What to Watch Over the Holidays

Dear movie fans,

I want to start off by saying, “all good things have to come to the end.” With an opening like that you might be thinking I have to quite or even give up on this blog. Well, that’s not the case at all. Let’s just say my access to free movie watching has be terminated, yes my friends I have lost my job at my local movie theater. Hopefully this minor setback won’t suppress my passion for movies and filmmaking. I will try my best to keep my fellow film fans up to date on movie related news. As far as my movie reviews go, again I will try my best to keep them up to date. I won’t be able to literally watch every movie now, unless I pay an arm and leg for them. On the positive side I can now get some real use out of my “AMC Stubs” card, and really rack up rewards. I’m not paid to promote “AMC Stubs” card anymore but I personally think it’s a good rewards card if you frequently watch movies at an AMC theater.

With that being said what movie shall I spend my money on over the holidays? There is so many coming out that pique my interest, which I’m looking forward to. This weekend, December 16, 2011, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, both look promising. The Wednesday before Christmas on the 21st of December, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Adventures of Tintin come out. Both of these films will most likely be seen again around award season, as in the Oscars. I should have my Oscar predictions posted shortly after the nominations are announced. We Bought a Zoo comes out the Friday before Christmas on the 23th; personally it looks alright. Moving on to Christmas Day, a few movies come out and to tell you the truth none of them are really that “Christmassy.” The ones I would watch would be War Horse because of its potential Oscar buzz and The Darkest Hour, for its Sci-Fi themes. Feel free to tell me in the comment bellow what movies you might see over the holidays.

Review: The Muppets

IMDb

Title: The Muppets

Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures

Director: James Bobin

Writer(s): Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller,

Staring: Amy Adams, Jason Segel, Chris Cooper, and The Muppets

MPAA Rating: Rated Rated PG for some mild rude humor.

Running Time: 103 min

Synopsis: With the help of three fans, The Muppets must reunite to save their old theater from a greedy oil tycoon.

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 97% (Fresh), Top Critics: 92% (Fresh), Audience: 91% (Like It)

Metacritic: Critics: 76 out of 100, Users: 8.6 out of 10

MRQE Metric: 80 out of 100

Yahoo Movies: Critics: NA Users: B+

My Review

Source Material: The charters were based on Jim Henson creations, but the story was original.  

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: The action comes to you in the from of slapstick, witch is hilarious.  

• Comedy Elements: Good old comedy, some is corny and others that are just down right funny.    

• Dramatic Elements: There is some real good dramatic parts, even thought a lot of them played out via musical style, but it was still good.    

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: Old school VFX. Good old puppets shine bright in this film, wait a minute, I mean Muppets.   

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 9: Add a lovable and musical friendly actress (Amy Adams) to a comic genus (Jason Segel) to an classic "puppet" act and you get gold. I know some people thought the movie 'breaking the fourth plane" was used to much. Personally, The Muppet knowing they are in a movie or that they are "puppets" is part of who they are, that's what makes it funny. 

• Art Direction: 8.5: I can only imagine the ingenuity the filmmaker have to come up with to make a good amount of "puppets" to come to life and be believable characters.  

• Cinematography: 8.5: I bet that it a challenge to shoot everything basically waste up especially on the Muppets, well because the puppeteers cant be in the shoot. It always amazes me to see an film shot with majority puppets if all.     

• Direction: 9: The film flowed nicely. You could see the amount of passion in the filmmaking. A great film coming from a guy behind "Flight of the Conchords"    

• Editing: 8.5: Very good job like I said before the film was very well paced.     

• Screenplay: 9: This film has a really good story. I wish every film was mad with the same passion as Jason Segel, there would be many more great film.      

• Sound and Music: 10: I want to buy this soundtrack so bad. not only did it have great classic song The Muppets are known for but good original ones too. 

• VFX: 8: Who cares about computer, when you have real life taking frog, pig, bear, and gonzo. Its the Muppet get excited for some fine puppetry.     

Overall: 9: I can say I enjoy this movie tremendously, and hope you do to. I think kids will like this film even though its not animated, maybe not the real young ones. Honestly, the adults may enjoy it more because we grew up on The Muppets. I highly recommend this film to everyone.    

Review: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

IMDb

Title: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

Distributor: Summit Entertainment

Director: Bill Condon

Writer(s): Melissa Rosenberg (screenplay), Stephenie Meyer (novel)

Staring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for disturbing images, violence, sexuality/partial nudity and some thematic elements

Running Time: 117 min

Synopsis: The Quileute's close in on expecting parents Edward and Bella, whose unborn child poses a threat to the Wolf Pack and the towns people of Forks..

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 26% (Rotten), Top Critics: 27% (Rotten), Audience: 69% (Like It)

Metacritic: Critics: 45 out of 100, Users: 4.5 out of 10

MRQE Metric: 46out of 100

Yahoo Movies: Critics: NA Users: NA

My Review

Source Material: Based on the book written by Stephenie Meyer with the same name.  

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: The last ten to fifteen minutes get somewhat intense but the rest of the film is very melodramatic.  

• Comedy Elements: Some funny one liners from side charters.    

• Dramatic Elements: This movie has layer and layer of melodramatic moments.   

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: There is going to some sci-fi elements when dealing with "vampires" and "werewolf" but nothing to fancy that excites those parts of the brain   

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 4: Honestly the side character are better actor then main three. Out of the main three I see Robert Pattinson getting prestige awards some day cause I have seen him in better roles. Out of the entire cast the one the deserves an award, not necessarily for her character in Twilight, is Anna Kendrick cause she is fantastic in just about everything.   

• Art Direction: 3: The only part I enjoy art wise about this film is it transformation from bright happy wedding to gloomy horror, personally that was the only redeeming factor to this film. 

• Cinematography: 3.5: I didn't really see much that excited me visually.  

• Direction: 1: The pacing of this film was slow. I felt like the filmmakers spent at least thirty to forty-five minutes on the wedding/ honey-moon scenes.   

• Editing: 2: I don't think the filmmaker know what the phrase "cut away the fat." Like I said before I think they should have spent less time on the wedding/ honey moon stuff. I understand that's what the women want but come one, move along.     

• Screenplay: 3: Can I say loop hole. I have discussed a few difference option that could have worked better than was in the film     

• Sound and Music: 5: The music was sadly one of the best parts of the film, for me.

• VFX: 1: One word terrible. You know this to be a fact when even the fans say, "I didn't like the special effects."   

Overall: 3: I'm way late on this review, with that being said, fans of all ages have already seen like a million times. Just look at the box office numbers. This review was more or less to get my opinion out there. Watch with cation though cause this film has caused people to pass out and even go into seizures.