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Summer Movie Reviews

I love movies. Here are a few short movie reviews.

Wolverine

Wolverine is one of the most complex characters in Marvel’s lineup. He is capable of great violence and is also capable of great humanity. As usual, Hugh Jackman does a wonderful job at playing this complex character. I would like to be able to tell you that the script was unpredictable. 🙂 Of course, it wasn’t. The movie is solid. It is clearly enjoyable. There are lots of moments where Hugh Jackman is walking around without a shirt. Yet, if you’re looking for more than Wolverine grunting and yelling, this movie is somewhat lacking. One of the villains in this movie is a character that looks something like a Batman villain called Poison Ivy. Exactly what her deal is, is not really explained in the movie. I should mention that this movie is visually stunning. For the most part, I believe that 3-D is a waste of time and money, but in Wolverine it is wonderful. In spite of this movie’s shortcomings, is clearly one of the best movies of the summer. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2013-07-28T14:07:39-04:00July 28th, 2013|Movies|Comments Off

Alvin and the Chipmunks, part 439 – yet again

My grandson has been in town the last several days; therefore, it is time for me to catch up on movies. Of course, he’s eight and I’m catching up on the cartoons. A couple of days ago, I posted a review on Puss in Boots. Today, I’m sorry to say that I’m going to spend a little time talking about Alvin and the Chipmunks. Alvin and the Chipmunks was a somewhat tired franchise when I was young. It was dreamed up by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. in 1958. It was kind of a cool novelty record but, in Showbiz, you can never leave well enough alone. Basically, there are three Chipmunks. There’s Theodore, the fat one, Simon, the smart one and Alvin, the mischievous one. Dave is the human who looks after the crew. Over the last 50 years, there have been numerous cartoons, records and movies which have all chronicled Alvin messing up in some way, shape or form. This new series started back in 2007. I missed that movie. I did see the sequel in 2009. It was funny. The formula was the same. They added the girls. The animation was off the hook.

Now, we have Alvin and the Chipmunks, Chipwrecked. (It’s a joke and we are supposed to laugh, I think.) If you’ve never seen Alvin and the Chipmunks, go take a look. If you have seen any of the modern reincarnations, don’t bother. There’s nothing new to see here. The jokes are the same. The dance sequences are the same. (BTW, how many squeaky dance numbers should we be forced to listen to? I think there are six or seven songs in this movie. I lost count.) The characters are the same, and even the bad guy Ian Hawke is back. One would figure that they could’ve bought a decent script with all the money they made off of the sequel ($443 million worldwide). I guess not. This movie gets a C- for using the same old tired formula. I was looking for something, anything else.

By ecthompsonmd|2011-12-24T00:26:35-04:00December 24th, 2011|Movies|Comments Off

Another disappointment – Green Lantern

My seven-year-old grandson is in town and I therefore have an excuse to see lots of movies. If you’re familiar with the comic book, the Green Lantern is a fabulous story. Basically, the ring chooses this guy because this guy has incredible courage in the face of danger. He uses the ring to fight evil. Nice basic premise. Hollywood seems to have a problem turning a simple basic premise into a movie. They feel they need to go into long, elaborate explanations. The movie spends way too much time telling us how our hero got the ring and then there’s the bizarre sequence as our hero is sent to the home base, an alien planet, where he meets his fellow Green Lanterns. The sequence really reminded me of the movie Star Trek (the first one which came out in the late 1970s), where it seems like half the movie focused on special effects.

The rest of the movie is pretty formulaic. The bad guy isn’t really all that bad. The good guy wins the beautiful and talented girlfriend. The movie also sets us up for a sequel. The Green Lantern is better than Thor but not as good as Kung Fu Panda 2 (which is by far the best movie that I have seen this summer).

So far, I’m kind of disappointed in the summer movies.

By ecthompsonmd|2011-06-19T15:44:02-04:00June 19th, 2011|Movies|Comments Off