Merry Christmas y’all!
Christmas Day and the day after are the two biggest days at the movies in the country! There will be more people going through the doors of your local cinema today and tomorrow than the entire month of February!
There are like 8 new releases today a couple big movies that have just been out for a couple of weeks. I’m here to tell you want you need to go see and what you can wait a couple weeks to see. Everything is going to be packed so arrive early and be prepared to stand in line. If you can’t handle that, do us all a favor and stay the hell home! Don’t bring your attitude to the movies today and don’t take it out on the little teen age kids just trying to keep up!
I had the good fortune to see The Secret Life of Walter Mitty the other night in a private screening in our biggest and baddest theater! And I have to say this is my favorite Ben Stiller movie to date. Most of the time I’m ready to choke him out by the end of the movie. But this one grabbed me early and didn’t let go until the credit started to roll. My intention was to go in and watch for an hour or so then go home, it was about 2 am after all.
I barely noticed the minutes slipping by and when I realized how long I had stayed, I wasn’t about to leave!
This is a classic holiday feel good movie and I believe it may be the big one this Christmas season. It’s rated PG and in my opinion is appropriate for all audiences. I can’t think of any instances of profanity save maybe one and the timing of it was okay. Most of use would have said what he said when he said it!
You’ve probably seen the commercials so you know what it’s about. Goofy little daydreamer Walter Mitty just kinda zones out and escapes into his fantasy world, all the while the world around him just keeps on moving. Circumstances arise and he abandons his make believe world and jumps head first into the adventure of a lifetime! And it’s fun to watch. I was left with a hopeful feeling inside and a smile on my face.
There’s been talk that this is Ben Stiller’s big push for an Oscar nomination and he might get it. As an actor and director as well. Yep, Ben Stiller directed this film and does a great job.
Kristin Wiig seems to get better by the movie. (Anchorman 2 doesn’t count.) She’s charming, likeable and seems to be a good fit for Walter Mitty.
Adam Scott is hilarious. He is the ultimate bro in this film and his scenes are pretty dang funny. He plays the perfect antithisis to Walter Mitty.
The supporting cast should be given a group Oscar nomination. From Patten Oswalt to Sean Penn, the supporting cast is great. They do just that, support. They support the story, keep it interesting and ultimately make us cheer for Walter!
Go see this on the biggest screen you can! It is going to be crowded and that crowd I think will last for a couple weeks. It should be a word of mouth kind of movie that everyone kinda likes and you can take the kids.
Frozen. Is awesome.
I like to rail against the machine whenever I have the opportunity and Disney is a big, giant machine but daggone it! They make a heck of an animated film.
Frozen is based on the Hans Christian Andersen story, “The Ice Queen” and as it turns out, several of Disney’s bighits have been based on HCA stories. The Little Mermaid, Fantasia 2000, The Ugly Duckling, Little Red Riding Hood and Chicken Little to name a few.
And this movie is awesome! It’s a classic Disney musical princess movie with a funny magical snowman sidekick, a frolicking reindeer that you can ride and acts like a dog and a pretty bad ass ice queen. It’s fun, plain and simple. Disney is good at what they do.
This is the movie to see for your small children. They will love it! There’s almost too much song and dance for me, but it’s not terribly overbearing and the songs are actually quite good. When the Ice Queen sings, “the cold never bothered me anyway” and turns to walk off I almost pumped my fist in the air. That’s right girl, you tell them! Go see this one too.
Probably not worth the 3D upcharge but they are really pushing the 3D so it’s gonna be tougher to find a 2D time…greedy buggers.
American Hustle.
Boobies, boobies, boobies! I wonder if they actually auditioned Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams or just had them send pictures of their boobs. Their boobs deserve Oscar nominations if nothing else. These women are fantastic!
And they are pretty good dang actors as well.
I love how this movie starts. “Some of this really happened” are the first words we see on the screen as the movie starts. That got a chuckle out of the crowd right off the bat. Always a good sign.
This film is rated R and is not for children. Profanity througout, adult situations, drugs, booze, smoking. All that naughty stuff is in there. It’s funny that the women have their boobs basically hanging out the whole time but the sex scenes are handled in a very conservative way. We don’t see any actual nudity. But the ladies wardrobe leaves very little to the imagination!
It’s the story of a con artist couple getting snared by the man. In this case Bradley Cooper as FBI agent Richie DiMaso. Richie is an over zealous guy looking to make a name for himself at any cost. Richie uses his con artist couple, Christian Bale and Amy Adams to rope in other small time criminals then expands his circle to include the mob and eventually members of congress! The Abscam scandal of the late 70’s and early 80’s is what this film is based upon. I think they really kinda made everything up, but this scandal did happen and it did take down some congressmen.
It is an all star cast that really lives up to the billing of an all star cast. Jeremy Renner has been one of my favorite Hollywood actors since The Hurt Locker and he is awesome here. Bradley Cooper kills it. Amy Adams is, well, I kinda have a huge crush on Amy Adams so there ya go. Jennifer Lawrence proves that she is for real! She’s had some really great roles but holy cow, she’s got the acting chops to pull off just about anything I think now. Her character is something we’ve not seen from her yet and I was kind of blown away.
Christian Bale might go down as one of the best ever. He puts himself into a role unlike anyone I’ve seen during his career. He gained over 40 pounds and gave himself a “rather elaborate” combover for the part and he nails it. He just nails it.
This is a must see as well, but you really don’t need to rush out. This will be an enjoyable watch whenever you get the chance. If you don’t have kids, this might be the one you want to see. Hit up the matinee though because the night time shows are going to be crowded!
Anchorman 2.
Dumbest. Movie. Ever.
And I love Will Ferrell. This thing is just really kinda of dumb. No one could act like that in real life and be taken seriously. Which is part of it, yeah. I get it. I’m just offened you think I’m so stupid.
Oh wait, we are that stupid. And people will laugh and laugh and tell you how funny it is and how they laughed their heads off and it’s the best funny movie they’ve seen in a long time.
Two later they will not remember anything. They won’t remember if it was in Anchoman or Anchorman 2. It’s simply rediculous. Which works for some, I guess.
I’d skip this one and wait for the video or cable.
Sorry Will. I love you man, you just need some fresh ideas. Maybe go back to SNL for a season or something.
The Wolf of Wall Street.
Not seen this one yet but it’s worth mentioning we received an email from our corporate office insisting we strongly enforce the R rated policy of no one under 17 watching this film without a parent or guardian. They have suggested we schedule an usher to post at the theater entry. Which is unheard of these days. They are always like cut payroll, cut payroll, cut payroll. So if they are telling us to schedule a person specifically to keep out underage viewers, this movie is dirty.
According to some observers only Martin Scorsese could have gotten an R rating over an NC-17. I’ll let ya know what I think when I get a chance to watch it. But be warned, this has some strong drug, sex, language, all the things that make movies rated R. This has lots of all of it.
Happy Holidays and don’t forget, take your damn trash out of the theater with you ya filthy animals! And be polite to the kids working there! It’s Christmas! Act like it.
cal's blog. about movies. 