Movie

Blended (2014)

Blended

Blended (2014)

Director:

Frank Coraci

Starring:

Adam Sandler

Drew Barrymore

Wendi McLendon-Covey

Plot:

After a bad blind date, a man and woman find themselves stuck together at a resort for families, where their attraction grows as their respective kids benefit from the burgeoning relationship.

Review:

I laughed, I cried, it moved me.

I’m not a big Adam Sandler fan, but I like his romantic movies. This movie, in my opinion, is right up there with 50 First Dates. Yes it was a bit heavy handed in places, but I don’t care.

There was nothing truly original here and there was an over abundance of clichés, but sometimes that’s what you need. It’s nice to watch a movie that you can rely on to deliver certain tropes and not try and reinvent the wheel.

4/5

 

I Know That Voice (2013)

I Know That Voice

I Know That Voice (2013)

Director:

Lawrence Shapiro

Starring:

John DiMaggio

Kevin Conroy

Jim Cummings

Synopsis:

Several voice actors discuss their art and their careers.

Review:

Voice acting is so interesting, so when I saw this movie on Netflix I could not pass on watching it. Since I’m actually interested in the subject a lot of what they said I already knew, but it was fascinating just to hear the actors talk about their craft.

I did feel like there was some barely contained bitterness about their perception in the rest of Hollywood by some of the actors. For the most part, though, they all seemed really nice and like a family.

I liked that they included a part about voice acting in video games. That’s something I hear more and more about lately. Actors in the studio recording for the new Firefly game or Keifer Sutherland taking over the voice of Snake in the Metal Gear Solid game.

If I decided to become an actor I would totally want to do voice.

4/5

Mercenaries (2014)

Mercenaries

Mercenaries (2014)

Director:

Christopher Ray

Starring:

Zoë Bell

Kristanna Loken

Vivica A. Fox

Plot:

A diplomatic official is captured and imprisoned while touring a war zone, so a team of elite female commandos is assembled to infiltrate a women’s prison for a daring rescue.

Review:

I was kind of excited when I saw the trailer for this movie. Not because I thought it was going to be an amazing movie, but because, for once, it was a ton of women in an action movie. I wanted to see a bunch of women kicking ass and I kind of got that. There were certainly scenes with women beating up on people, but there were also lots of shots focusing on boobs and an overuse of the word bitch.

I don’t have a problem with the word, I just wish they’d diversified, it was redundant. There were a couple things like that, female stereotypes, just thrown into the dialog, all very cliché.

I’d love to have a female driven action movie that wasn’t crap production and had a better script.

2/5

 

Side note: Really love Zoë Bell

Transcendence (2014)

Transcendence

Transcendence (2014)

Director:

Wally Pfister

Starring:

Johnny Depp

Rebecca Hall

Paul Bettany

Morgan Freeman

Plot:

A scientist’s drive for artificial intelligence, takes on dangerous implications when his consciousness is uploaded into one such program.

Review:

The movie doesn’t make me think very highly of extreme activists. If they’d never tried to kill all the techies they never would have uploaded his consciences to computers. They created their enemy and he wound up not even being all that bad, just misunderstood.

The movie had a very interesting subject but it made a very boring movie. Maybe as a book it wouldn’t have been quiet as dull. I don’t need guns and explosions to make a movie interesting but I need more than long shots of a woman walking down a sterile hallway.

Evelyn, Rebecca Hall, started as a strong female character and then she just lost it. She fought to save her husband and then as soon as he was uploaded she just became this weak, passive creature. It wasn’t until the end that she regained some of her strength.

I wasn’t expecting much with this movie and it didn’t give me much. Just another post apocalyptic scenario caused by evil technology or love, whichever you feel like blaming.

2.75/5

Think Like a Man Too (2014)

think like a man too

Think Like a Man Too (2014)

Director:

Tim Story

Starring:

Kevin Hart

Gabrielle Union

Wendi McLendon-Covey

Michael Ealy

Plot:

All the couples are back for a wedding in Las Vegas, but plans for a romantic weekend go awry when their various misadventures get them into some compromising situations that threaten to derail the big event.

Review:

Wow this movie is a whole bunch of romantic comedies rolled up into one. It’s like they couldn’t decide which one to do so they just did them all.

Are you looking for a commitmentphobe who learns to commit?

Or maybe you would like to see a wedding ruined because of Bachelor night hijinks?

How about a couple having issues trying to have kids but finally succeeding?

What about a couple that’s gotten boring and finally learns how to liven things up?

 

That isn’t even all the situations, I just got tired of writing them down.

It was amusing, sometimes, but not something I would ever watch again or even recommend. Maybe it would mean more to me if I’d seen the first movie, but I doubt it.

2/5