This movie could have been a 4 star movie. Had the potential...the story, a rather well-built witty script, the amazing actors, and most importantly the chemistry between the two main characters...basically the whole shebang of a good recipe for an ideal rom-com. But midway it went wrong...very wrong. It hit a brick-wall of cliches. Lost tempo...oh, tempo...how it gets on my nerves...maybe the most important part of a movie for me is this and it is one of the points that you would find in most my reviews.
James Gandolfini in his last role that he played in his life, brought to life a very average man that anyone -even me- could relate to. He is probably the only reason why I would recommend to friends to see this movie at least once. Well, maybe it's not worth spending that much in a theater and you could wait until it comes out on Netflix or something. But you would have the experience of enjoying a heart-warming holiday-ish movie...well, half a movie at least!
Julia Louis-Dreyfous was the delightful self that she is...very reminiscent of her "Alayne" and she essentially melted into Gandolfini's character.
Since this post is a series of mini-review I wouldn't get any further into the details but my general recommendations would be: don't keep your expectations high and just enjoy the acting.
I had waited for a really really really long time for this new Disney animation to come out, mostly because of this trailer. But I was kinda let down. I mean it is beautiful and all but still doesn't match the level of the Disney movies that we used to have when we were kids. Even the music of cartoons these days don't match that of the ones in the 90's. And Frozen didn't really have anything special to offer until the snowman character "Olaf" showed up. Oh, was he a "character"! As I recommended you watching enough said because of the chemistry, I would recommend you to watch this animation just because of this character. He makes it totally worth the time...and maybe money (sorry, I am a student on a tight budget who needs to take this variable into account every time!). One of the other exceptional things that I found about this animation was how they had avoided the whole "true love" cliche and had given it a new meaning. I really enjoyed the idea of not filling the minds of kids with finding a hunky-prince love when you're 16 (yes, Ariel, I'm talking to you!).
A footnote: I found some parts of this cartoon and especially the trailers before it started showing not so very appropriate for kids (Maleficent...really? You're showing that to 10 year-old kids...and younger?). So, you might want to consider this before taking your 6-year-old to see the very innocent Frozen.
I was going to give this movie 3.75 stars just because I felt like it wasn't fair to give 4 stars to this and the same rating to a movie like Forrest Gump but then I thought why not?! We compare movies in different genres and I remember Roger Ebert giving Spider-Man2 4 stars back in the day. And this movie not only fulfilled its mission in delivering a good action-filled movie, but also very much so exceeded my expectations!
I should confess that I have not read the Hunger Games books and neither have I watched the first movie! And until a week before going seeing it, I really had no idea about the storyline. My perception of this movie was that it was a blockbuster-type, Twilight-ish movie made for adolescents. But after talking to my brother, he encouraged me to go see it and on the back of my mind remember how the story had first come to life. And that is apparently when the author was flipping through TV channels and he went from a channel showing a war-related story or news to the other TV channel showing a stupid reality show. So, he decided to write a book and criticize how we are played and manipulated by puppets on shows. And I think this movie did that purpose justice by portraying "behind the scenes" on reality shows. But I also think if anyone who has not heard about the main purpose of the Hunger Games and only had come to the theater to enjoy an action-packed movie, definitely got what they had come for.
And boy do I love this girl! Jennifer Lawrence is good in ANY movie she appears in. I would root for her for every award, for every role. Watch her in this cute, honest conversation with Letterman.
I really didn't realize how the almost 2.5 hours passed by! Go see this movie and you'll enjoy it. Guaranteed.
I just checked to see what rating I have given to the first hobbit movie and apparently my love had overcome my logic and I had given it 3 stars. I mean since this movie was better than the first and the first wasn't that horrible either, I would have given the first one a 2.75-star rating but I didn't want to change it. So, I think I'll go with 3 for both and we'll see what happens in a year!
This movie was no Lord of the Rings but was much better than the first. I mean, still it felt like they had stretched out the story waaaaay too much. But of course we could have seen this coming when they announced that they were turning one tiny book into a trilogy. But I'll tell you this, give a visionary like Peter Jackson a Tolkien book and can you see where I am going with this?! Of course, it is worth watching it. Could he go wrong in any possible way?! No, not really. At least for a nerd like me, his movies are still an exciting 2:40 minute rides.
If you're a LOTR fan, I can't see how you won't enjoy it. If you're not a LOTR fan or have never had any exposure to any Tolkien-related book or movie, I would give it a second thought and I'll leave the judgement to the magnitude of the nerd inside you.
