangFish]

I had to google Netflix... I didn't even know what it was... haha, we have "Fatso" on my side of zee vurld. I may, may check it out eventually but I think it will just make me sad.

 

[Drtooth]

Heads up. The DVD will reportedly include a Christmas special set entirely in the village and it will contain a traditionally animated sequence along with the computer animation. Might be worth a NetFlix.

Seriously... I want to see you elaborate on how bad it was. Just for the sake of lulz. or is it Lolz? Was it even bad in a good way, or just plain not even worth it?

So anyway, I saw Captain America... I felt it quite brilliant and a it had lot more fun establishing the characters and pronouncing the origins than Green Lantern. Seriously, GL is a film that would be great if the back story wasn't so deep and they had to establish all these characters. But the Cap managed to have some more grounded to Earth fun with less goofy CGI fixes. I loved the menacing German accent Hugo brought to the Red Skull. And really, Tommy Lee Jones steals the show. Not my favorite revisionist WW2 action movie (Inglorious Basterds has it beat), but a very close second. Too bad Fox is sitting the heck on the X-Men rights and doing meh with them...woulda been fun for a Wolverine cameo. And you gotta love the Alan Menkin composed Captain America stage show song. I want the sound track for it. Plus, nice little in joke about his original shield shaped shield....

Truth is, he DID originally have that shape of shield, but Archie comics at the time had a similar super hero with a similar shield, and they politely asked the creators to change the shape. Quite a long way Archie came in the copyright department, threatening suit on a band called the Veronicas decades later....

Still, I hate the fact my local theaters ONLY showed it inn 3-D... I don't like live action films in 3-D... it doesn't work, and everything looks darker. And I keep blinking my eyes.

I trust everyone stayed after the credits to see the preview for the Avengers film. B+