Watching 10 movies (4 on the way over there, 6 on the way back) has its percs: you've really got nothing else to do: reading gets boring after awhile, sleeping requires being in the right state, and and daydreaming is only exciting for so long. You get small screen, the screen can move depending on the person in front of you, and the headphone quality can get spotty, and the captain always wants to interrupt you with the completely extraneous news that "Hey we hit turbulence again!" I mean, what else are you going to do when sitting in the middle seat of a double-digit hour flight in economy class, with no legroom, poor lighting, and no access to the internet? the airplane movie probably was one of the best inventions in airplane-related history; it's like the the armchair sofa to the TV.
Without further ado, here are my top 10 movies that I saw, in order from worst to first:
10.) Seeking a Friend for the End of the World - seriously, what was this? Besides being completely unbelievable even at the end of the world that a 55-year-old boring dude whose wife just left him would fall in love with a 28-year-old hyppy woman within about 36 hours, this a character development movie that had Steve Carell and Kiera Nightly being the wrong characters. And unlike the other cruddy movies on this list, it didn't have any comedy or action to even salvage it. It's like right before one of your friends is about to make a horrible decision and you just wanna yell, NO!!! NO!!!!....that's what I wanted to tell the producers when they decided to make this movie. I wholly wish I could have had my 90 minutes back. (Rotten Tomatoes 55%- they had an extra 5 in there).
9.) Men in Black III - you'd think with all those years in between and the "Back in Time" storyline it'd be good, especially as a 3rd movie in a franchise, but this was really just bad. I coulda sniffed the plot a mile away, no love interest for either J or K, the time travel thing had more holes in it than Spongebob Squarepants. Wasn't there a time when Men in Black was good to watch? Maybe that was just me as a kid liking all movies (Rotten Tomatos 69%- woulda went MUCH lower)
8.) The Watch - was barely watchable. Ben Stiller and Vince Vaugh not funny, Jonah Hill kinda funny but not enough to salvage it. Once the aliens started popping up, the plane ride and this movie mercifully ended. (17%- about right, maybe a little higher for a tad of comedic value if you were in a lonely, lonely place and needed something, anything)
7.) Snow White and the Huntsman
- This got really weird to me, and half the time I kept thinking how Charlize Theron looked worse than she did in Monster, Kristin Stewart is just in some bad movies, and why there's like talking birds and mass violence in this Snow White story I used to know. Manageable with a bit of intrigue, but it's like a butterless piece of undercooked toast......you can do better. (Rotten Tomatoes: 49%- I'd have went lower)
6.) Brave - seriously one of the worst Disney movies I've ever seen, and that's a euphemistic insult (the opposite of a backhanded compliment) in the sense that I at least grouped it as a Disney movie (commonly known as instant classics the second they came out). This was not. I couldn't feel any empathy for the main character (bad sign), the Scottish accents were horrible, and nothing was even solved. And there wasn't really even a villain!!!!!! No wonder Brave, for all the hype going in, got no pub after it came out. Disney/Pixar probably just wants to pretend that one never came out and start publicizing the next one.
Note: Instantly regretted not seeing Ice Age 3, which was also available as my "cartoon flick". (Rotten Tomatoes 78%- I woulda went MUCH lower)
5.) Safe -at this point watching a Jason Statham movie is like going to the zoo: You know you're gonna get a bit of excitement, you know exactly which roads to take and plot twists you're gonna get, but you go anyway and you still get some pleasure out of it. And there was a bit of a plot here, not great but made you watch.(Rotten Tomatos 57%- about right, a very bread-and-butter formula for mild success movie)
4.) Celeste and Jesse Forever (Rotten Tomatoes 70%)- also another one that Rotten Tomatoes got about right. Interesting stories, very believable (including the artsy-guy-has-awesome girlfriend and good looks but-doesn't-wanna-get-a-job part) that isn't heartbreaking but good enough to get me a glimpse of another lifestyle and all the rough edges of living out life. I'll say that it was a very interesting ending given the name of the movie, but like many good movies it wasn't about the ending, it was how they got there).
3.) The Amazing SpiderMan (Rotten Tomatoes -73%).... once again, Rotten Tomatoes, spot on. 20 minutes in I realized I knew the exact plot of this movie having seen the cartoons and Doc Croc (they called him the Lizard, which is just factually inaccurate but I'll live), but the movie still was pretty good, which is a good sign. Seems like the start of a great franchise with a better (than Tobey McGuire as Spiderman and the That-70's-guy guy as Green Goblin) Spiderman.
2.) Ted- great. Lots of toilet humor, sexual humor, crude humor to the point of being excessive, but that just made it excessively funny. Exactly what I was looking for to start off my trip to Japan, a laugh-out-loud comedy with at least one hot chick (Mila Kunis never disappoints, although there were some lookers amongst the co-workers). (69%- the movie was better than that, America's just a bunch of haters on this movie.....a great comedy and a great lesson on growing up).
1.) Safety Not Guaranteed- accidentally clicked on this just searching desperately for a good movie after having endured through Brave. No. 1 choice and boy was this movie a surprise. It wasn't a great start, and there were parts I was plenty confused about and "where is this going?" but the ending was just great and just tied everything up before that, one of the better endings I've seen for a long time that made me going "Wow" at the end of it. I'll say that it's a movie about believing, about trying something new, and a little laughter and romance in between. It's somewhat a movie about time travel, and it handled it miles better than Men in Black did: it built it up, it gave reasons for the time travel, it made the time travel realistic in terms of real life, "Can this time travel thing actually happen?" Absolutely smart and well put-together, you actually feel smarter coming out of it (unlike many of the movies on this list). Just like the theme of the movie, it made you consider trying new things again and taking a chance on things (and people). Can't recommend it more highly.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
No comments:
Post a Comment