After seeing 2010’s Greenberg, I thought that Greta Gerwig would get a bigger role and blow up onto the film scene. I thought she had some real romance/comedy role potential. She’s got that that certain look and attitude that I thought could really work in the business. Clearly that has not been the case, as this film is her first lead since I saw her back in 2010, and only her 3rd real film she has participated in. Maybe this is her break out film, or maybe I’m just completely wrong. Only time will tell.
Gerwig plays Lola, who just turned 29. Her boyfriend Luke, played by Joel Kinnaman [The Killing, Safe House] (who seems to be in everything these days), has just proposed to her, and everything is great. Then, three weeks before the wedding, he breaks up with her. Now Lola has to find herself in the life of a single nearly 30 year old woman.
Tom Solomon [Jason Segal] and Violet Barnes [Emily Blunt] met one year ago, and now they are in love, living in San Francisco. They are so in love that they Tom proposes, Violet accepts, and the wedding is nearly planned and ready to go. Before the big day, Violet receives a letter informing her that she has gotten a big job opportunity at a school in Michigan. They decide to put off the wedding for a couple months so they can move and get adapted, but other external and internal forces keep emerging to halt their walk down the aisle.
If you are a fan of movies, you have to be satisfied with the new phase of comic book movies that started this past decade and the numerous good films that it has produced. Sure, there were Batman and Superman movies even in the 1970’s, but there has never been such a vast collection of different heroes all getting their own feature length films. At the start of all of this was 2000’s X-Men, a film featuring many headlining actors and many big characters. After 3 successful films, they decided to try and break off and make movies for individual characters. They have only done one so far, featuring their most successful actor/character combination: Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine. While the X-Men were starting with a group film and branching off, Marvel was making individual films for all of the members of The Avengers. It started with 2008’s Iron-Man, arguably the best super-hero movie ever made for the time being. Even then, we got a hint of Iron-Man being persuaded into joining something bigger. Now, in the past couple years, we have had a second Iron-Man movie, a Captain America film, and a Thor film. Despite two different movies and two different actors, even the Incredible Hulk was known to be in the mix. With the incredible success of all of the individual films and the clear plan to eventually combine all of the forces for one giant blockbuster, it wouldn’t be enough to say that there is a lot of pressure for this film to be successful.
This is without a doubt an unprecedented, groundbreaking film and idea. If The Avengers finds success, it gives the green-light to countless other collaborations of individual movies and characters into big summer blockbusters, and not only comic book heroes. Classic fairy tales and lore, timeless novels, historic events, all of them fair game to follow the guidelines set by the recent Marvel films. This has to be the most groundbreaking movie in a long time.
After the events of all individual Marvel hero films [Iron-Man, Iron-Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger], Loki, brother of Thor, has found his way to Earth, and has the capabilities of bringing an entire army with him. Nick Fury, leader of S.H.I.E.L.D., has no choice but to gather Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, and Thor to join his squad along with Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton [Black Widow and Hawkeye]. Only after truly coming together as a team can these heroes defeat Loki and his armies.
When watching and reviewing a horror/thriller, it is always better to know as little as you can coming in, because the main purpose of the film usually involves a surprise or a secret. This fact makes it pretty hard to review such films, but this film has received a lot of attention from critics and movie-goers alike, so I decided to give it a go.
5 college friends decide to go on vacation to their friend’s cabin in the woods on a lake in a remote location where they can be disconnected from the world. Although when they arrive, you find that that is the exact opposite of the reality. As strange horrors arise and threaten their lives, these friends must find a way to escape and survive the cabin in the woods, although it won’t be easy when everything and everyone is controlled by an outside force.
The time has come where people think that with today’s technology they can go back and take a film from anywhere before the 2000’s and re-create it with better sound and graphics and have themselves a better film. Now while there is nothing actually wrong with it, I am partial to the phrase “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. There was nothing wrong with 1990’s Total Recall. I thought it was another good installment in Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s entertaining film career. Now, it wasn’t the best film ever made, but it certainly wasn’t a bad film. I don’t know what the reasons for re-creating the film were, but again, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
Total Recall takes place on planet Earth, years in the future after a chemical war has left only two major cities habitable, and the transportation in-between them is a giant subway-like car that goes through the middle of the planet. John Quade, played by Colin Farrell, is a regular citizen and factory worker with a working wife [Kate Beckinsale], trying to make it on their own in the harsh world. Or so he thinks. When his need for something better gets the better of him, Quade takes a trip to Rekall, a facility that uses special technology to implant memories in your mind. During the process, the employees start freaking out, alarms go off, and they accuse Quade of being a spy. Cops blow the doors open in seconds, and Quade uses his unknown fighting skills to combat 10 armed men. Now running from the police and his “wife”, Quade must find out not only who he was and what he was trying to do, but who he is now.
Bob's Movie Reviews 