movie memorandum

The Muppets » I always enjoyed the Muppets, they were fun and had something for everyone, so that everyone could equally enjoy them. So it was with some enjoyment that I received the news that a new Muppets movie would be released. I was even thrilled to know that it was being well received by the critic, and by the audiences in general, so I’ve decided to watch this as soon as it hit the movie theatres in Portugal… and what can I say? It was a very enjoyable movie! Fun, not pretentious at all, as in, not trying to be something more than it is, simple and sometimes silly, but overall, good! However, not as good as everyone was claiming it to be and I cannot understand why there has to be human characters with so much highlight in this movie… I mean, it’s about the Muppets right?! Anyway, fun! That’s what this movie is all about and I liked it that way.

Perfect Sense » I don’t even know what to say about this movie… it was just perfect in every way! From Ewan McGregor to Eva Green and even the director, David Mackenzie, they were all perfect, and the story has such an impact that I was crying even after the movie has ended. This is how you make a movie about an epidemic disease (looking at you Contagion)! I’m still trying to recover from the perfection this movie is…

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 » I was always one of those that never really hated The Twilight Saga, however I was never the one defending it like it was the best thing ever done! I really like the first movie, the second I watched but just because the soundtrack made me become anxious about it, and the third one just because… I can’t find a reason, but it was torelable! So, I didn’t want to stop now, I need to know how everything will end but I guess I should have stopped because now I will be one of those that really hates the movie. I mean, how come they even made this?! I know, the “books” (just because they have words doesn’t mean they’re books!) were already finished and they only made the movie, but… why?! So, they’re going to marry and such, then they go to Brazil on their honeymoon, they have sex and in a matter of days Bella becomes the wildest wet dream of modeling agencies, just so they could give reason to that coach from Mean Girls and then there are wolves and bones crushing and too much drama for just one movie… Not even the soundtrack it’s that great! Pure gargabe… and now I have to see the second part!

The Descendants » Since the beginning… or since the trailer was released, that I was interested in watching this, not only because (as I’ve said before) I was curious to see Clooney return to this kind of movies, but overall it looked like a good movie… still, I was kind of surprised when I’ve seen the nominations for the Golden Globes and even more surprised when the movie actually won some of them (Best Performance by George Clooney and Best Movie in Drama)! So, now I really needed to watch the movie… And what a big surprised it was! A bad one! Ok, the movie it’s not bad, but since when are everyone giving awards to something so trivial? We all have seen the mother-is-dying-or-dead-and-the-father-need-to-step-up-with-his-children movie! Sure, there’s no need to be something original, the trick it’s in the details and in a good directing and writing and acting but… where were they?! The directing was trivial too and the argument was pretty dull in almost every single moment and for the acting I don’t think Clooney was the best! On the other hand, Shailene Woodley was a really good surprise. Every scene with her, where she could deliver something, she did! And her chemistry with Clooney, now that was pretty cool and enjoyable. They could, and should, explore more of that… However, overall it’s a movie easy to watch, no bumps or something like that, just that kind of movie it’s on when you turn on the TV and you leave it in the background so you can have something to look when you get bored of anything you’re doing or something like that. It’s not necessary to say that I was even more surprised to see this movie nominated for The Oscars, but if that was my only surprise when I saw those nominations, I would be happy with this year’s ceremony (and I’m not)!

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo » After a month of being released in the United States, the movie finally arrived in here and it was everything I was hoping for… and a little more! I can only compare this to the original movie, since I have not read the book, but I don’t even know if they should be compared… Sure, they’re based on the same book, but they’re different. The first one it’s more focused on the mistery while the Fincher version has that and gives us a deeper look at the characters, especially Lisbeth and Mikael, and that gave more to Rooney Mara stay away from what Noomi Rapace had already done. It’s not necessary to say that Fincher did a greater job than the other director (Niels Arden Oplev), but well… yeah. he did! And the soundtrack, stunning! To make things simple, this is one good example of how a great team with better resources can give a better look to the same origins, in this case, a book (this is not a rule, but sometimes, having more to work with can really make a big difference).

What’s Your Number » The other day I was wondering what would I watch and this movie came up… And it turns out it was quite nicer than I was expecting! Sure, how bad would it be to see Chris Evans’ butt?! But (aha!) watching the rest of the movie was really fun! I was pleasantly surprised to see Anna Faris moving away from that Scary Movie character that was boring me to Hell and she went really well with Chris Evans. The story it’s simple and there’s no big surprises, just some funny moments and such, but overall it was really enjoyable.

Real Steel » Well, this was really enjoyable! More than I was expecting. However, I still have a little rant to do about it… to be more precisely, about these type of movies, where you have a wonderful part and it’s all about the relationship between all the characters, and then you have all the action to entertrain the brainless audience who needs to see things moving fast in the screen. And there’s nothing wrong with that, sometimes I like to turn off my brain and just have fun with a movie (do not be mistaken, I’ve said “with the movie” and not “at the movie”, so it still needs to be good at making me having fun!). So, in this movie, we have all the characters, that are pretty good, but they never seem to really develop to something palpable, they’re just there. Only by the end, it really starts to give them something more so we can finally care about them. I would love to watch this movie if it have been more focused on the people and less on the action. Even so, I enjoyed the movie, but I know this could have been so much better than it was!

Tanner Hall » I’m kinda disappointed with this movie… Not that I was expecting something amazing, but it was so mediocre (or even worse)! And what really bothered me was the movie turning out to be incredibly good in the last scenes. Unfortunately, more than half of the movie was all over the place. Talent wasted! But there was one thing that left me stunned… the soundtrack! It was fantastic, but just that… (I wonder why the movie only got released now, since it was made back in 2009).

Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol » I’m always up for a new Mission Impossible, so I don’t need to say how excited I was to see a new movie was coming out, and I was even more excited after I knew Brad Bird was going to direct it, even if it was his first live action movie as a director (or as anything else!). I say this because one of his previous movies was The Incredibles (which I loved it) and, in a way, it was about spies and special agents and such… Yeah, sure, it was super heroes, but all the style of the movie remembered us from those spy tv shows or movies from the sixties. Anyway, back on topic… Brad Bird has in here a great debut! It has top notch action, that sequence on the Burj Khalifa tower was intense, the story always kept me interested, the soundtrack by Michael Giacchino knew how to keep up with the sequences in the screen, and the cast was perfect. Loved the new addictions, especially Jeremy Renner, which was considered to do a new Mission Impossible without Cruise, and after what they’ve done here, that would be totally doable and I would totally watch that but please, do at least one more with this cast! I really hope they continue for a fifth movie and if it turns out to be as good as this one, they can even do a sixth one!

P.S.: Renner and suits?! Really!? Is everyone trying to kill me in the theatre?! I mean, the whole cast and suits… but Renner really knows how to wear a suit!

The Beaver » This was one of those movies I wanted to watch but, with time, I lost interest in it, but today was the day and I’ve decided to watch it. Good or not, I will get to that in a minute, I have to say that, in a way, it was the movie I was expecting, nothing more, nothing less. I say “in a way” because if we forgot what happened to Mel Gibson in the last years we would probably not be surprised to see that he still can deliver some great acting! And we cannot forget that Jodie Foster has been away for a while too, and not only she was great as an actress but as a director too. Anyway, forgetting all that (the absence of these two actors/directors from the big screen), we are in front of a pretty good movie, with some minor surprises, that only fails in a little detail… that affects the entire movie. No, the talking beaver it’s not a problem at all, in fact, it’s one of the best aspects of the movie, the “little detail” I’m talking about it’s the perspective they’ve decided to show the story. Mel Gibson character it’s interesting enough, but I couldn’t shake off the feeling that the life and struggles of Anton Yelchin’s character (his son) were way more interesting! Not only because I prefer Yelchin over Gibson, but in this case, I was more interested to see how he lived through this fase and how he saw everything instead of I actually watch it through the main characters. Why do “we” always need to follow the “main” problem and not the other characters that need to deal, in their own way, with a bigger problem that’s not necessarily their to deal? That’s what I wanted to see in ‘The Beaver’, or at least, that’s what I wanted to see after I’ve watched the movie.