Quick Shots 21 Part II

Title: Green Lantern.

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins, Mark Strong, Angela Bassett, Temuera Morrison, Geoffrey Rush, Michael Clarke Duncan.

Brief Synopsis: Hal Jordan (Reynolds) is a test pilot who is still harboring some bad memories from the death of his father. Meanwhile, in the galaxy the Parallax is growing stronger with each body it destroys by stealing their fear. Abin Sur (Morrison) was one of the top members of the Green Lantern Corps, but get injured by Parallax and crash lands on Earth. The ring sets out to find a new member to take Sur's place - and it selects Jordan.

Opinion: I never really got into comic books as a kid. I was more of a baseball card guy. But, with movies and video games - and through my son - I have really started to develop a love for these comic book heroes. And Green Lantern is certainly one of them. But, this movie was panned - and I am not sure how the true comic fan feels about it - but I enjoyed it for what it was, and thought it was a decent start to a series. I was definitely looking forward to a sequel - and I am holding out hope that one still may come.

Grade:

Title: Haywire.

Starring: Gina Carano, Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas, Antonia Banderas, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Bill Paxton.

Brief Synopsis: Mallory Kane (Carano) works for a company that handles 'operations'. She is great at what she does and also she just so happens to be leaving the company. Kenneth (McGregor), who is her boss, sends her and Aaron (Tatum) to Barcelona to rescue a hostage - and immediately following sends her to Dublin to pose as the wife of Paul (Fassbender). It's here that things start to go a bit crazy and Mallory finds herself on the run.

Opinion: Not a bad movie - definitely hard to follow at times though. I think in the end I got it all figured out, though. Carano is a female MMA fighter, but I thought for someone that really hadn't done a ton of acting before she was amazing - especially to carry a film pretty much on her own.

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Title: The Campaign.

Starring: Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott, John Lithgow, Dan Aykroyd, Brian Cox, Sarah Baker.

Brief Synopsis: Cam Brady (Ferrell) is up for re-election for Congress in North Carolina, and is running for the fifth time unopposed. However, brothers Glenn (Lithgow) and Wade (Aykroyd) try to get in Brady's pocket unsuccessfully, so they bring in Marty Huggins (Galifianakis) to be their patsy. And Huggins and Brady battle for North Carolina's approval to win the election.

Opinion: I knew this movie was not going to be good. When it was first announced and I saw the trailer I wasn't even planning on seeing it, but something made me give it a try. And, wow was it bad. Not even that many things that made me laugh. Ferrell channeled his Bush impression, and Galifianakis, well I am not sure what the heck he was channeling. If anything, I did like the semi-nod to Trading Places and having Aykroyd play one of the brothers. But, that is pretty much it.

Grade:

Title: Source Code.

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright, Michael Arden.

Brief Synopsis: Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) is a helicopter pilot in the Army that finds himself awaking in the body of somebody else on a train. Across from him is Christina (Monaghan), who calls him Sean. As he tries to gain his bearings, all of a sudden the train explodes and he wakes up inside some sort of machine with only Colleen Goodwin (Farmiga) to talk to through a computer screen. Turns out, he needs to find out who blew up the train and he only has eight minutes of the same event (as many times as possible) to figure it out.

Opinion: Pretty interesting concept. Not truly a time travel movie at heart - Gyllenhaal is actual sent back into the memory of Sean and experiences all he can through those eight minutes on the train. Not a ton of well-known actors in this, but it was done very well with just a few main characters. Definitely kept me interested to see if he could find the bomber and how, which makes it a decent enough film for me.

Grade:

Title: Wanderlust.

Starring: Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux, Alan Alda, Malin Akerman, Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio, Kathryn Hahn, Lauren Ambrose, Jordan Peele.

Brief Synopsis: George (Rudd) is married to Linda (Aniston) and they have just purchased a small apartment in NYC. George hates his job, but works hard to support his wife, who is trying to sell a penguin documentary. But, George's company goes under and Linda is unable to sell her documentary to HBO - so they sell their apartment and head to Atlanta where George's brother, Rick (Marino), has offered to put them up and give George a job. On the way, though, they stumble across a commune and have the best night of their lives.

Opinion: I can honestly say I was not expecting much out of this one. But, I came away liking it a lot more than I thought I would. It was funny, yet odd - and although I knew a lot was happening, something did happen that surprised me. I enjoyed most of the characters on the commune, each with their own little quirk. Theroux may have been my list favorite character - but I am not too familiar with his work to begin with. All-in-all a nice little watch - not amazing, but not horrible either.

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