January - Short Reviews

2.1. Monster-in-Law (2005) - 2 / 10

The rented DVD was so scratched like after 1h 16min the movie just stopped working completely, and that was a blessing.

7.1. (500) Days of Summer (2009) - 5 / 10

I like the way this movie depicts guys who get obsessed with a girl and then like the image they had in their head instead of the girl. I like the way it's clear what happens was not Summer's fault - she was very clear about her intentions from the beginning. I like how we shouldn't feel bad for Tom because he is clearly an asshole. But I dislike the way this movie isn't as clear as it should be: people might see this movie and blame Summer for everything and not realise what it's like for women to meet a guy like Tom.

This movie is good, but also seriously frustrating because of Tom. I love the music, it's amazing and has affected my own taste a lot.

7.1. Kick-Ass 2 (2013) - 5 / 10

I remember when this movie came out, I loved it so much. I like these movies because there's no way things would go well for anyone who decided to just become a superhero. These movies are violent, brutal and emotionally so rough.

But now that I've seen this movie too many times, I notice how tacky the screenwriting is. Especially during those scenes where Mindy clashes with the popular high school girls. Girls can be mean, but you wouldn't know that listening to these girls talk.

Still fight scenes are fun, character designs are amazing, and there's something in Kick-Ass movies that just couldn't be done in typical DC or Marvel movies, some kind of irony that could never work in Avengers. Of course Deadpool comes close, but Deadpool's not a typical Marvel movie, is it?

7.1. Hot Fuzz (2007) - 9 / 10

I love this movie so much, and it's fun to make friends watch this and see their confusion!

Why Him? (2016)

Directed by: John Hamburg

Screenplay by: John Hamburg & Ian Helfer

Story by: Johnah Hill, John Hamburg & Ian Helfer

A holiday gathering is going badly for Ned Fleming, who is not at all fond of his daughter's new boyfriend. Things get worse when the boyfriend tells Ned about his plans of proposing to his daughter.

---

I thought I was gonna wait until tomorrow to write this because of the Lego Batman Movie live chat, but it only lasted half an hour and I only saw 10 minutes of it.

I've been looking for a movie to see at the cinema since the holidays, because I got free tickets for my present and I've been worried I won't get to use them all before they expire, so eventually I just chose one, asked a friend to go with me, and that was it. I kept describing this movie as a "stupid comedy", and too many people asked why was I going to see it at all. Hey, stupid comedies can still be funny. It's just that certain type of comedy, because the genre is so large.

The most obvious thing you notice is that the whole story is such a cliche. It has been done million times before and the roles have been reversed and gender swapped and what not. It's a really popular trope, but it's getting really, really boring. Sure, they try to wake it up with different actors, different archetypes and all that.

Most of the humour of this movie is dirty. It's usually sex or bodily fluid related, and that's also something that gets boring easily, but also when you are in a group of people, it's hilarious, unless some of you are really boring.

My friend and I both thought that Laird (the boyfriend, played by the annoying James Franco) seems relatively normal for a man of his generation / possibly my generation, though he is older. I say relatively, because when someone is a millionaire, they can only be relatively normal. Ned (played by Bryan Cranston) acted like Laird was completely weird when he seemed really... okay. Sure, he had no filter and was a bit eccentric, but he wasn't weirder than some of the people I know, apart from what he does for a living of course.

The biggest clash between Ned and Laird was definitely caused because of the differences between the generations, and how the times are changing. Ned's career in printing was being overrun by internet and most of Laird's work was from there. So even if they didn't have the rocky start of Laird's bare ass on the screen during Ned's birthday party, they still would've clashed at some point. Ned was determined to hate Laird from the start, so he did.

This movie is fun and it has the holiday spirit and all that. But my advice is don't watch it alone. Movies like this work when you're in a group of people, because then it seems funnier. My relatively high score comes from the feeling cinema gives to it. If I'd watch it in few weeks alone at home I'd probably give it a lower score, but why would you watch this movie alone?

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

7 / 10

You probably noticed how I mentioned The Lego Batman Movie in the first paragraph. That's probably the movie I'm most excited about. 

My current problem is the local theatre is only showing it in Finnish or Swedish. What the fuck? The cast is like half the reason I want to see it. So I'm seriously considering travelling to another town to see it.

Horrible Bosses (2011)

Directed by: Seth Gordon

Screenplay by: Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein

Story by: Micael Markowitz

Three friends come up with the idea to kill their bosses to make their work lives more bearable.

---

I didn't exactly know the plot when I started watching, I just knew the name and didn't make big assumptions based on it. The biggest reason for me to watch this movie is the incredibly talented cast. I'm especially fond of Charlie Day, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Darrel, Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx. The casting is great, everyone's character is exactly right for them, and especially when it comes to comedians and their style of acting in comedic roles.

The plot is funny and it's actually so weird how thrilling this movie ended up being. But as to whether or not it's unpredictable... it's a comedy, so typically the writers have chosen always to go into the funniest way possible. Well, as funny as they can imagine. Sometimes it's predictable, sometimes it's not. What you can predict that in comedies everyone is very very dumb even when they are accidentally brilliant. Everything is going wrong until the last possible moment perhaps. 

So vis-à-vis the plot and the humour, Horrible Bosses is just pretty average typical dark comedy, apart from having somewhat atypical plot. And by somewhat atypical I mean it has definitely been done before, but it's not repeating some movie that already exists, and the same kind of thing isn't being done every year - apart from sequels. 

What bothered me the most was the annoying way the characters reacted  to their friend (played by Charlie Day) being sexually assaulted by his female boss. "Your situation isn't so bad", "I can't really take you seriously right now", like are you fucking kidding me? Apparently it's rare to see men writing comedy and not being really awfully sexist, like can people stop with the idea that men would enjoy being sexually assaulted / raped? 

So all in all, pretty average for its genre and humour. ... Wow that seems really dark after the last paragraph but that's how it is, I guess. Anyway yeah, obviously there are so many frustrating "jokes" that make you think this movie was made decades ago instead of six years ago, but that's Hollywood for ya. Average dark comedy, not necessarily worth seeing.

☆☆☆☆

4 / 10

A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV show, 2017-)

I know I usually don't talk about TV shows here, but maybe it's time I start, and it's obviously a good choice to start with a show that came out last Friday and I binge watched in three days with my sister. 

I haven't finished the books. I started reading them but for some reason stopped after the fifth one. Still, didn't matter since the first season covered the first four books. I have time to catch up! Except I think I once read through all the summaries on Wikipedia or something.

This show is everything the original movie should've been. The original movie is not bad, but the thing is, it doesn't have exactly the charm the books had. Reading the books after seeing the movie was like sun shining through the clouds after a while, because the writing in the books is so charming and clever and while it's all "this is a tragic tale" it's also not at all serious. The movie was like a weird shadow of that. Still great, still so very very unique, but something was definitely missing.

The cast of the movie was brilliant, but somehow this show managed to top that. While Jim Carrey was amazing as Count Olaf, Neil Patrick Harris is the real deal. He can be that typical over the top, funny villain that's typical for children's books and shows, but he can also be weirdly scary. Carrey didn't have that. One of my favourite members of the cast is Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket. He has this amazing voice, and his whole persona feels more Lemony Snicket than Jude Law in the movie. Everyone is so talented and so incredibly beautiful.

If there's something that makes this even greater than the cast and the writing, it's the cinematography and the music. Visually this show is astonishing, it's dark like it's supposed to be, but it's detailed and wonderfully surreal? Not realistic? I'm not sure whats' the right word to use, but the atmosphere is like for the dark fairy tale - which is exactly what this show is. The music is enchanting, and the theme sung by Neil Patrick Harris just gets stuck in your head. And the song at the very end of the season? Hauntingly beautiful.

Only thing I can complain about is how soon the season was over, but that's not really a complaint. Shorter seasons are better. Quality over quantity, when it comes to TV shows.

Also ever since I saw the movie I've been digging the "don't watch / read this" vibe the series has going on. And in the TV show the theme song is basically "don't watch this show". But don't listen to Lemony Snicket, watch the show. It's worth it.

Dark Places (2015)

Directed and written by: Gilles Paquet-Brenner

Based on a novel by: Gillian Flynn

When Libby Day was eight years old, her family was murdered, and she testified against her own brother. Almost thirty years later and desperate for money, Libby reluctantly revisits the old crime to see if his brother truly was behind the murders.

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I've loved Gone Girl since I saw it for the first time, and I've read it once and listened to it once. I finished the audiobook last night and the whole story is simply haunting. It's haunting when read, seen or heard. Gillian Flynn is such an amazing author, so when I was looking through movies to rent, Dark Places caught my eye. Audible has been recommending it to me, but since it would be expensive to get it without ever reading it, I thought I'd rent it - and if I liked it, maybe I would get it on Audible one day.

Of course I'd hate to compare Dark Places to Gone Girl all through this review, but Gone Girl had a big effect on me. So obviously the first thing I notice is the difference between Amy and Libby. Amy is clever and ambitious, while Libby doesn't seem to care about shit. They both had money though, money they didn't exactly earn themselves. Amy got her money from her parents, and Libby got her money from generous donors. Both lose their money, but the biggest difference seems to be that Amy is active while Libby is passive turning active. Still, Libby is an interesting character. She has gone through a lot and has clearly put up some walls, and the movie keeps us at a certain distance from her. I feel like we could get to know her a lot better in the novel, which is why I'm really interested in reading that. 

To be honest the distance from the main character of Dark Places and Gone Girl shows the key difference between the film adaptations. Gone Girl's screenplay was written by Gillian Flynn herself, and in the movie we get to know Amy. We don't get to know as much as in the novel, but we know enough, while with Libby the audience doesn't know enough. Maybe the screenwriter didn't know "his" character as well as he would need to. But of course this is kind of in theory, since I haven't read the novel, but judging by Flynn's style in Gone Girl, I doubt she'd leave the main character at a weird distance. 

What's great about the story is how you can guess what happened. You know who could've been behind it, and you can form your own theories. I formed mine very early, but knowing Flynn I felt like it's not going to be what I guessed. Well, that was disappointing, because I guessed it right. Again, I feel like in the novel it might have been a bit harder to find it out before it was said, but in a movie those few clues can't be drown in as many details as would be necessary. That's what let me kind of disappointed, that and the fact that the feeling after you see or read Gone Girl is... haunting. That's what haunting about that story. But with Dark Places, the end just is. The feeling is completely different. Of course I'm not expecting every story of Flynn's feeling the same, but Dark Places doesn't feel as dark as Gone Girl.

The atmosphere - cinematography and music - of Dark Place are very typical for a thriller, and when looking at those Dark Places just drowns into all the other thrillers.

But while Dark Places isn't as good as I hoped it to be, it's still a decent thrilling. It's what it needs to be - it's an intriguing mystery. It just isn't a thriller which would haunt you, it's not that original. It won't stay with you for too long, and you probably won't think about watching it again. You could never watch it and you wouldn't miss anything. It's good for a one watch, it's thrilling enough for that, but once you've seen it all and you know everything, what would be the point to see it again, when it doesn't offer something really extraordinary like its counterpart?

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

7 / 10

Zootropolis (2016)

Directed by: Byron Howard, Rich Moore & Jared Bush (co-director)

Story by: Byron Howard, Rich Moore, Jared Bush, Jim Reardon, Josie Trinidad, Phil Johnston & Jennifer Lee

Screenplay by: Jared Bush & Phil Johnston

In a city of anthropomorphic animals a rookie bunny cop Judy Hopps teams up with a swindler fox Nick Wilde to discover why so many predators are reported missing.

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Yay, another reason for my sister to think I'm a furry, smh.

I'm not usually into Disney. Everything is too soft for me. I like a few, mostly because I saw them when I was a kid and they make me nostalgic. I rented this mostly because there was a sale and if you rented five movies you could have them for a week for seven euros, and it was a bargain, and I remembered my sister wanted to see this at least at one point. I did want to see this for a few reasons. One of them was that people mostly said it was great. Another was that Jason Bateman was in this movie. Now I'm not his biggest fan or anything, but I've watched enough Arrested Development to like him. So, what the hell, I watched it.

I was so pleasantly surprised. What's the highest rating I've given a children's animated movie? The Lego Movie, which was awesome, and I gave it 9 / 10. Zootropolis doesn't come close to The Lego Movie, but Zootropolis is great. It is funny, and it is actually super thrilling. I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know what was going to happen, and what had happened, and all that. It also has just the perfect amount of scary. I'm glad I watched this.

Of course there are few things that bother me like why isn't Disney using voice actors instead of some random Hollywood live action actors and actresses. Like sure, they get more viewers, but there are amazing voice actors and actresses out there, who could be magical in a movie like this. Now it's mostly like "hey, that dude sounds familiar" and maybe recognising one actor (Tommy Chong). It's not like the cast is bad but... why can't you use people who will definitely, absolutely do a great job?

Also this movie could be a great metaphor for racism and all kind of prejudice, but it's a bit... weird. It's mixed. First it seems that everyone is pushing the prey down, but in the end everyone is awful towards PREDATORS, like hey, maybe don't be prejudice against that huge ass beast who could murder you and eat you. If you are a tiny bunny, you kind of have the right to be scared of a jaguar or whatever. Maybe you're not supposed to think about these animals as humans, but still you are kind of telling kids hey, that person who bullies you and hurts you? They have their own issues going on. Sure, they might have some issues of their own, but that doesn't make it okay... I don't know where I'm going with this, but this situation kind of bothers me.

But other than those things, this movie is surprisingly good. Like I said, super thrilling yet fun. I really like this movie.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

8 / 10