Captain America

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)*

• Directed by Joe Johnston (Honey I Shrunk the Kids, The Rocketeer, Jumanji, October Sky, Jurassic Park III, Hidalgo, The Wolfman)
• Produced by Kevin Feige
• Starring Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving

Thoughts!

• Mini Review: Not amazing, but solid.
• Review Pt.1: I liked the movie! I think one of the biggest challenges the film had to overcome was for it to not become trite. You can slap a Captain America suit on a guy and tell him to take down Red Skull, but in the end it's just a movie about a macho good guy defeating an evil bad guy. Even the bad guy isn't very creative - he has a secret weapon that he can take over the world with? Come on, I've already seen James Bond.
• Review Pt.2: Other than it being about Captain America, the film it does try to set itself apart from others in the genre. It takes place in the 1940s with Sky-Captain-esque technology flying around. Chris Evans' transformation from scrawny lil dude to big buff dude was entertaining to see (gash, if I had seen this in 3D his super pecks would have been too uncomfortable).
• Review Pt.3: In the end, the movie is just... well, solid. It has just enough stuff to not be bad, but not enough to be really good. Go ahead and quote the eloquent magnificence of that last sentence.
• The ending was sweet. (I'm referring to the non-Avengers part ending.) (Although the Avengers part was a different kind of sweet.)
• The Germans didn't speak German. DOCKED ONE POINT!
• Stan Lee's cameo was kinda dumb, the scene was such a non-sequitur.
• Mini spoiler: Question: The scene where they train-jack the train - why didn't they ALL just run up to the front? Instead of dropping down in the middle carts?
• Dag, yo, Joe Johnston directed a lot of notable movies, yet I don't think his name is very commonly spoken about.
• "Someone get that kid a sandwich." There were so many lines like this to really point out how small prepubescent Chris Evans was. We GET IT, he's SMALL, we can SEE THAT.
• Maybe I'm just bitter that I look more like small Evans than big Evans. HAHA.
• More on this subject, Chris Evans should've had a slightly higher pitched voice when he was tiny. #nitpicky
• I still remember Neal McDonough from Timeline. He was the guy in that movie who (spoiler) died... and that's about all I can recall from it. He's pretty cool in Captain America, though! He has a neat mustache.

You've probably already seen the trailer, but have you seen THIS ONE!?

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)*

• Directed by David Yates (Part 1, Half-Blood Prince, Order of the Pheonix)
• Produced by David Heman, David Barron, J.K. Rowling
• Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson

Thoughts! (Contains some story *SPOILERS*)

• The movie was good. I liked it.
• As a person who has only read 2.5 Harry Potter books, I think I can look at this movie with more objectivity than those who have read all 7. It was entertaining and the acting was good and all that stuff, but there's a certain magical touch that I thought it lacked as a film. I'd say 20% of what makes a good movie is the events that happen. The other 80% is how those events are told by the film makers. So while Snape's death was super sad, it probably wasn't as sad as it could have been.
• The movie very much plays like the last half of a book. So this is good?
• This review by Margot Harrison says a loooot of stuff I agree with: http://www.7dvt.com/2011harry-potter-and-deathly-hallows-part-2
• Man there were so many "OH SH*T" moments. Professor McGonagall was awesooome. You go, McGona-girl!
• I KNEW IT, SNAPE WAS A GOOD GUY!! His flashback thing was the most interesting part of the entire movie.
  
• Harry should've used that time necklace to create two of him.
• The broomstick flying segments looked kinda lame. I think they went for a look that was akin to riding bikes in the air, but I think it should've been more like riding snowboards in the air in regards to resistance and weight distribution. That's just me being haughty though.

And now a letter:

Dear Hollywood,

Post-converted 3D movies are really lame. I want it 3D to feel like I'm looking through a window to really mimic how our eyes perceive 3 dimensions. But in movies like HP7, the, uh, blur effect is still used (not sure of the terminology). That is, when a character is close up in the foreground, the character in the back is blurred out in the background, and vice versa. It's a technique that DOESN'T WORK FOR FILMS LIKE THIS. It makes sense in a 2D picture, but putting it in a 3D picture just flattens the image! Our eyes should be able to focus on any part of the space in a 3D film (usually not all at once, of course, just on parts that we the audience choose to focus on). But adding 3D in post production... it doesn't work. It doesn't make sense. All I got out of the 3D glasses was a slight glare for the entire movie. Please don't do this again.

Thanks, Kevin

I'm not sure if I made sense this post. Here's a great fake scene my friend posted on Facebook!

Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich (1999)

• Directed by Spike Jonze (Adaptation, Where The Wild Things Are)
• Produced by Steve Golin, Vincent Landay, Sandy Stern, Michael Stipe
• Written by Charlie Kaufman
• Starring John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich

Thoughts!

• Mini review: Awesome concept, so-so execution.
• The beginning was promising, and funny parts were sprinkled around the place, but in the end I didn't like any of the characters. All of them were kind of jerks.
• It reminded me of something Michel Gondry would make.
• Speaking of which, the chase sequence reminded me of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind because-- WAIT A MINUTE the writer who wrote Malkovich wrote Eternal Sunshine! Huh! That Charlie Kaufman.
• I encourage you to watch this simply for its bizarre uniqueness. Just... be sure to keep below average expectations.

If you don't know what the film is about, here's the trailer:

Midnight Run

Midnight Run (1988)

• Directed by Martin Brest (War Games, Beverly Hills Cop, Meet Joe Black, Gili)
• Produced by Martin Brest
• Starring Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin

Thoughts!

• I did not like this movie. Charles Grodin was sooo annoying, it didn't make sense why De Niro would even give him a chance to speak. I also didn't find the movie that funny. I found it to be, like, 10% comedic even though this is supposed to be a comedy.
  
• It's not all bad though! Robert De Niro was pretty great doing his tough guy "I ain't gonna take shit" attitude, and the other bounty hunter, Marvin, added a very interesting element to the film. The scene where they got the cash using the "litmus configuration" was also really cool. But overall... Charles Grodin was too annoying to be funny.
• It's really weird how I don't find movies like this, Ghostbusters, and The Blues Brothers that funny even though they're considered "comedy classics". I'd attribute it to the fact that the sense of humor back then was different, which could be true, but I think some 80's movies, like Beverly Hills Cop (also directed by Martin Brest), are hilarious! It must be different jokes or something.

Watch the trailer and decide for yourself if it's something you'd like...

The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid (2010)

• Directed by Harald Zwart (Agent Cody Banks, The Pink Panther 2)
• Produced by Jerry Weintraub, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Lassiter, Ken Stovitz
• Starring Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan

Thoughts:

• I really liked this movie! It might've been that the particular day I watched it, I was just in a good mood or something, but it was really entertaining. I enjoyed it.
• Oh, and I saw the first one but I don't remember much from it, so maybe the lack of comparison made it better. Maybe? Is that how it works?
• Best part: When Jaden was arguing with his mom and was like "I HATE IT HERE!!"
• Other best part: When Jaden was talking to Jackie Chan and he was like "Because I'm still scared..."
• Jaden was great in it. I like it when child actors don't suck.
• The romance between Jaden and Asian girl was weird.
• I like the evil coach's evil hair. Nice and foofy.
• The final blow of this movie was like the final blow in the 1984 version in that I didn't know what happened.
• Whoa if you've seen the movie before, check out this ridiculous alternate ending...