Category: 2011

Horrible Bosses review

Director
Seth Gordon
Cast:
Jason Bateman
Jason Sudeikis
Charlie Day
Jennifer Aniston
Colin Farrell
Kevin Spacey
Jamie Fox
Rated: R

One part where this movie failed was making a convincing argument that Jennifer Aniston’s character was really a horrible boss.

The film follows three characters, Nick (Bateman), Kurt (Sudeikis) and Dale (Day). All have fairly average jobs and life would probably be going just smoothly for them in the day-to-day grind of the work place, if not for them having the worst bosses in the world. Nick’s boss Mr. Harkin (Spacey) tricks Nick thinking he’s getting a promotion, Kurt has to deal with his former bosses son Bobby (Farrell) taking over the company and running it into the ground and Dale has the misfortune of having a boss played by Jennifer Aniston who wants to sleep with him when he’s already engaged.

Being completely fed up with their situations in their careers, they decide to take action and hire a hit man to get the job done. They go to a bar in a bad part of town and meet the character Mother Fucker Jones (Fox), a man who says he can get the job done. However they soon find out that Jones just got out of prison and can only be their murder consultant and that they have to pull off the killing on their own.

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Zookeeper review

Director
Frank Coraci
Cast:
Kevin James
Rosario Dawson
Leslie Bibb
Joe Rogan
Rated: PG

Yes, this movie is just as stupid as the trailer makes it out to be.

Zookeeper follows around, not surprisingly, a zookeeper named Griffin (James), a man who is dedicated to his job but also wants to marry his long time girlfriend Stephanie (Bibb), however when she turns him down and breaks up with him, he is left heartbroken and continues his day to day routine for the next five years.

Cut to the present and Griffin is the lead zookeeper and very well liked by the animals and the staff, so things seem to be alright. However, we find out that Griffin may want to leave to work at his brother’s car dealership. As this happens Stephanie comes back into the picture, so the animals of the zoo come around breaking the code that they have to not talk to humans and help Griffin get the girl he’s been wanting. but things get complicated when Griffin starts changing who he is.

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Super 8 review

Director:
J.J. Abrams
Cast:
Joel Courtney
Riley Griffiths
Elle Fanning
Kyle Chandler
Rated: PG-13

E.T. with more explosions!

Super 8 is the story of a group of friends who must be no older than 13. The group are all movie fans who want to make their own, and are led by their friend Charles (Griffiths), who’s directing the film. His friend Joe (Courtney), is the special effects expert and the main protagonist of the film. Joe and his father have been dealing with issues since the death of his mother, which happened six months prior to the movie starting.

One night the group sneaks out to shoot a scene for their project, and bring along a classmate, Alice (Fanning), to play a part in the film they are making. They go to a local train stop to shoot the scene and while there the group sees a major train crash after a pick up truck hits a locomotive head on. After this the military comes to clean up the mess, the situation gets even more suspicious as people and appliances begin disappearing.

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May 2011 Mini Reviews

Water for Elephants: 2 out of 5
Water for Elephants started out fairly promising. It used a premise similar to Titanic using flashbacks to tell the story. The performances were fine, especially from Christoph Waltz. The real downfall of the film was the climax. It just seemed really improbable and too nicely wrapped up. I was very underwhelmed by the end.

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Kung Fu Panda 2 review

Director:
Jennifer Yuh
Cast:
Jack Black
Angelina Jolie
Dustin Hoffman
Gary Oldman
Jackie Chan
Seth Rogen
Lucy Liu
David Cross
Rated: PG

Add another to the “good sequels list.”

In Kung Fu Panda 2, we once again follow the character Po (Black), the giant panda who became a kung fu master after finding that he was the prophesied ‘Dragon Warrior.’ Now Po lives with the other ‘Furious Five’ fighters as well as their master Shifu (Hoffman) where they are constantly fighting against bandits and the like, keeping the nearby villages safe.

Meanwhile, a new enemy arises, a Peacock named Shen played by Gary Oldmann. Shen has discovered the powers of gunpowder and plans to use them to rule all of China, and the first place he takes over is his city where he was born into royalty and was exiled. Upon finding out that Shen has taken over the city, Po and the Furious Five are sent to deal with the problem, however Shen has a bigger past with Po then the protagonist realizes.

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X-Men: First Class review

Director:
Matthew Vaughn
Cast:
James McAvoy
Michael Fassbender
Jennifer Lawrence
Kevin Bacon
Rated: PG-13

Arguably the best X-Men movie out so far.

X-Men: First Class tells the origin story of how the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants came to be by going into the back stories of both Charles Xavior (McAvoy) and Eric Lehnsherr (Fassbender). We begin with their youths, Xavior growing up and learning that there were others like himself by meeting a young girl who can shape shift into any person named Raven, meanwhile Lehnsherr grows up being experimented on and treated poorly under the watch of Sebastian Shaw (Bacon), who has plans of world domination through mutants.

Once the two reach adulthood, the CIA contacts Xavior to help learn about the growing number of mutants appearing, Meanwhile Lehnsherr is out getting vengeance on those who had ruined his childhood and destroyed his family. Eventually the two characters meet and decide to seek out and help young mutants in the world. However once they gain light of Shaw’s plan they realize that he needs to be stopped and set out to deal with him, the two protagonists also learn that their ideals may be more conflicting than they first thought.

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Midnight in Paris review

Director:
Woody Allen
Cast:
Owen Wilson
Rachel McAdams
Tom Hiddleston
Corey Stoll
Marion Cotillard
Rated: PG-13

The artistry of Paris being on full display was expected, the time-travelling was not.

Midnight in Paris follows the character Gil (Wilson), a Hollywood screenwriter who is on vacation in Paris with his fiance Inez (McAdams) and is also in the middle of writing a novel. While the two are scheduled to be married, it is apparent that they have problems, as Gil is usually dragged around the city by Inez and her parents to some of the more dull parts of the city.

However one night Gil finds himself walking the streets of Paris and at midnight, he is taken into an old model car and brought back to the age of the 1920’s. Here, Gil meets famous artists from the time including Ernest Hemmingway (Stoll) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Hiddleston). The rest of the film follows Gil’s mundane life during the day and his exploration of his favorite artists at night.

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The Conspirator review

Director:
Robert Redford
Cast:
Robin Wright
James McAvoy
Evan Rachel Wood
Alexis Bledel
Rated: PG-13

The Conspirator takes place after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, at the end of the Civil War. With Lincoln killed the, the government decides to go after the perpetrators. However, they not only go after the ones directly involved, but their loved ones as well, like Mary Suratt (Wright), whose son used her boarding house as a meeting place for rebels looking to do the assassination attempt. Therefore, Suratt is put up to trial in a Military Tribunal.

This is where our protagonist comes in. Frederick Aiken, a decorated war hero who fought for the north turned lawyer is set to defend Suratt. Aiken is at first taken back, believing that she must have been involved someway or another, which creates friction since he has to defend her. But as time goes on, Aiken begins to learn how and why what the government is doing is wrong, and he begins to change over the film.

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Your Highness review

Director:
David Gordon Green
Cast:
Danny McBride
James Franco
Natalie Portman
Justin Theroux
Zooey Deschanel
Rated: R

Your Highness is the latest ‘stoner comedy’ type film to come out, trying to be like other successful films such as “The Pinapple Express.” The story follows the character Thadeous (McBride), a man who is constantly living in the shadow of his older, heroic brother Fabious (Franco). Upon the return of Fabious’ many quests, it is revealed that he has rescued a woman named Belladonna (Deschanel) and plans to marry her. However she is kidnapped by an evil wizard, Leezar (Theroux).

So Fabious has to go on a quest to save her and Thadeous is forced to go along or face banishment. Along the way they are accompanied by Isabel (Portman), a woman warrior who wants to get revenge on Leezar, and a love interest for Thadeous.

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Hop review

Director:
Tim Hill
Cast:
James Marsden
Russell Brand
Kaley Cuoco
Hank Azaria
Rated: PG

The film follows two characters, Fred O’Hare (Marsden) a man in his 20 somethings who has no real inspiration of what to do, and E.B. (Brand), the son of the Easter Bunny who is more interested in music then taking over the family business. One day, E.B. leaves the Easter Bunny base of operations and goes to Hollywood to try and make something of himself. While going there he is hit by Fred on the highway.

E.B. guilts Fred into taking him in while Fred is house sitting a mansion. The two have a rocky start however they eventually start to grow on each other as the movie goes on. Meanwhile, the Easter Bunny’s right hand man Carlos (Azaria), begins using E.B.’s disappearance to try and take control.

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