Leezy's Movie Reviews

#436/#153 Crazy, Stupid, Love.

When Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) is left by his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) after she cheats on him with a coworker, Cal goes to a bar night after night where he attracts the attention of ladies man Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling). Jacob takes pity on Cal and decides to teach him how to be a player in order to help him out of his funk.

This film took me by surprise. I was expecting a fairly standard sad sack to player comedy but it has actual got a lot more layers to it than that. The middle aged man to smooth operator is an aspect of the film but it’s dealt with almost entirely in the first third of the story. The rest of the movie deals with love in all it’s different forms at various different ages; crazy, stupid and all.

It deals with Cal’s son being in love his his babysitter and the babysitter in turn being in love with Cal. It deals with Cal realising he should have fought for Emily and Emily, although the instigator of all these events, not really being the bad guy of the whole film. It even looks into why Jacob is the way he is. If you’ve seen the film Love Actually it was reminding me a great deal of that film, substituting the British wit for American comedy. 

It was nice to see a truly ensemble cast each getting some character development and for some good comedy to be in a film dealing with love and relationships which doesn’t have to be the cloying romantic-comedy style of humour. It might not be what I went into the movie looking for initially but I was pleasantly surprised to get a better movie than anticipated. 4.5/5

#388/#105 The Amazing Spider-Man

Peter Parker’s parent left him at a young age in the guardianship of his Aunt and Uncle when they had to leave under mysterious circumstances. A now teenage Peter (Andrew Garfield) discovers his father’s old brief case and is drawn to his father’s old scientific research partner Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), who is attempting to splice lizard DNA with humans in order to regrow his arm. While at the lab where Connors works, Peter is bitten by a genetically altered spider gaining superpowers and becoming the web slinging Spiderman while Connors’ research goes awry mutating him into the Lizard. Will the wall crawling wonder be able to defeat this new foe?

I was a little apprehensive going into this one as I had heard so many middling things about it and because Sony’s main concern was holding onto its licence rather than having it return to Marvel Studios. This was unfounded however as, despite their initial reasons, they have actually created an enjoyable Spiderman movie. Not without its flaws but enjoyable none the less.

Garfield just does a better job of selling Peter Parker than Toby Maguire ever did. Partially it’s his leaner body type fitting more with what Spiderman is supposed to look like but mostly it’s his whole demeanor and character’s outlook on life. It’s not the science geek of the 60’s but the more universal loner archetype that makes it feel more grounded in reality. Additionally, the fact that he’s in a real life relationship with Emma Stone, playing his on screen girlfriend Gwen Stacy, also helps, as the chemistry between the pair feels a million times better than that of Maguire and Kirsten Dunst ever did. Outside of this too Stone, and the character of Gwen, are on the whole more interesting, engaging and useful than Dunst/Mary Jane was in the Sam Raimi films. There is also a healthy dose of quips and humour synonymous with Spiderman, which was sorely lacking from the former films, added to this newest installment.

There are a lot of other good characters throughout the film but the only other stand outs, I feel, were Ifans as Conners (but not as the Lizard), and Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben. Ifans’ plight and descent are really well dealt with but after he turns into the Lizard he becomes really cliche and his motivation becomes ‘I’m doing this cause I’m evil now’. He could have been developed a lot better. Sheen as Uncle Ben however, is just one of those perfect casting choices. He’s not too harsh on Peter when he does something stupid and he’s not too cloying when dispensing the advice but at the same time he puts the boot down when needed. His character’s death is also a lot better handled and feels more like it would catalysts Peter into action.

The bad however is also rather plentiful in this. The effects for the Lizard are just God awful. He has a really interesting way of fighting, especially in the school scene, but the lack of snout and general poor quality of the CGI just makes it look terrible. It’s also choppily edited with characters and items disappearing and reappearing as it’s convenient to the plot or from the movie all together. There are also cases of really heavy handed foreshadowing which, added to some odd character interactions and overall a weird disconnect between different parts of the film, makes it evident the film was in further need of some polishing before final release.

Acknowledging all of this, I can see why a lot of people are having some issues with the movie but, personally, they are not bad enough to make me dislike the movie as a whole. I think it’s a fairly good origin story with a pretty strong cast and I look forward to any following sequels (although I hope they take a little more time to refine the finished product this time). 3.5/5

#328/#45 Easy A

(Rewatch)

Original Review

Nothing new to add here, just keeping the tally correct, but I will say that I forgot how much I love every scene with Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson in them. Their introduction scene at the beginning of the movie has got to be one of the funniest in the whole film. I quite enjoy the back and forth with Emma Stone’s character and the love interest boy as well. Usually he’s just the hunky guy in these types of film but he’s fairly well actualised in this movie. 4/5

#290/#7 The Help

In 1960’s Jackson, Mississippi life was not good for the black community, in which being subservient to the white community as the help was their only way of living. Wanting to help get their voice out there for the rest of America to hear, recent literature graduate Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone) begins writing a book on the testimonials of those maids. Primarily focusing on Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis), a maid who has raised dozens of white babies only to see them become just like their parents, and Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), a maid who’s outspokenness often gets her into trouble, and their interactions with the highly bigoted Queen Bee of Jackson Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) and the locally shunned, newly married Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain). 

This film has some absolutely amazing performances in it. The four main actors of Stone, Davis, Spence and Howard all just knock it out of the park with their performances. Stone is kind of the every woman; acting as the conduit for the viewer but still managing to have her own personality and interesting storyline. Davis plays meek really well but also brings home the emotional powerhouse moments when she needs to. Spencer is a bit of a stereotype as the sassy black woman but she does it so well, with a really interesting character arc and on screen friendship with the Jessica Chastain character, that it doesn’t feel overly stereotypical. Lastly, Howard is one of the bitchiest characters I’ve ever seen in a movie. You hate her so much in this and it’s just done so perfectly. I said her role in 50/50 was the best I’ve ever seen her but I stand corrected. 2011 was a good year for her playing a bitch. 

Add to these performances a good story with some heart, some laughs and some good drama, as well as being well shot and edited, and you’ve got an overall great picture. The only things I would say against it are that it doesn’t deal with the racism from a black male’s perspective at all and that there is a pointless sub plot with Skeeter’s boyfriend which wasn’t needed. Not big things just lost potential and unneeded padding on an already 2 hour long film. Other than that a really well crafted film 4.5/5

#152 Easy A

After a rumour begins to circulate about Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) losing her virginity over the weekend, things quickly begin to spin out of control until everyone thinks she’s the school slut as she pretends to have slept with all the unpopular boys to help them. This angers the Christian section of the school and what started out as a joke becomes more serious.

This is a funny comedy about all the stupid labels put on people in high school around sexuality. There are a lot of good jokes in this film and the writing is probably the strongest part of the movie.

As I said in my mean girls review, Stone has sort of stepped in to fill the Lindsay Lohan roles however I also think she’s a better actress and more believable in her parts. Her reactions and insight are somewhat similar to Ellen Page’s in Juno as well. Thomas Haden Church, Lisa Kudrow, Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci should all also be singled out for praise in their roles. They’re all funny and add something to the story.

While I liked the film, it is rather heavy handed in it’s message and really vilifies the Christians present. I’m not saying there aren’t nut job Christians out there but they’re the only type shown in this film. There’s no ‘turn the other cheek’ Christians it all ‘shun the harlot’ ones which I doubt there would be so many of in a standard public school. Again this might be a cultural thing. Barely anyone gives a fuck what your religious views are in Scottish public schools (at least mine anyway). It’s more of a ‘feel free to worship (or not worship) anything you like, just keep it to yourself’ mentality, which I quite like.

I also learnt twat is a much bigger insult in the US than it is in the UK, and they say it weirdly as well. Like twot with an elongated w. If you’re called a twat it just means you’re an idiot here.

A good film overall, which let itself down a little in the end, but still fairly solid. 4/5

#151 Mean Girls

(Rewatch)

Cady (Lindsey Lohan) is a home schooled student raised in Africa entering an American high school for the first time. Initially she has some problems but is quickly adopted by both the ‘art geeks’ and ”the plastics’ (girls that look like barbie dolls) cliques. After a falling out with the queen bee of the plastics, Regina (Rachel McAdams), Cady and the geeks devise a plan to sabotage all of her efforts. This quickly begins to work but Cady might actually be becoming a plastic for real as a side effect.

I could have ended the month strong with a gory black comedy and retained some man points but noooooo…

I rewatched this film for 3 reasons:1, my sister keeps quoting it and I’d like to be able to understand the punchlines when she does. 2, Tumblr as a whole seems to love this film, and i’d like to understand the memes. 3, I recently discovered 30 Rock, now love it and as this film is written by and staring Tina Fey, I wanted to give it a rewatch to see if I’d missed something the first time. I think that’s enough justification to protect my male ego for now. 

I enjoyed this film about as much as I did the last time. It’s got a good premise, some good actors and some good comedy. That said I’m not its target audience, so I don’t really get the worship it has obtained from its female viewers.

McAdams is solid as the bitchy leader of the group, Lohan hadn’t gone all…Lohan on us yet so she was still a fairly good young actress. I sort of see Emma Stone as the new Lohan. They fill the same sort of niche and reach the same kind of audience. All the supporting players were fine but I particularly like the artsy chick Janis (Lizzy Caplan) and the gay guy Damien (Daniel Franzese). They got a lot of laughs from me.

Story-wise, I’d say most of it fits but I’m not quite sure why they needed the boyfriend character other than this being a teen movie. He doesn’t really add that much.

I’ll now get the jokes, so this viewing has served it’s purpose, but knowing it was Fey’s work hasn’t really elevated it any higher than my initial viewing. 3/5