Quick Shots 23 Part I

Title: Hangover Part II.

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, Paul Giamatti.

Brief Synopsis: Two years have passed since the Wolf Pack's first predicament in Las Vegas at Doug's (Bartha) bachelor party. Next up is Stu's (Helms) wedding, which is taking place in Thailand. Phil (Cooper) and Alan (Galifianakis) join the rest of them for the wedding. Alan has kept in touch with Mr. Chow (Jeong) and invites him to the bachelor party - and again all hell breaks loose.

Opinion: With the high success of the first Hangover film, which pretty much came out of nowhere, there was bound to be a sequel. And, I am fine with that. But, going back to the well with a bachelor party being the reason for the 'blackout' was a bit lazy. But, I will let it slide. It was still pretty funny, and fun to see the gang retrace their steps yet again. I just really hope No. 3 isn't Alan or Phil's wedding.

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Title: This is 40.

Starring: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Jason Segel, Megan Fox, Charlyne Yi, Robert Smigel.

Brief Synopsis: The family from Knocked Up, minus Katherine Heigl, is at it again. We see a glimpse into the lives of Pete (Rudd) and Debbie (Mann) as they are struggling in their marriage and jobs during the week of their 40th birthday. And, the issues in raising their two daughters, Sadie (Maude) and Charlotte (Iris).

Opinion: Honestly, the best part of Knocked Up was the two side groups - including Pete and Debbie's family. Their relationship is so real, which makes it interesting - and, in my opinion, pretty funny as well.

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Title: Red Dawn (2012).

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Connor Cruise, Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Brief Synopsis: North Korea has invaded the United States, and a small group of teenagers in Spokane, Washington that call themselves the Wolverines (the mascot of their high school) try to retake their town. Led by former Marine Jed Eckert (Hemsworth) and his brother Matt (Peck), the group hides out in the woods and tries to find weaknesses to take out the enemy.

Opinion: I had never watched the original Red Dawn until a few years ago during my first 50 list - and I enjoyed it, but it definitely felt dated. Here, things aren't really an exact shot-by-shot remake, but a lot of the themes are the same. I am not sure why it got panned as much as it did - perhaps because of the love for the original - but this was not a bad remake, in fact I found myself enjoying it.

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Title: Bachelorette.

Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan, Isla Fisher, Rebel Wilson, Adam Scott, Hayes MacArthur, Kyle Bornheimer, James Marsden.

Brief Synopsis: Becky (Wilson) is getting married and has asked her friends, Regan (Dunst), Gena (Caplan) and Katie (Fisher) to be in her wedding. All three are suffering from issues in their life: Regan is a perfectionist who is pissed Becky is getting married before she is, Gena has hated herself ever since she lost her boyfriend Cylde (Scott) back in high school, and Katie has serious party issues. Together, they ruin Becky's bachelorette party, including ruining her dress - and spend the rest of the movie trying to make things right.

Opinion: Really had no expectations for this movie going in, but I really found myself laughing a ton. This will probably always be compared to Bridesmaids, which was the more successful film, but I think I might have liked this one better - even though I did enjoy Bridesmaids. Caplan and Fisher were outstanding, and Dunst really steps out of her comfort zone, and I feel succeeds.

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Tuesday's With Movies: 3/5/13

Wreck-It Ralph: This film sort of snuck up on a lot of people this year. I remember seeing trailers for it, but it wasn't until a few weeks before its release that it really started to pick up some steam. I was lucky enough to take my son to this movie - and here's my review. But, what I took out of this was that it was the best animated feature of the year - and one of the best film's of the year. It was absolutely robbed by Brave at the Oscars. Brave was a great film, but it was middle-of-the-pack for Pixar films. I can't wait to see it again.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2: Well, this series is finally over. They did their best to extend it as long as they could - but it is finally over. My wife enjoys this series and I have watched each and every one of them just a single time with her. We have already picked up the movie (it came out Saturday) and will just need to find the time to watch it together. I am actually interested to see how it finishes since I have put the time in to watch the other four films. Am I optimistic? No, not really.

Red Dawn: Thor and Peeta are teaming up to take out the North Koreans. In this remake of the Charlie Sheen/Patrick Swayze film of the 80s - instead of the Russians the North Koreans are invading a small town in Washington. I hadn't seen the original film until a few years ago, and I enjoyed it. I am definitely interested in checking this one out.

Playing for Keeps: A former professional athlete tries to get back into his son's life by coaching his youth soccer team. Of course, tons of strange things happen to him - and without even seeing it I am sure he gets back with his wife or mother of his child because that is always what happens in these films. But, I keep watching them and I will watch this one as well.

Lay the Favorite: Film has something to do with a gambling prodigy. I will probably check it out at some point. My question is this. Film stars (at least I believe) Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vince Vaughn, Rebecca Hall and Josh Jackson. They chose four actors to put on the poster - who would you leave out? Apparently, they chose to leave out Vaughn. Is he not the second most popular actor in that group? Very confusing.

A Dark Truth: I still find it amazing that movies are still getting made with top-level actors that I just never hear of. Apparently nobody heard of this - it made $630 in its opening weekend, and a little over $5,000 at the box office. Why even make the movie if you aren't going to publicize it?

The Bay: Horror film I don't care about of the week. Can't believe there is only one this week.

1/50: Red Dawn

At the beginning of the year I pledged that I would do my best to watch 50 films I had not seen during the coming year. I once thought this would be a difficult task, but I have already knocked out almost 10 of those movies and it isn't even the end of January. So, I decided to add another 50 to that list - but I must first finish the original 50.

So, the first film of the year that I watched from the list was Red Dawn.

Red Dawn came out in 1984 when I was just three years old, and for some reason (like many of the films on the list) I just never got around to watching it. I had the basic premise down, but I didn't know exactly how things played out.

Let me say, they wasted no time getting to the plot of the film. Not five minutes in and the small town is being attacked by Soviet/Cuban military.

A group of friends led by brothers, Jed (Patrick Swayze) and Matt (Charlie Sheen) find their way to the woods to try and wait out the attack. What they thought would be a few days begins to turn into months - fearing he worst the brothers and Robert (C. Thomas Howell) head back into town to see what is going on. The Soviet/Cuban military has taken over and tossed anyone who owned a gun into a prison, including Jed and Matt's father.

As they head back to their hideout, the group stops at a family friends house for food and shelter - only to be asked to take care of the family's granddaughters, Erica (Lea Thompson) and Toni (Jennifer Grey).

Realizing now that they are all on their own, the young group decides to become a militia - calling themselves 'Wolverines'. They end up being joined by a member of the US military whose plane is shot down, Andrew Tanner (Powers Boothe). Together, they take it upon themselves to take out as many of the Soviet/Cuban forces as possible.

I hear that this film is being remade, which is going to be very difficult. It is hard to believe that even in 1984 military forces could land in a small town undetected - but not in 2011. Plus, the group of kids had no communication to the outside world except a small radio - do you really think nowadays that none of the kids would have a cellphone on them?

I thought it was a pretty decent film. Weird to see a young Patrick Swayze and an even younger Charlie Sheen. Funny to see C. Thomas Howell's character go a little crazy and blood thirsty. And, weird to see so many of these characters in an action/war movie when we are used to them in romantic comedies.

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