Safety Not Guaranteed

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

Directed by Colin Trevorrow


Screenplay by Derek Connolly

Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni, Jenica Bergere, Jeff Garlin, Kristen Bell and Mary Lynn Rajskub

There was a lot of buzz with Safety Not Guaranteed when it opened last summer. It was my intention to catch it when it was in theaters, but I was too late. Now that the movie is on DVD, I hesitant that I might not like it. I liked the movie for the most part, but it start off a little strange for my taste.

Darius (Plaza) is an intern for magazine in Seattle. Much like Aubrey Plaza's other characters, she is a snarky morose girl that hates everything and everyone. Darius wants to do something bigger than she is currently doing. She gets her chance when a reporter, Jeff (Johnson) has an idea for a piece. He pitches doing a pieces on a guy that puts out an ad for a partner to go back in time with him. Jeff takes Darius and another intern, Arnau (Soni) to the city where the ad was placed. Darius manipulates the guy, Kenneth (Duplass) into letting her be that partner for the time travel adventure.

As stated before, it irritates me when someone is doing the same persona is every single role that they were in. I have a problem with Aubrey Plaza playing the role like Michael Cera. It felt like I was going to hate the movie, but when the other characters were introduced, the irritation subsided. At first, I didn't like the Jeff character. I thought he was just another jerk that wants to screw around, but his arch surprised me.

The other thing that made me fall in love with the movie was the chemistry between Darius and Kenneth. You wouldn't think that the guy who might a madman or a mad genius would be someone that Darius can connect with.

The movie made me think if I could make a time machine, where would I go? It makes you think of the regrets people have in their lives. Do I have regrets? Absolutely. If I could go back in time, I would. Besides this movie is not explicitly about time travel like Looper, Primer or Timecrimes.

 My Rating

21 Jump Street

21 Jump Street (2012)

Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller

Story by Michael Bacall & Jonah Hill

Screenplay by Michael Bacall

Stars: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, DeRay Davis and Rob Riggle

I was on the camp of every person that heard that they were making a comedic remake of the 80s series of the same name that it was going to be terrible. I chose to skip the movie when it was in theaters. Then, my movie nerds kept telling me that the film is actually pretty good. I would say that the movie is funny and ridiculous, but not the second coming.

The story centers around two losers, Jenko and Schmidt (Tatum, Hill) who were the outcasts when they went to high school together. Seven years later, they met again while in police academy training. They become fast friends for convenience. They thought everyday would be like COPS, but it's more like Pacific Blue. While on parole, they look at a gang smoking weed and they try to take them down, expect Jenko forgot tell the suspect his Miranda rights. Instead of getting the sack, they are resigned to previously defunct Jump Street mission to see who is dealing a street drug called HFS to high school students.

Before I saw one frame of the film, I thought it was going to be like Starsky & Hutch or The Dukes of Hazzard. I thought it was going to be a horrible comedic remake of a television show of a different genre. No idea why, but the concept kinda works here. You get guys that looks like a typical high school to infiltrate the school to find major shit going on.

It feels like the drug in question is not a big deal to me. It was like LSD and marijuana wrapped in plastic. It was not like it was bath salts or some other crazy shit that's out there. The chemistry between Hill and Tatum was very good. They worked well with each other.

Everybody knows the film has cameos by three of the main stars of the TV show: Holly Robinson-Pete, Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise. I was surprised when a good portion of them showed up. I had to rewind it again.

My Rating

LAMB Acting School 101: Once Bitten

Once Bitten (1985)

Directed by Howard Storm

Story by Dimitri Villard

Screenplay by David Hines & Jeffrey Hause and Jonathan Roberts

Stars: Lauren Hutton, Jim Carrey, Karen Kopins, Cleavon Little, Thomas Ballatore and Skip Lacey

I know! I know. I know. It has been a hot minute since I reviewed a film. I started a new job that had me working crazy hours. Since the last review, the same circumstances happened with a partial power outage. Waiting for the electric company to come, I happened upon Once Bitten. When I was a kid, I loved this film that it was so cheesy. Watching the movie again, I still savor the cheese factor.

Countess (Hutton) is a 300 year old vampire that desires to have the blood of a virgin to stay youthful. Being that she is living in Los Angeles finding a viable virgin would be hard to come by. Countess enlists her flamboyant chauffeur, Sebastian (Little) and her cronies to find a virgin before Halloween. Meanwhile, Mark (Carrey) is frustrated that his girlfriend, Robin (Kopins) is not putting out. Mark's bonehead friends, Jaime and Russ (Ballatore, Lackey) try to get him lead, but they put him in a path to Countess' seductive claws.

Back then, I didn't know that this movie was bad. I thought it was the best movie ever. I was young, I didn't know any better. My taste was not as refined as it is now. Okay. That's a lie. I love shit movies, too. What can I say? Shit movies are funny in its awfulness. The teenagers in the movies were in their mid to late twenties. The plot is ridiculous. Who cares? A female vampire wants to suck the life blood from a virgin's boy inner thigh. Okay. The movie is silly with dream sequences that have to muck of the smoke machine. I love the movie in its awfulness.

My Rating

Wreck-It Ralph

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Directed by Rich Moore

Story by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston and Jim Reardon

Screenplay by Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee

Stars: John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack MacBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Adam Carrolla, Mindy Kipling, Dennis Haysbert, Ed O'Neill

It has been awhile since I reviewed a movie. Today was interesting to say the least. The electricity went out in my neighborhood this morning. I did not want to sit in the house in the darkness so I decided to see something to pass the time. The only movie that I had an inkling to see was Wreck-It Ralph. That blackout must have been a sign, because I moved with this film.

Ralph (Reilly) has been doing the same job for almost thirty years for old school game Fit It Felix Jr (MacBrayer). Being the "bad guy" of the game, he is excluded from activities when the arcade closing up for the night. He is tired of being left out of everything including the celebration of thirty years. Ralph decides to game jumping in order to have some validation to get the notice that he wants. His brash actions may have set off chain of events that lead to disaster or maybe to a greater evil.

I don't see that many animated movies. Mainly to avoid the kids in the audience, but I had no choice. The auditorium was full with them. There was no choice in the matter. My thinking that it was going to be like Megamind. It kinda felt like it. To me, Ralph is not that much of a bad guy. He was misunderstood. People keep telling him that he was a bad guy that he would be brainwashed or something. The same thing is happening to a girl that Ralph meets a girl when he was game jumping named Vanellope (Silverman) was is told she is a glitch in the system of her game, Sugar Rush.

Usually there is a message with these movies. The message is that whatever makes your different makes you unique. You should never let anyone keep you down. By the end of the movie, I was almost on the verge of tears. The enjoyment was felt all around with this film. People should see this.

My Rating

Skyfall

Skyfall (2012)

Directed by Sam Mendes

Screenplay by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and John Logan

Based on characters created by Ian Fleming

Stars: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ben Whishaw, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Rory Kinnear, Ola Rapace and Albert Finney

After I was throughly disappointed with the "movie" that was Quantum of Solace, I have all but given up hope of the James Bond franchise. Hearing the troubles with MGM delaying the film, it seems like the final nail on the coffin. Now, we have Skyfall that falls on the 50th anniversary of the franchise. This film hearkens back to the past films with a touch of class.

During an assistant in Turkey, 007 (Craig) pursues an assassin, Patrice (Rapace) that has taken an highly sensitive hard drive that contains the identities of MI-6 agents embedded terrorist organizations around the world. In an unlikely moment, his shadow Eve (Harris) accidentally shoots Bond and let the bad  guy get away. Bond is presumed dead. An unknown force is coming after MI-6, but this person is particularly after M (Dench).

I'm familiar with the Bond films. This movie felt like a Bond film. The intrigue, the seductions, the thrills, the suspense, the gadgets; it had all of that. Hearing about the plot of the film beforehand, I knew where the story was going to go, but I did not expect it to go with it did. My analytical brain was trying to figure out where will happen next. Some things I predicted came true and some things didn't. I'm glad that the film went to its roots like in Casino Royale.

The major thing bothered me about the movie was the callbacks to the previous films. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. It felt like deja vu. It understood that it is the 50th anniversary of the Bond franchise, but my head was getting dizzy by those moments.

My Rating

Let's Celebrate

That's right. Exactly one year ago today, I started this blog. The birth of this blog came from the death of my other blog, Foolish Blatherings. I ran that blog for four years until I was unsatisfied about the with the direction it was heading. That site got me into the LAMB and rest is history. I had the name of this blog for about the same time as well for a secret project that never came to fruition.

I'm continuing to change and evolve.This site is going from crawling to a wobbly walk. I want to say thank you to the people that have commented on my posts and follow the site on blogger and on Facebook. I have met some interesting people along the way. I cannot wait to see what happens in the future.

Prometheus

Prometheus (2012)

Directed by Ridley Scott

Screenplay by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof

Based on elements created by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett

Stars: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green, Kate Dickie, Sean Harris and Rafe Spall

There was some hesitance in watching Prometheus, because of the polarizing response when it came out. Is it prequel to the Alien series? Is it a one off movie in the Alien universe? People loving the movie, but they have major gripes with it. I thought that I was going to hate the film. Not knowing the Alien canon might work in my favor this time.

2089. A pair of archaeologists, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Marshall-Green) discovers ancient cave drawings that predate the traditional cave men. It points to a particular star system that is light years away from Earth.

An exploration commences three years later on the spaceship, Prometheus to that very star system. The Weyland Corporation funded the effort to find out of the origins of humanity. The archaeologists as well the cyborg, David (Fassbender), Fifield (Harris), Millburn (Spall) and Ford (Dickie) explore a cavernous ruin that might hold the key to origin of humanity. These explorers might be in over their heads.

Let me just say that I have only seen Alien³ and Alien: Resurrection in its entirety. The other movies have only bits and pieces were seen. Ridley Scott told us that this is not in the vein of the other movies. I cannot explicitly say whether it is or not. I enjoyed this movie very much. If I came into the movie knowing the Alien canon, I might pick the film apart. I might have to revisit the quadrilogy. My opinion might change.

The concept of film has been done in many movies before about exploring alien worlds without knowing the consequences of interrupting the environment. The scope of the film was fascinating the watch. Marc Streitenfeld's score carried weight.

The story went into some unexpected places that made me questions the intentions of everyone on board the ship. I throughly enjoyed Michael Fassbender's performance as David. He plays a being that shows no emotions, but he gives lots of human emotions subtly.

My Rating