M. Night Shyamalan’s summer flick ‘The Happening’ came out this past weekend. If you’ve been keeping track with us over here (slackers I know) we discussed this movie a few weeks back and the scare the pants off you red band trailer that was on line.
I had high hopes for this. I like M.N.S. and most of his movies. I like the approach and the feel. I liked that this seemed to be going edgier, with his first R rated production. The first trailer had me intrigued, the red band trailer had me sold. I bought my ticket, alongside enough others for it to rake in a very respectable $35 million or so on its opening weekend.
Here’s the big twist with this one. How did a trailer with so much awesome result in a movie with so much suck? I could go into a myriad of reasons why this movie failed to deliver, and I am pretty much the most forgiving movie critic in the world. I like just about every movie I see ( except Diary of the Dead, my new favorite ‘most horrible movie ever’) and even I had trouble finding redeeming qualities with this movie. It did have a good sense of dread, had some decent creepiness… but when/if you see it, your response will probably be something like this.
“Seriously??!?”
{internal dialogue}
Something else must be coming…
I have to say I’m more of a Pixar guy rather then Dreamworks, blame my inherent bias toward all Steve Jobs’ endeavors. However, Dreamworks’ recent addition to the animated motion picture universe was phenomenal. I was a little skeptical at first because Jack Black has been in some clunkers of late, but this flick was awesome.
I really began to care about Po, the lazy, sweet toothed DragonMaster-elect, and Dustin Hoffman was superb as Master Shifu. With voice-over appearances from Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, and a rather disappointing Angelina Jolie, what’s not to love. By the end of the movie, I was elated at Po’s successes.
Note: Don’t think I didn’t notice the Kill Bill reference with the 5 point palm exploding heart technique…(well it was a kid’s movie so maybe they’re hearts didn’t “explode” persay.)
So we took in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull this weekend, with I admit some apprehension because of some mixed reviews coming out. It’s a good thing I don’t listen to critics because I thought it was great. Great story, strong performances, familiar faces and just some good old fashioned fun.
A lot of people have been coming down on the story, and I think this is where I am going to differ the most. The film definitely has a sci-fi bend to it and for me that works great. I think because the first films delved heavily into theology in one form or another, people were expecting the same. They all deal with some sort of mysticism, the new film included. The mysticism simply has its roots in different areas.
Harrison Ford and Karen Allen held up pretty well. They both look like they have aged 20 years, but they are still watchable and attractive people that fit comfortably into their roles. Shia Lebeouf also gave a great performance once again, he’s shaping into a great actor.
If you enjoyed the first three Indy flicks you should not leave the theater disappointed in any way.
A new red-band trailer for Tropic Thunder is online and it looks absolutely over the top. Robert Downey Jr. looks to be hitting big again, and some early screenings have met with extremely positive reviews.
Alas we will have to wait for August, but I think that’s a good thing. Usually we only get crap towards the end of the summer movie season, maybe this year will be different.
Did you see Speed Racer this weekend? No??? Don’t feel bad, neither did anyone else apparently. Speed Racer has officially bombed at the US box office.
At an estimated 200 million dollar cost and an opening weekend take of only 20 million, it’s doubtful we’ll be seeing any sequels. Apparently it was expected to do at least double that this weekend as it failed to knock Iron Man out of the number 1 spot.
Hopefully this picture of Christina Ricci looking hot will cheer you up. Or at the very least you can admire her hair and dress.
If you saw it and you still have your vision, please post to let us know what you thought.
When are we going to get to the point in technology where we can have these robotic super soldiers? Seriously, when you see this movie you’ll want one for yourself. Go see Iron Man tonight.
Rocks.
Hard.
It’s very hard for a superhero movie to sustain the interest of moviegoers when the hero isn’t doing their thing. You spend a lot of the downtime waiting for them to get suited back up. Such is not the case here as the story of Tony Stark is as compelling as the incredible action sequences. Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark… he doesn’t play him, he is him. It’s a shame that people don’t get recognized for performances this good just because the subject matter isn’t the usual ‘Academy’ fare. This movie will seriously get you excited for the hopeful future of this franchise… I saw the movie an hour ago and I already can’t wait for the sequel.
The summer blockbuster season has started off with a giant bang.
I recently saw the latest entry into ApaTOWN(copyright) and went into it with relatively high expectations. I’ve enjoyed Jason Segal in all his incarnations including Freaks & Geeks, How I Met Your Mother, and even Knocked Up. Needless to say, I expected to be wowed by some wild and crazy take on the standard rom-com. I was sorely disappointed. There were 2 or 3 specific points in the movie where I was waiting for them to turn a corner, but director Nicholas Stoller sent me down the same old, cheesy path.
The movie wasn’t completely bogus. The afformentioned Segal was stellar and Mila Kunis played a decent love interest. However it did become a bit of a sausage fest (and I don’t mean it was like my Friday and Saturday nights in college). If you haven’t heard, Segal shows his wiener…multiple times. As I am in the last week of medical school, it’s not like I haven’t had my fair share of penises to inspect, but it kept appearing in the movie like a recurring theme in a Shakespearan play.
Anyway, the true low point for me was Kristen Bell. Just because she’s a pretty face doesn’t mean she has chops. Her character felt very constrained and her emotions were nearly non-existent.Despite this low point I’ll probably netflix it in a few months to remember the hilarious opera that Segal’s character composes that I won’t ruin for you.Note* Jason Segal based the break-up scene and the opera on his real life experiences.
*special thanks to my lovely wife Crystal for tipping me off on this one.
Some may argue that I’m a week early, and that perhaps Harold and Kumar do not represent the summer blockbuster ‘mold’.
Screw ‘em.
Harold and Kumar will be fantastic for anyone that loved the first, simple as that. Next week however is Ironman, followed by Speedracer, then Indy, Batman, Hancock, Hulk, Wanted and the list goes on…
I say bring them on, its going to be one hell of a summer.
Anniversary you say? Surely this site has not been around for a year already has it? Well… no. It most definitely has not.
But that’s old school convention, and I say screw it. It is our Anniversary today because the first movie we discussed on iconogeek when it was in the theater comes out on DVD today. We have made it a full theater to home release cycle, and that my friends is something to proud of.
Alright maybe it is not that big of a deal, but seriously give me a break. It’s only Tuesday and this week feels like its 2 months long already, so let me have my little delusions.
Cloverfield -The much hyped, motion sickness inducing, nail biting, hair raising mystery dated flick that re-invigorated the monster movie genre. Even with all of the anticipation leading up to this movie, it still managed to deliver. Buy this DVD. We need more movies willing to take chances… and I don’t mean like indy-movie chances where you discuss the inner spirit or some crap like that… I mean I want more balls-out monster movies. If they make a sequel and it has bare breasts in it, I can safely say now that it will be the last movie I will ever need to see.
The Orphanage – Guillermo Del Toro produces this extremely creepy looking movie with kids talking to ghosts and random nightmare concoctions of that sort. I’ll be picking this one up this week and I’ll let you know how I feel… from what I’ve heard though I may be hiding under my bed for a week, terrified.
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